Wedding Monogram

My cousin recently wed her sweetheart, so I whipped up a monogram for the happy new couple.

I really like the little heart in the bottom of the 'L'.

To make this one I drafted the letters onto the paper, taking lettering styles from some old calligraphy books given to me by an aunt.

I'm excited that my work is getting a little cleaner, which brings me to a favorite tool; eraser pencils.  They're so handy for cleaning up lines in tight spaces.  Just remember to clean up the lines before any glue goes over them, glue will just seal that pencil line in.

Quilled Cross

My cousins' Opa (grandpa) passed away recently, and their family collects crosses, so I made a memorial cross for them.

He was a deacon and the family were all Texas Aggies, so a cross done in maroon seemed an appropriate way for the family to have a reminder of him and his warmth.

I drafted the cross onto the paper and then just went with my gut for the fill and flourishes.  I even did some intersecting lines for the interior, that was new to me.

I printed the text out and free-handed some details and connected some letters until I liked it, then I cut it out with my x-acto knife and raised it off of the paper for a shadow effect.  I simply cut very thin strips of the ivory paper (about 1/16") and glued it to the back to stand the text up off of the paper.  The dates were simply glued to the paper.

I made my own quilling paper for this project; the outline of the cross is done in 1/4" thick strips of black construction paper and the colored paper is 1/8" and 1/4" thick strips of Canson Mi Teintes paper in maroon, and a bluish grey.  The white is pre-cut quilling strips.  The background is an ivory Canson paper, it's thicker than the Mi Teintes, but I don't remember what it's called.

I then framed it and sent it off, but I'm still behind on the learning curve for the framing part.  Any quillers out there have tips on where to get decent quality frames?

Quilled Owl

My cousin is having a baby boy, and the nursery is owl themed, ergo, this happened.

I'm in love with it!  I started with this owl image and add added the baby's name in 'bookman old style bold'.

I made the quills very feather-like and started adding some of the fill done with curved lines that I've been admiring in all of the work I've seen online.

Symmetry is not quite my strong suit yet, but it was a fun way to spend 10ish hours.

Then I framed it using some pre-framed 'art' from Target, it's a shadow box frame that just had some generic picture in it.  I removed the staples from the back, inserted and secured the owl and then actually put the staples back in after putting glue on the tips, because I didn't have a staple gun handy.  Ah, resourcefulness.

Now, I just can't wait to meet her baby boy!

I Quilled Again

I've been sucked into quilling, it's so fun and there's so much of it to look at on the internet.  I'm loving 'All Things Paper' for inspiration.  Everything from quilling to papier mache and some pretty great links to artwork.

I've been seeing couples monograms paired with prints of their home states lately, and loved the idea.  Alas, T and I are from the same state, but we are from two different cities.  So I quilled the great state of Texas with hearts in our hometowns and our initials below.

I still don't think I've achieved awesomeness with this one, but it's my second quilled piece ever, so that's okay.  I do like this one a lot more though.  I like the mixture of tight and more open curls and flourishes and I started out with the outlines printed on the paper this time, much better for accuracy.

I'm still encouraging people to try it, such low start-up costs and so easy to do (not master, but do).  Now I have to think of what I'm going to make next.

My First Time: Quilling

The other day, I pinned this quilled piece by Sabeena Karnik, and then I immediately ordered a beginner's quilling kit from Quilled Creations.

Sabeena's heart is utter perfection and her typography is awe inducing (so, go look at her site), but I wanted to give it a go myself and this is what I came up with.

Not nearly as cool, but definitely fun and a low cost craft.  It will take a lot more practice for me to come up with anything amazing, but that is just about time.

And, in the kitchen, I made these scones for our V-day breakfast today.  They're from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and they are T's favorite scones.  We're not vegan, and we totally consumed them along side bacon and eggs (and some fruit), but damn near everything I've tried out of that book is amazing.  I added cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger to the recipe and, for half of the batch, I added about 1/3 cup of oats and 1/3 cup of mini chocolate chips, then I sprinkled the tops with red and gold sanding sugar for a little bit of a festive feel.