Weaved heart card for swap

I'm thrilled about this card that I made after I came back from my holidays. The card was meant for a fellow crafter, Hambali Arifin, who swapped his card with me during the craft gathering that I attended in KL last February.

Actually I was out of ideas....was not in the mood and didn't feel too well to do anything much. But I had to do it quickly because I have so many other pending orders to settle and I couldn't waste time being such a baby....sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

I bought quite a lot of craft products when I was at Scrap-n-Crop (the location of the craft gathering), and I took the opportunity to try some of them out for this card design. I used some new distress inks that I bought.....a new die-cut leaves pattern....and also tried a new technique which I've been wanting to try for quite some time now which is mix media. But what I tried for this card is quite amateurish because it was my first time and I was a little afraid....but I did it anyways....just a simple one....if you can spot it, it is the brown polka dots in the background. I used molding paste and a polka dot stencil to create the effect....and then just blend it with Vintage Photo distress ink. I really like the effect :).

I also tried something new for myself which is making the weaved heart....it is actually a great way to recycle pattern papers. Since this swap theme was all about using scraps, so I took some scrap pattern paper that has double pattern on each side...and the colours were really matching so it was suitable to weaved them together. I had fun with it. Lots of new ideas came to mind when I made it. Which I will use for future projects ;).

I really had fun making it and would probably make more ready made ones for sale but with different colour combinations and captions ;).

Combing new leaf

I've been playing around with my quilling comb lately and came up with an idea to do a different kind of leaf design yesterday. There are 5 different colours of green shredded quilling strips in one leaf. I've combined many different colours in one shape before so it's nothing new. But.......

I love how the tiny loops inside the leaf looks, arranged one on top of the other. Unlike the looping style I've done before where the loops were arranged side by side.  Just like the flower I made for this card. You can see the difference there right? The way the loops are arranged are bit different from the leaf. Although this technique is a bit difficult to do but the final part is easier to pull out of the quilling comb itself. So I like this technique better just because of that. 

Hope to make other designs with this technique if I have the time. I can only experiment during my spare time now these days. Don't have much time to play! But when I do, it's great fun! :).

Twisted blue flowers

Played with my quilling comb again last night! hihi! And I made these twisted blue flowers as a result ;D. Remember the previous post where I made the leaves for the Malaysian flower using the quilling comb? Well, I used the same technique for these flowers. The only difference is that I used two different colours in one petal. One dark blue and the other is sky blue :). I just had to try make flowers with this technique. Just had to! haha! I just wanted to see what it looks like as flowers. :)

This card is was not meant for anything in particular.....just playing and it's suitable for any occasion. Will think of what else I can add on later to make it complete. Some wordings or pop up inside. Not sure yet. ;)

I made a video on how you can make the two tone cascading loops flower. Once you know how to make it, you can twist the loops inside it. Do check it out :).

Malaysian flower

Malaysian flower.......yes, that's what it's called :). This quilled flower is originally a creation of Miss Solehah Muhammad, founder of My Quilling Soul. You can view her tutorial on how she makes the Malaysian Flower at the link HERE. Ever since she created this design, so many card designers out there have tried their hand at making this special quilled flower. I myself have never tried making them until a couple of days ago when I had the urge to do so after seeing a friend of mine's Malaysian flower on Facebook :). I just had to try it once and for all! And now I'm addicted to it! LOL! :D

I've always had the impression that it will never turn out nice if I were to use shredded paper. Because all this time I've seen a lot of this Malaysian flower made by other card designers using clean cut quilling paper and they look so beautiful. The quilled design inside each petal can be seen so clearly when using the clean cut quilling paper. So since I myself love using the shredded type that has a lot of rough edges, I thought perhaps there was no point for me to try making them using the shredded paper as I thought it wouldn't look as nice. But after trying it out, I find that it doesn't look that bad after all hihihi. The quilled design inside each petal can be seen quite clearly if done the right way. :)

This is the first time as well for me to make the quilled leaves like that. I used the quilling comb to make  a few cascading loops of different sizes and then, with a slotted quilling tool, I twisted each loop inside each leaf, to the left and to the right :). Pretty easy! Love how it looks! hihi! 

Again I made the layout of this card similar like the card I made previously. I just changed the positions of the frame that's all hihihi! So simple! :D

Here's how I did it the Malaysian flower......first of all, for each petal, I used a shredded paper strip that is 29.7cm in length and and 0.35cm wide and about 80gsm in thickness. I personally prefer to use this type of shredded paper as it's easier for me to form the shape of the petal if it's not that thick. Although a lot of people have used thicker quilling strips for this, but since this is my first time trying it, I thought I should just try the 80gsm instead. Feel free to use any type of quilling strips that you are comfortable with :).

Do check out below the video tutorial I made and also step by step photos on how to make this quilled Malaysian flower ;).

At first I used the circle template as a guide for me to get the exact same shape of coils....but in the end, I just quilled each paper strip and then I let them loose on the cutting board like the photo above. 

Then I gently lift one of the quilled circle with my fingers and like the photo above, I used a bamboo skewer and pressed gently the quilled circle to fold it in half to form the shape of the petal. After that I glued the end of the strip. Then I wrapped a few rounds of the beige coloured shredded paper strip around each of the orange petal quilled shape like the photo you see below. Have fun making your own Malaysian flower!!  :)

Bright and sweet coloured flowers

I've been playing with the quilling comb a lot lately and been experimenting on new flower designs. Been thinking of what other designs I can do with the quilling comb and I thought of doing something like the above. It's actually a cascading loop technique that I used to make the petals. For one petal, I glued 3 loops together. So, there's quite a few loops to glue together in order to get just one flower. I used 2 different colour quilling strips for the flower. One cyber pink and the other is fluorescent pink. As you can see, I used shredded strips of paper, that's why the flower has those rough edges. I still haven't thought of getting those clean cut ones. Perhaps one day I will but for now, I still enjoy using the shredded type.

As you can see, I seem to love making layouts for my cards this way lately. Perhaps because it's simple and easy to do hihi! No other reason. :D The plain white metallic background highlights the flower designs and puts them in a frame. So the eyes are focused on just that particular part of the card. I was thinking of doing more to it but not just yet. Just enjoy making the flowers and leaves first and think of the rest later ;).

Creating cascading loops

Ok....it's official....I'm addicted to using this quilling comb!! I've been combing these flowers non stop. I should stop and concentrate on finishing up my card orders! haha! I'm just super excited that's all......it's like having a new toy and I just can't stop playing with it. I just found out another technique from the internet that I can do using the quilling comb and that's how it looks. I love it! Here's some more below. The one below is the one I tried making in the beginning and the one on top is the one I did later on. I got to make the petals in that shape just by pushing the ends of the petals inwards, thus making it broader in shape.

It's actually very very easy to do and I've taken some photos of how I made the petals. Have a look at them below. I hope you can understand how it is done just by looking at those step by step photos of the combing technique and try making the flowers yourself using the quilling comb :). You can also view this video tutorial I made on how to make these cascading loops. Do check it out! ;)

STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

STEP 4

STEP 5

*As you can see at the photo above, every time I slip the quilling strips through the comb I would put some white glue at the bottom part so that each loop would stick at the ends and so the loops won't get loose easily.

STEP 6

The final result.......a petal.....which can also be turned into a leaf if you use green quilling strips. :)

I also tried to use two different sizes of petals in one flower and I used two different type of colours too. There is no limit to what we can do with this technique......we can also combine different colours in one petal too! I have yet to try that, but will do so soon! hihi! Below is the last flower I did for today. :) So happy!!

My first tri-shutter card

Finally!! I did it!! I've been wanting to do a tri-shutter card since last year but it never really turned out the way it's suppose to be! haha! I've looked up in Youtube on how to make it but it seemed so difficult to make and it demotivated me to try it. Until one day I saw for the first time how it's done by my fellow card maker Miss Azilah from Kadkukis or formerly known as CupCakeCraft & Handmade Card during our 2nd Quilling gathering in KL. I was so excited to watch her make her tri-shutter card. She did it really really fast! Seriously! Before you know it, it's done! :) Do check out her blog to see her amazingly gorgeous tri-shutter card at the link above.

For my first try, I did a big one, a half A4 sized card. I didn't decorated much on it apart from pasting different pattern papers I got from a good friend of mine who gave away her paper scraps some time ago to me. Thank you Sandi!! :)  So I used them wisely in this card combining similar shades of blue, orange and green paper. I was thinking of adding some quilled shapes on it but was a bit lazy to do so right now hahahaha. Perhaps in my other tri-shutter cards I'll do that ;).

At first I thought that the tri-shutter card was so thick it wouldn't fit in my handmade envelope, but surprisingly it fits!! Perhaps because I didn't paste anything that's 3D a lot on it. Well, will do more experiments on it for my next try and see how it goes.

I know now that if you really believe in your dreams, you can do it! I sure proved it by making this card and so can you!! ;)

Crochet flowers and leaves

Hehe! Finally I get to blog about my new experiment with crochet flowers and leaves. :) I've been practicing really hard with this craft for quite some time now. I still have not got it quite right though. But at least I'm better at it now then I was before. All thanks to my aunt......my most patient crochet teacher hehe! :)

I used to crochet the flowers using the wool yarn....which was a bit thicker than the one I'm using now. I didn't like it that much so I changed the type of yarn for me to use for my handmade cards. I love this one much better. :)

I'm still new at this craft although I used to play a lot with crochet since small but I never really studied it closely, I just played with it so to speak......no rules, no specific measurements at all....I just crochet in my own way which was not the right way .......just wanted to have fun with it. But now, I want to do it right. :)

This card I made was just something simple that I came up with to see how my crochet flowers and leaves would look on a card. Nothing fancy in design at all.....it's as simple as can be. :)