Stamping and Punching experiment...:D

Hello all lovely people,


Today I am presenting a very different card. This is not typical of me as I never leave anything without quilling but this card is a total exception as it actually has 'no quilling'. Well, there is not much to say about the card as it is pretty much a simple layout...just stamping and punching experiment...mainly to utilize the crafty things I have hoarded after coming to Singapore :D


Here it goes-

Please do lemme know how it came out to be..I really can use some encouragement on my stamping and punching skills before I decide to store away the stuff safely..:P


Entering in -
Fabulous Friday Challenge - Punches!
Feeling Punchy Challenge
Anything Goes
Add Some Butterflies on your creation
Flowers and Butterlies

Just Love Crafts xx

A Quilled Butterfly Embellishment - Steps-by-step instructions too..

Hello on the first day of the last month,


Today being the first day of December 2011, I am very sure lots of my peers in crafting are gonna get busier. Well, I won't deny myself that I am in a lot of holiday mood and that means lots of crafting and fun!!!!


So, I made this beautiful (I think I should let you guys decide that :P) butterfly..Well, I won't say its way too special but since its my first proper quilled butterfly it is special to me.. Not only it turned out all bright and cheery it was quite big than the size I had in my mind (and pattern too!!:P).  Please have a look..

Now, this is my very first time when I executed the idea right from the beginning. Though it took a lot of time...compared to time taken normally by quillers but I am satisfied...


I would also like to share the Step-by-step pictorial instructions on how to make a butterfly like this...I am doing this as I searched a lot but could not really find proper step by step tutorial for the same. And so I thought of sharing one myself...


(I am not very good at things called tutorials but I had given my best shot at providing a pictorial as well as theoretical explanation...:))


1) The first step was to have a pattern in mind. Well, you dont have to be very strict for a pattern but it certainly helps you when u actually sit down and start quilling as otherwise a lot of confusion takes place (happens to me for sure!!) as to size of the coils, color scheme etc.

(Sorry! for the way pics came out coz of my impatience :oP)


I drew a very simple butterfly pattern on a small piece of tracing paper with an approximation of the size and roughly drew patterns on the wings keeping in mind the color scheme I wanted. Again, I would like to stress, you DON'T have to be strict about anything...I made a lot of changes while making the actual product myself...


2) The second step is to select a color scheme and allot colors to the pattern and the shapes you would like to use for the patterns. I selected bright orange and bright yellow color combination for my butterfly and used mainly simple quilling shapes (teardrop, half moon, tight coil to be precise).
I shaped a few coils first.

All of them are separate at the moment and pins are placed just to see how it will look like once glued.


I glued the ones I made and started adding more details. I outlined the whole wing with a red color strip to highlight the edges a bit (more noticeable in the final outcome.)

I kept it on my pattern after gluing the first wing and as you can notice, it is quite different from the pattern originally planned :P 


3) After you are satisfied with one wing, the work gets easier. As the second wing is supposed to be exactly the same as the first (Again, no strict rules apply!). It took me no more than 10 minutes to finish this second wing as opposed to an hour for the first.

4) Design the lower wing. I followed on lines of upper wing only but kept it a bit smaller in dimension.

On the left are the total strips that took me to create one lower wing. On the right is one completed lower wing. Also, please note that I have used almost half the length of strip to make coils for lower wing compared to the length of the strips that I used to make coils for upper wing. This automatically made the lower wing smaller.


5) Finalize the design by placing on the board and with the help of pins their placement can be decided.

Also, notice the body and head of the butterfly. I used a crimped strip to roll the head and two normal strips to make the two-part body of the butterfly.
Also, I was stupid enough not to take care of the shape of the wings and hence, when I placed them, a gap was noticed.


6) Make the final adjustments. I inserted two tear drop shapes to cover the gap and also give strength to the overall structure. I also folded a brown strip which was used to make head and body in half to create the antennas. This is how it looked-

7) Glue everything together- Once you are happy with the placement, carefully glue everything together and let it stand for a few mins with the help of the pins. Then remove all the pins and your beautiful butterfly embellishment is ready to flutter! :D

Well, I hope you liked it. I am sure a lot of ways to use this pretty creature must have propped in mind as soon as you see it. A catchy fridge magnet!!, or a hanging ornament? How about a gift box topper or to put on a card to make a beautiful greeting card...its uses are endless.
I thoroughly enjoyed making this, hope you had fun looking too...


Have a great Day!!!
Just Love Crafts xx

Floral Creations!! - 3 types of roses :)

Hey all bloggy friends,


I was fiddling through the images in my craft folder and saw these flowers scattered all over..:P and I thought it would be nice to share them with you.
The interesting thing is that all of them are particularly roses (I love roses btw!!!). I have made more flowers but these are the ones I am particularly fond of :)
Ok! I won't bore with long stories, here is the first set of roses I made using Folded Rose technique. This is displayed nicely here. Although I really don't remember the actual tutorial :( but the one I have provided is really good too :).

I used them on a greeting card but they didn't fit really well on the flat surface of the card as their backs are quite protruding to use them on plain surface..I guess they can be used nicely when used in a cluster with backs facing each other..:)


Ok!! Now the second one (I am actually going in the order of their making!!)... This is also a paper rose but crepe paper rose. I learned this with hit-and-trial and I guess I haven't been able to do it very well till now, as the first rose (which I made with utmost patience and care!!!) came out well....but my second attempt was not all that great :P..anyways this is the first one...

I later dusted it with a silver glitter spray and in order to show the effect of the glitter took a horrible picture... :P

Now! I am sorry I will not be able to provide you with a tutorial to make these roses as I didn't find one myself (if you know one, please do post it to me in comments..much appreciated!)...basically I saw a rose just like this one (but much neater!! :P) in a street fair in London created by a lovely lady whose shop was stocked with roses of these kinds but in much bigger sizes and prettier colors. I couldn't help asking the method to make these and she was kind enough to give me a brief about making petals...however, the silly me didn't have the required supplies and so I waited till my next craft shopping trip to buy them..which came almost two months later.....And as you can expect, I had forgotten half of the details by then and ultimately made it using hit-and-trial...


However, one of my really good friends loved this rose and gave me an order to create a same one...so i guess it was not such a bad attempt :)


And finally, I would like to share my latest set of quilled spiral roses. Here, have a look-

I have made them last month for some special reason which I would share very soon ;) I love these roses so much that I made some more of them....

I just love making them and just looking at them cheers me up in the worst of my moods too :)
I hope they cheered you up too :) :)


Will be back soon with more crafty titbits!!
Just Love Crafts xx