Christmas/Valentine's Quilled Heart Cards

 

Here's what I've been busy with - Christmas mini cards!

 

First I quilled the hearts.

 

Then I made the backing with space for a message. Wanted to decorate the back a little more but I had less than a week to finish 40 of these sweeties.

 

Glued on the quilled hearts, personalized it with a message from me as well as the recipients' names, and voila!

 

Arranged neatly in my Christmas box, all ready to be Miss Santa =)

 

Close-up of a card. 

I'd actually thought making these would be a breeze (the heart is the easiest thing to quill, after all!) - but making 40 was NO joke. Even so, I'm not done; there are plenty more people I need to make cards for and am super late! 

I hope they won't mind <3 Maybe it'll be a Valentine!

Quilled Miniature Tea Set

This is a tea set I quilled in September for a birthday and includes a teapot, a cup with saucer, a cake with cherry on top, a plate for it, and a teeny tiny spoon.

I made it based on Inna's little blue tea set, but made mine green because it was the recipient's favorite colour. Come to think of it, lime green might've been a livelier shade than forest green.

I forgot to take measurements, but you can get an idea of how small the spoon is! =)

Maybe about 1.5 cm in length?

The spoon was one of the trickiest parts to make (because of its size), along with the cream on the cake and the teapot spout. Made me want to pull my hair out by the roots sometimes, but it was all worth it!

Packaging was a bit of a doozy since I was afraid of detachable parts getting lost, like the teapot lid and the spoon. 

But a sponge and tissue did the trick ;)

Rose patterned cardstock.

The whole thing took me all of one week to finish. I wonder how long it takes other crafters to make miniatures? I simply cannot imagine how it is possible to make a living from something so time-consuming!

On another note, I was featured in another Etsy treasury recently :

The Reason for the Season by Paulette Ross gives a timely reminder on why we celebrate Christmas.

The nativities are simply adorable, it's amazing how one scene can be portrayed in so many different ways! 

Handmade lovelies

I've been buying on Etsy more than I've been selling lately, and that's due to my AS finals which are looming nearer and nearer. 

So here's a post about my favorite purchases. As a handmade artist, I feel it my duty and pleasure to increase awareness and support for handmade artists everywhere, and these sellers really have amazing handiwork!

I bought this bracelet and another pair of earrings from naturaler. Beautifully handcrafted flowers and great prices too! Well, for those of you who deal in USD, she offers the cheapest bargains on Etsy, including shipping. If you're converting to Malaysian Ringgit (like I am), it can get a little pricier, but it's well worth it nonetheless!

These elegant violin earrings are from The Queen's Dowry whose prices are on the high side =( but these violins were classic! I really wanted something to represent my love of music : singing, piano and the violin. One down, 2 more to go! I was a little disappointed that they weren't exactly as 3D as I imagined them to be though, but the intricate detail really made up for it : check out the shoulder rest!

This is a non-Etsy seller, Chatterbeads, and the owner actually attends a church not too far from mine. These birdy earrings are now one of my personal favorites and I wear them every few days. The jewelry she makes all show good taste and elegant design, reflected quite accurately in the price. 

Long live handmade! =)

Quilled Valentine's Day bookmarks

I made a couple of bookmarks for a friend and another friend's mother for Valentine's Day and forgot to share : here they are!
I don't know why but the colours are a little washed out. They looked beautiful on my craft desk, but the photos don't do them justice =(

I adore this little guy.

This was my first ever attempt at the technique of alternate side looping.

Kinda sad to give her away (yes, the butterfly's a her, though I didn't give her a name) but I'm sure she made that special person happy so that's all good.

Have a lovely weekend everyone =)

Life is Sweet Blog Hop

Hello everyone, welcome to the 'Life is Sweet' Blog Hop!

If you arrived here from Amna's blog, then you are on the right track! If you stumbled across this blog hop out of order, you can start from the beginning here with Sandy at Sweet Spot Cards. This is an international blog hop, with 14 quillers from every (inhabitable) continent participating and I feel so honored to be part of them! Do visit all the talented quillers on this hop so you can see all the wonderful projects they've created and win some lovely prizes along the way.

I'm a self taught quiller. I discovered quilling only 2 months ago and absolutely love it.  For this hop I did something that I've wanted to try for very long : 3D quilling! 

As all of you know, I love flowers (you seldom catch me without a flower clip in my hair!). So when Sandy told us we could quill anything for this blog hop, it was a no brainer. FLOWERS! But it had to be more than the basic quilled flowers - hence these miniature quilled flowerpots. (I got the idea from another excellent quiller, Inna).

They're tinier than you might think! The dark red tulip is about 2.4 inches tall and the yellow flower is about 2.1 inches.

I am also having a giveaway!

One lucky reader will win a surprise handmade gift from me! (I haven't had the time to make it yet *blush* but it will definitely be created with lots of love!) 

To stand a chance of winning, just leave me a comment below this post (don't forget to include your email!) and I will draw a winner on February 11th 2011. (I decided to make the candy last a bit longer). 

Next up is Jacqueline from Africa!

If you get lost along the way, here are the list of bloggers in this quilling hop. Have a great weekend!

North American Quillers:

Sandy -   http://sweetspotcards.blogspot.com/

Linda - http://www.krazyquilling.com/

Fran - http://quillcentre.blogspot.com/

Mona - http://quillingideas.blogspot.com/

Shruti - http://eenzybeenzy.blogspot.com/

Cheryl - http://cardsbycheryl.blogspot.com/

South American Quiller:

Regina - http://regina-ribeiro.blogspot.com/

European Quillers:

Phillippa - http://quilliance.blogspot.com/

Suzana - http://quillingwithfun.blogspot.com/

Asian Quillers:

Lin - http://azlina-lin.blogspot.com/

Amna - http://alfardh.blogspot.com/

Yuenie - http://yueniesfancies.blogspot.com/

African Quiller:

Jacquline - http://cutekipepeo.blogspot.com/

Australian Quiller:

Bronwyn - http://quillme.blogspot.com/

"Life is Sweet" Quilling Blog Hop Announcement

Hello everyone, I'm back!

Just a quick post to let you know that I will be participating in my first quilling blog hop this Saturday! It's entitled Life is Sweet, and organized by Sandy from The Sweet Spot. We've got quillers from every (inhabitable) continent, and it's going to be fun, fun, fun! I've been working on this project for a while and simply can't wait to unveil it! 

The blog hop starts on Saturday 29th January, at 8.00am EST (for my Malaysian readers, it's 9.00pm on Saturday). Do join us in a weekend of craft and fun and sharing in our love of paper!

*******

For those of you who don't know how a blog hop works, it goes like this. We (all of us quillers taking part) will release our blog posts at the same time (8.00am EST, 9.00pm Malaysian time). You (dear reader) can start the blog hop from The Sweet Spot or just click on the Life Is Sweet Blog Hop button on my sidebar. Then from that blog post, you will link from blog to blog, checking out all the other projects that these talented people have prepared. There will be lots of blog candy to win along the way too, so be sure to take part! See you this weekend!

Subway brochure origami rose

Subway is really cranking up on the sales promo, what with a free calendar for every customer (complete with 12 coupons, one for each month of 2011) and brightly coloured brochures with the menu and yummy looking pictures.

Our family had lunch there a few days ago, and being me, I simply couldn't leave that piece of paper alone. 

In about 5 minutes, the Subway brochure had turned into this :

In case you couldn't tell, that's a rose.

And here is the torn brochure. No. 11 looks yummy. Turkey breast! 

Maybe I'll make a bouquet one of these days, if I have the time. And enough Subway brochures.