Quilled Thanksgiving Turkey Placecard Instructions

Happy Thanksgiving to my American homies! In honor of the occasion, I'm posting photos of the placecards I made for my Thanksgiving dinner this year. My guests will be from Germany, Australia and Spain. I'll actually serve my dinner on Saturday, November 29 because I live in Germany and we all have to work on Thursday. I can't wait to introduce them to the American Thanksgiving feast!

Here is a shot of all the placecards:

Here are the details about how to make the turkeys:

Feathers (make five):

4" yellow

8" dark brown

8" deep red

8" orange

Glue colors together in the order listed. Make five large teardrops, with two of the teardrops slightly smaller than the other three. The smaller teardrops are the bottom feathers.

Body:

24" dark brown

Press the coil into a modified half-circle with rounded "points" protruding slightly.

Legs:

3/4" yellow

Fold into feet

Head:

12" light brown

Coil and press into head shape. It will look somewhat like a fish!

Beak:

1.5" yellow

Coil and press into triangle.

Wattle:

2" red

Make a teardrop.

Assemble the birds as shown. I varied the position of the feet and heads to give each its own personality.

And here's a shot of the back of the cards. I went primitive and drew stick pilgrims (pilgrim boy for the men and pilgrim girl for the women) along with a different happy affirmation for each:

Quilled Edelweiss Flowers for Oktoberfest

This item I quilled for a friend who gave me her precious quilling paper because I was leaving for Germany where I can't find so much of it. Again, I used the things around me for inspiration. This time it was the Edelweiss flower so common in jewelry and decor surrounding Oktoberfest this time of year. I made the leaves of the fern-like stems at the bottom of the arrangement using the teeth of a comb.

Quilled wheat and poppies

Lately I've been making quilling pieces based on things I see around me here in the Munich, Germany area. One thing I've noted is the beauty of the bright red poppies that grow on the edges of wheat fields. Using a technique from Kativilaga to make the wheat strands, here's what I turned out for a friend who sends me "care" packages from the States:

Quilled Octoberfest Cookies

It's nearing Oktoberfest here in Munich, and the Lederhosen and Dirndl (traditional women's costume) are proliferating. In addition, you can see giant gingerbread cookies decorated with festive colors and sweet phrases. These cookies are souvenirs and gifts; they aren't meant to be eaten. The cookies are very hard and the icing really doesn't taste very good. Here's an example of a display you might see at Oktoberfest (photo not mine):
 
What does that have to do with my quilling? Well, in keeping with my latest efforts to find inspiration from things around me for my quilling, I came up with the idea of quilling some of these cookies. They, too, make great gifts and I am working on a "cookie" for each of my friends here.

Here are my efforts so far:

The cookies in the first photo are about 12 inches wide; mine are about four inches. These would make wonderful placecards at an Oktoberfest-themed party or tags for wrapped gifts.

I am thrilled that my quilled facsimiles came together so well. I'm really enjoying designing my own creations these days instead of following a pattern.

3D Quilled Cake and Coffee Card

Here is a birthday card I recently quilled for a dear friend in Germany. Hilde's passion and talent is baking cakes and tortes. Because she is old-school German, she serves up her delicious goodies to friends and family at the traditional coffee hour, 3 or 4pm.

Since she has always thought about opening a cafe, I made her one:

 Here's a couple of closeups of the items in the card:

Enjoy!

Quilled Wall Hanging

Wall hanging I made for a friend to go with her brown- and gold-tone peacock

Quilled Peacock in Brown and Gold Tones

I freehanded this peacock for a friend of mine last summer. It's about 12 inches (30 cm) high. I glued the pieces to some clear plastic for stability.

I like the brown, yellow, gold and tan motif because it matches her entrance hallway perfectly, which is where she hung it.

Now she wants another for the other side of her mirror!

Quilled Orchids and More

Here is a series of quilling project I've done over the course of the last few months. My latest piece de la resistance is a pot of orchids I made for a friend's Easter gift. I eagerly used the pattern and ideas of Alli Bartkowski in her new book Quilled Flowers: A Garden of 35 Paper Projects. And I tweaked it a little, too. The coffee mug in the photo is for scale.




Detail of the flowers:





Here's a posey I made with Alli's original pattern for the orchid bloom:







In keeping with the Easter theme, here's a bunny:

and what I call the GoonyBird (based on a card I saw on Stephanie's Designs blog by someone named Anita):

I started to make a 3D snowflake out of 3/8" paper, but it began to droop terribly. I stopped with only this much, but the droop turned into a pleasing effect:

A little angel based on something I saw at Aquamarine Crafts blog:

A very dark blue snowflake that looks black based on a design by Stephanie Sanchez - I saw the pattern on Ann Martin's allthingspaper blog:

A colorful butterfly emulating one by Celia Louie of Crafting Creatures:

Dragonfly like ones I saw at Quilled Inspirations:

Here is a string of fish I made for some friends who own a restaurant in Germany well known for its local catches. I based the designs on those of my quilling guru Ann Martin of the All Things Paper blog:

A flower thingy based on something I saw by Charlotte Canup on The Art of Quilling blog:

A bunch of grapes based on some I saw at Elizabeth's Creations Studio - these make great gifties for wine lovers:

I love the way this Monarch turned out. It's based on one I saw on Inna's Creations blog. I will probably never make another. It was so detailed and had so many teeny, tiny parts. I added a tail of folded roses to bring attention to it.

I made this as a Mother's Day gift. The recipient used it for a corsage for the afternoon!

I dig this peacock based on a card I saw on Inna's Creations blog:

Another design I borrowed from Ann Martin. She designed this pear tree for a holiday card:

 

A weird scrolly thing:

Please note that I troll Internet images for ideas and designs to use. I try to attribute the source where I can, but I don't always remember where I got them. I thank the makers nonetheless! There are so many talented quillers out there. Do your own image search just for a pleasant pasttime the next time you have a few minutes. I hope you've enjoyed my creations!

Quilled Bentwood Jewelry Box

I made this for a close friend's birthday. It's based on a design in "The Book of Paper Quilling" by Malinda Johnston.

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!

Quilled Nativity Scene and Birthday Card

It has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of plagiarism. And many artists have learned volumes trying to replicate the art of the masters. So, at the risk of seeming hugely derivative and a questionably borderline copycat, here are a couple of quilled items I did near Christmas 2010. The first is a birthday card for a friend based on the card I saw by Stefani Tadio of And Another Thing blog:

The second is a blatant, though obsequious, imitation of a beautiful Nativity scene by Cheryl Scanks sold in her Cards by Cheryl Etsy shop: 

I am grateful and happy to give credit where credit is due for the inspirations of my quilling projects. I am currently branching out and doing my own designs. However, because of these wonderful quilling artists who are willing to post photos of their work on the 'Web, I have quality works to imitate and from which to learn loads. Thanks all of you!

Bookworm

For this piece I took inspiration from an altered book sculpture by Kaylen False (which is an excellent name for an artist) and from the ongoing and myriad paper art posted at Ann Martin's blog, All Things Paper.

I made this bookworm as a gift for some friends who own a bookstore in Germany. The worm is quilled from strips I cut from the of the pages of the book. The rest of the embellishments are leftover bits and pieces of quilling I collected from other quilling projects.

I'm proud to say that the Bookworm now lives at the bookstore LeseZeichen in Kronach, Germany.

By the way...

If you need a gift for someone who likes cooking, world cuisine or travel, get them a copy of my book, A Travel for Taste - Collected Czech Family Recipes.  It really DOES make a great holiday gift and it’s under $10! Available in paperback and Kindle versions. Email me if you would like a PDF version. Free iPod or iPad app with every purchase!

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!