I've been
focusing the majority of my time on getting my Etsy shop open (sneak preview above), so I’ve
neglected my blog terribly.
Luckily (or unfortunately), three of the four crafts I undertook from Martha Stewart’s
Encyclopedia of Crafts book did not exactly impress me, so I don’t feel too
guilty.
With it being
Valentine’s Day, I thought I would share with you the quill card that I made
for my husband. It’s my own take on one
of Martha’s crafts – a quilled heart shape.
My husband and I
are going on ten years of being together – five of them as husband and
wife. I decided to make ten quilled
hearts in gradually larger sizes signifying how my love for him has grown over
the years. Under each heart, I noted the
year and then I glued them on a white card with debossed hearts on them.
The only
supplies I needed were:
- Card stock
- Rotary paper
cutter
- Quilling tool
You make the hearts by using
either quilling paper or if you’re cheap like me, making your own with a rotary
cutter. I made each strip 3/8” wide
(totally arbitrary) and then folded it in half and rolled the paper towards the
fold using the quilling tool. To make smaller
hearts, I cut off more and more from the length of the paper strip.
Here are nine of the ten hearts.
I was originally
going to do one heart per Valentine’s Day that we’d been together, but after I attached
the hearts to the card and started writing down the years, I
miscalculated. Of course I did. Hence, TEN hearts and making it more about
the years we’ve been together. Nothing
like a good, creative story, right?
Here is the card
that I already had on hand, but really any card would work (besides, you can't really see the debossed hearts, can you?)
I glued down the
hearts with Elmer’s glue (put a little on the back of the heart and then hold
it in place until it’s dry enough to keep its shape). Next, I took a colored
pencil and shaded over the debossed hearts and took a fine point black pen and
wrote down the years we have been together.
Note, don’t be stupid like me and miscalculate.
I love it when
things turn out:
My other three
projects involved creating flowers out of paper. The first one I undertook was supposed to be
a rose using the quilling technique – it sounded so elegant in her book, “Quilled-Rose
Nosegay.” What a joke. A hideous, ugly rose that I immediately
tossed in the trash after the obligatory photo.
Same supplies as
the card (paper, rotary cutter and quilling tool). The technique was different and not at all
comprehensible. I still don’t know if I
did it correctly because Martha’s instructions were so inadequately described. Here’s a link
– let me know if you can figure it out, and if so, send me a picture if it
looks better than this horrid thing.
The other two
involved tissue paper. The supplies:
- Tissue Paper
- Floral wire
- Floral tape
- 1” Styrofoam ball
(for rolled petal flower)
- Scissors
To make the “Curly
Petal Flower,” you cut a strip of tissue paper to 16-by-3 ½ inches. Make 2-inch wide accordion folds by first
folding the paper behind the strip, then folding the paper in front of it (am I
mistaken, or is this not the definition of accordion folds? Someone help me out
here). Make 3-inch deep snips in the
tissue paper to create fringe, then wrap the unfringed end around floral
wire. Secure the paper to the stem with
floral tape and then use that tape to wrap the wire. Lastly, run the scissors blade along the
pieces to create fringe, and fluff.
 |
| Accordion folded and "fringed" |
 |
| Wrapped with floral tape |
 |
| Curled and fluffed |
I take that
back. Do none of the above and don’t
waste your time.
But wait! There’s more!
RIP Billy Mays.
For the “Rolled
Petal Flower” project, you cut the same sized strip as the Curly Petal one
above (or decide that it’s a totally stupid number and make your own
size). Make 2-inch accordion folds with
the same inane instructions as above and then trim and notch one end through
all of the layers (see my picture below). Insert wire into the Styrofoam ball,
and place the ball toward the bottom of the strip of tissue paper. Roll the tissue around the ball and twist at
the bottom. Remove the ball with
tweezers (or if you’re frustrated like me, just stick your fat hand in there
and grab it), and wrap floral tape around the bottom of the flower and
stem. Finally, throw it away because you’d
be embarrassed to give it to anyone.
Thanks Martha.
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| Accordion fold |
 |
| Trimmed and notched per Martha's instructions |
 |
| S'more. Oops, no that's a ball with wire going through it |
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| Pre-roll |
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| Post-roll with floral tape |
Here's another sneak peek of one of the items I'll be selling on Etsy (note, everything is handmade by me - letters included) :)
