A birthday flower for me

Hello everyone!  I just wanted to post another handmade card I received for my birthday (a little late, but better late than never).  This one was made by my sister.  She likes rubber stamping.  She is good with colour.  I framed a couple of her watercolour paintings that she made in highschool.  I used to have them hanging in my old house but, alas, I have zero paintings up in my new one.  (Must work on that, I s'pose!)

I don't always have the patience to wait for things to dry, so sometimes stamping is frustrating to me. She, on the other hand, not only stamped this image but also coloured it with watercolours.

Shutter Card Workshop 2011

For my Creative Crew, the first workshop of 2011 has arrived!  Next weekend, on March the 26th, we will be learning how to make the Shutter Card.

There are several ways you can fold the inner parts of these cards.  I have always done it the same way: with a T-shape in the front and back.  I think it looks more complicated, and therefore COOL, that way.  You can, however, fold it more like a gate fold card with an accordian in the middle.  I think that way leaves less room for writing though.

Twirled Easels

It's been a while since I made a quilled card. I have my first workshop of the year coming up and it's a tri-shutter card (like this). I wanted to make another "non-standard" shape card as a sample to show the class for a future class. I've been meaning to make an easel card for over a year.

Well, I put 1 & 1 together and made a paper quilled easel card so that I could combine the Paper Twirlies challenge with my experimental easel card!  Must be Spring: it seems everything is just coming together. The Southern Ontario Animal Rescue has a new person in charge of newsletters, the Paper Twirlies Team on Etsy is firing up for its first team challenge and there is actually daylight in the sky when I leave work. (Yahoo!)

The paper twirlies challenge is "Spring Wake Up". Well, there are two things I do religiously every morning: brush my teeth and set the kettle for tea!  Now, I have done quilled cups of steam before.  I really wanted to do something different this time.  I tried to make a percolator so that it would go with my planned sentiment.  That failed.  Big time.  So... here's my tea cup.  The "new" part is the type of card:

Little Dragon Buddies

My paper quilled dragons are my favourite creations.  (I still have the prototype on my shelf in my studio.)  Over the years, I have gathered advice about my art and some tips I gleaned from all over the web just reading.  Someone once told me that these dragons would make fantastic mobiles.  I thought that was a fantastic idea – especially for boys’ rooms.  I have three nephews and sometimes I get tired of robots and vehicles.  (They are venturing into weapons now, but have not yet hit the sports stage!)

Well, I haven’t figured out how to make a mobile yet, but I did make something for a boy’s room!  I was inspired to sit down and finally put this thing together when I saw this framed alphabet art made with polymer clay by Subtle Details.  Isn’t it darling?  It’s called “Sing with Me”.  I’ve been a long-time fan of polymer clay and this artist has such a clean and elegant style. If you click the picture below, you'll also see what she made for her little boy's name!

If you would like to see what I made… read on!

Birthday Butterflies (with poem)

My birthday was this past week. I didn't really have a list to give anyone, save for my husband. (I got a new paper cutter so I've been working it out.) My mother-in-law is one of my frequent class participants (and also a great advertiser for me!). Since working with me, she has been making cards for every occasion that she can.