Summer card

Hello dear friends,

Today I am back with a summer card! Sunny days, poppies and wheat.

For making the poppies petals I used Alli Bartkowski's technique found in her

 book "Quilled flowers. A garden of 35 paper projects".

As for the center of the flowers, I followed  Inna's tutorial.










And a close-up of my quilled poppies.

Wish you a beautiful Sunday and a wonderful week!

Pretty quilled flowers

Hello dear friends,

Today I would like to share a birthday card made using Cecelia Louie's design for flowers in vases.

 I just love this design and I wanted to try it for a long time. During April I was asked by my sister in law to make a card for her friend and I thought is the best choice since she is a florist.

I took the pictures on a very sunny morning and the light played nice tricks with the paper colors.

The vibrant red of the flowers is just lovely.

And in this dark one I love how the yellow looks like burning on the touch of sunshine.

And for last I left the picture received on Friday and which made my day.

Yes, the card got a lovely frame and I am more than happy to see it! I think this is the happiest moment for somebody who is making handmade goods. At least, for me, it was :)

Wish you a wonderful and creative week!

Papilio Machaon, quilled version

Hello dear friends,

Today was a sunny, warm day, a real spring day. So, I decided to share with you my quilled version of Papilio Machaon butterfly. I made it like a birthday gift for a very special friend who loves nature very much. 

I searched trough a lot of pictures with this butterfly on Google and took me more than a week to decide how I will shape it from paper :)

This was my guide picture and you can find it on Flickriver here.

Choosing the most appropriate colors was another challenge, but not so hard like deciding how to start my paper project. And here it is, my Papilio Machaon.

I just love butterflies! They look so fragile, but are so beautiful and make our summer 

days a lot more sunnier.

A lovely creature deserves a frame, a frame which will show even better the vibrant colors.

For the frame I used Dana's tutorial,

 changing the sizes for a square frame.

I would like to enter my paper project for the March UnstampaBelles Challenge, with the harmony or/and peace theme.

Hope you had a nice journey through a sunny summer day with my quilled butterfly.

Wish you a wonderful day!

Pretty Quilled Cards, a book review

Hello dear friends,

I am in love with Cecelia Louie's cards designs, with her simple and yet so amazing lines, twirls, swirls and spirals. She has a unique style in quilling, "a bit unorthodox" in Cecelia's own words and it was love at first site! I tried to imagine how all those beautiful quilled shapes are coming to life and, like in a dream which comes true, last year I found out that Cecelia will be the author for "Pretty Quilled Cards: 25+ Creative Designs for Greetings and Celebrations" with instructions for making cards and other beautiful paper projects. So, my little quilling library became greater with this book, which was a birthday present from my husband:)

I love this book and I feel that is a "must" for all quillers, beginners or advanced, because is filled with so many awesome tips and techniques, very detailed instructions for different quilled shapes, all illustrated with very good pictures. I learnt a lot of new things about quilling!

I especially loved the gluing tips she shares because I often misshaped my scrolls with a too deep glue puddle :)

Each project of the book has a list of components, a skill level and measurements for the paper strips used. You will find, too, the indications of the exact point for folding, cutting or pencil mark. 

In the same time the making of the components has a very detailed description in words, actual sized diagrams and sometimes pictures. And you will find a picture with the finished project, too.

All the instructions are so well written and illustrated that are more than easy to follow. You only need a piece of card stock, the paper strips necessary for the project and by using Cecelia's "recipe"  your card will be ready in no time!

I just love all the projects in the book and already made a few of them, but my first try was the new baby card. I liked very much the flourishes from inside the rattle and the lovely bow for the handle. In the book you will find a pretty color background with photocopy instructions for this card and for many others.









"Pretty Quilled Cards: 25+ Creative Designs for Greetings and Celebrations" is one of my favorite books and the techniques, ideas and quilled shapes contained in it are opening a lot of new perspectives in quilling and in the same time is a great inspiration for all quillers.

Thank you very much, Cecelia, for all the time and effort to put together a so beautiful and detailed book, with so clear and easy to understand and follow instructions! And for sharing a lot of secrets from behind the scene of making your amazing cards. I was very happy and in the same time very touched by your request of writing a review for your book.

Wish you all a wonderful week!

Christmas Bells

Hello, dear friends! Thank you for your visits and welcome to my new followers.

Today I would like to share another Christmas card. In fact three versions of a same card.

You can find the tutorial for branches on Mihaela's blog. I just love making them.

A close up of my little bells :)

And the other two versions of Christmas bell card.

With red bells and...

...with quilled ribbon.

My favourite is the one with "golden" bells. And yours?

Wish you a wonderful and creative week!

Origami Christmas tree

The first Christmas card I would like to share is with an origami Christmas tree.

I used a special paper to give it a festive air. You can find the tutorial for the tree here.

I decorated the Christmas tree with quilled tight coils.

A shiny star is the final touch of this CAS Christmas card.

Wish you a wonderful and creative week!

Baby boy photo album

I just finished my first order of Christmas cards, but today I would like to share a photo album made for our nephew, Daniel. It will be a loooong post because I have  lots of pictures :)

 On the cover I played a little with my distress ink. The embellishments used for the album are from a paper craft photo album kit.

 A sneak-peak inside the album :)

On the inside front cover I made a waterfall mini album. 

The video tutorial for the waterfall album I used can be found here.

And these are the pages. Not too many embellishments on them. I like to keep them simple, like I do with my greetings cards :)

On the inside back cover I made an accordion photo album.

And these are the inside pages of the mini accordion album.

 Each page of the album has an insert page for photos or written memories.

Thanks to Ginger from My Sisters Scrapper for sharing the tutorial for making this album. You can find the first part of it here.

I made it with all my love for little Daniel and enjoyed every minute spent in making this album! I didn't think that I will love scrap-booking so much :) This mean that you will see another album here soon.

Wish a wonderful and creative day!

Flowers

Thank you very much for your visits and kind words! This time a quilled flowers arrangement in my favourite colours.

And, of course, with an embossed background. Definitely my style :)

This time I used rhinestones for the centre of flowers and I'm in love with the light effect they give the card.
A little ribbon is always a nice touch, don't you think?

Because it's an all occasion card, I will try this layout using different colours. 

Wish you a wonderful day!

Flowers in a pot

Stamping, distressing, cutting and... quilling. All these on a card!

I had to try my cutting dies and distress ink. The little butterfly is stamped and than cut with scissors.

It's not really my style, I like to think I have one :), but I love how it turned out.

Wish you a wonderful Sunday!

A musical card

I almost couldn't believe that I didn't post anything for six months! But looks like time is just flying. I made some cards during this "flying" time, cards that I would love to share with you.

My birthday gift this year was a Sizzix Big Shot Machine, a wonderful gift from my family and friends. I love most the embossing folders. Yes, still in love with the embossed background :)

And I love distress ink!  The guitar is made using a very nice template found on Sarah's blog. Thank you, Sarah, for sharing this template.

The centre and  pegs of the guitar are quilled. I made this card for my brother's birthday and I can now tell you that he loved it.

Wish a wonderful week!