Original Quilled Birthday Card and DipQuills

I made this quilled card for my German teacher's birthday out of some leftover pieces I had tucked away from doing a jewelry box a few months earlier. It's an original design, something I've been trying to do more of instead of using patterns or emulating work by other artists. I'm still not totally comfortable with it, but I'm getting there!

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From time to time I do a bulk order to send to my friend Lauren who came up with a fabulously clever idea of dipping them in liquid acrylic. When they harden, she makes earrings and pendants out of them. Here's a shipment I did just before Easter. I totally DIG the bunnies! And didja notice the cute little snails in the middle?

 

Here is an example of a pair of DipQuill earrings we did for Valentine's Day:

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I did these placecards for my landlady's 85th birthday party. All this and a free lunch, too! My fondest memory of the event was the fact that the old man at our table who had advanced-stage Alzheimers was happy (over and over again) when he was told he could take his home.

 

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 Here is a gilded snowflake I made that Lauren dipped - we gave it to her mother for a Christmas present. Her mother, Miss Ella, keeps a half-Christmas tree mounted on the wall year round and changes the ornaments for each season of the year. I hear this snowflake stays for every season!

Catching You Up on Quilling Projects

It's not that I haven't been quilling, it's that I haven't updated this blog! 

The last post was in May, so here are a lot of the things that I've made. 

My wonderful friend Lauren came up with a scheme to dip my quilling into clear acrylic and attach backs and hangers on them to make jewelry and ornaments. Darned if they aren't just precious! She is even selling them to her friends! Who knew? Most of the items you see here and some of my other things are now "Dip-Quills" and are available for sale as earrings, pendants and ornaments. Let me know if you are interested in something like that. They make fantastic Christmas presents. Most items are only $7.50 each (i.e., $15 per pair of earrings). Some of the more complicated items would be more, of course. You can also get dip-quilled ornaments from items in my previous posts.

So here are my things:

A Father's Day card for Adi. Because of this I found out that Germany's Father's Day is earlier than the one in the USA. (I was late!)

Not necessarily in chronological order, here is the Mother's Day card I made for Hilde:

Bunches of snowflakes have materialized at my needle:

 

  

  

 

 

 

Some more roses:

A duck or two (makes great girls' earrings):

 

A butterfly with a tail like a kite that now hangs at Hilde's window (the tail is made from quilled roses):

This hanging is completely my own design. It's about 3 feet long - the tail is roses on a ribbon:

 

I have discovered gilded paper. It has gold edging on one side and makes the most beautiful things! I made colorful versions of one of my favorite snowflake designs and hung them on bottles of wine that I also made for party favors:

 

I tried my hand at 3D miniatures:

And, of course, now it's Christmas:

 

Happy holidays!