Summer Craft Classes - Spiral roses card with paper quilling

This is in continuation with my previous post. This project I am sharing was made by my eight year old student. Spiral roses are so elegant and enhance the beauty of any project they are used in. I have used them often for cards, tags as gift toppers etc.  Just change the size of the spiral used to make the rose and you can use it in multiple ways.

Usually when I make these I draw the spiral free hand and cut it. For Sirjan, my student I used a slightly different approach. I drew spirals of various diameters on a tracing paper. And then taught her how to use carbon paper or transfer paper to trace the template on the colored paper for the rose.  That made it easy for her to cut the spiral.I prefer to use text weight paper for the roses though you can use card stock too.

We made many variations of the roses, like inking the edges with markers to make shaded roses or using stamp pads for the edges.

There are quilling kits available with cut spirals though I prefer to cut my own. Here is  a  tutorial  for making the rose after the spiral is cut.  Here is a close up of the roses she made. I am so proud of her.

Rainbow in Clouds - Personalized Paper Quilling Typography Name Wall Art for Child's Room

I have been traveling so much in last few months that creating has taken a back seat. Just thought of sharing this project I made a while back. Its for a friend's nephew. She wanted to give him something handmade for his  Mundan ceremony . I thought this Personalized wall art with his name in quilling would be a gift that can be cherished for years to come.

"Jai" in Hindi means glory and triumph. "Rainbow in clouds"  in my interpretation of the name and hence I chose to use Rainbow colors for the name. I used beehive technique by Susan for the clouds.   Here is a close-up of the project.

 Hope all of you are having a great weekend. I am loving mine with beautiful sun outside and a sleeping toddler at home giving me a chance to blog after a long time :).

Happy crafting!

Paper Quilling Typography

I made this for a friend's son's Birthday. He turned four this year. His parents requested for no gifts for the party. Initially I  planned to make a birthday card with his name in quilled typography. I thought that would be a meaningful gift and being handmade rather than store bought would respect he no gifts request from the parents too ;). But while making the project I changed my mind and framed it so if they wish they can display it in his room.

His name is "Avi ". In our native language Hindi it means Sun and Air.  I tried to include the colors Orange Red and Yellow to signify the brightness of Sun and a cool blue as background with a few scrolls between the individual letters to signify "Air".  I added a sun over the letter "I" using special quilling strips with golden edge. I tried the bee hive technique invented by Susan  for the first time and it sure was fun.

The letters measure almost 2.5 " in height. The finished design is 5 " x 7" approx and is framed in a 8" x 10" matted frame. Here is another photograph of the finished project.

I would love to get your feedback/ comments. They definitely make my skies brighter here in Seattle :).

Heart shape Paper Mache box with Quilled Royal flower

Just thought to share one of our lovely creation, heart shape box with paper quilled Royal Flower on the eve of Valentine's Day.
This paper mache box was created with lots of love. It was hand painted and then decorated with paper quilling.
Paper quilled royal flower adds elegance to the the box.

Seems the box is just waiting to be filled with lots of lovely chocolates or a surprise gift.

We wish all our readers a very happy Valentine's Day. We do celebrate this lovely occasion with lots of love and chocolates and of course lots of Valentine's day craft. In fact this year, since my 4 year old daughter is in preschool seems we will be celebrating it for the entire week. Here in USA kids celebrate it in school and give lovely cards and some cute valentine gifts to all their friends and teachers.They make crafts almost everyday for the entire week with heart, red color etc as theme. We will share her creations as and when possible.

One thing we have learnt is this lovely occasion gives one more reason to make your loved ones feel extra special by telling them how special they are and how much they mean to you. If not anything huge, just make a little card and let them know.

Handmade Greeting Card For Third Birthday

I recently made this card for a dear friend's daughter's third birthday. I wanted to make something simple and  sweet and what better than a birthday cake :). I made a three tier cake with three candles using printed card-stock and paper quilling strips. I used quilling just for the candles. I love how the pink pearls add to the prettiness of the card. Hope the birthday girl loves the card  as much as I loved making it for her.

Talking about little girls and birthday cakes here's a cute story. My niece just turned four. After blowing out the candles on her cake she closed her eyes and very loudly announced her birthday wish "I wish I get a lot of stickers". All the parents in the party could not stop smiling. I do hope her wish is fulfilled soon :).

Here is one more photograph of the card.

We would love to know what you all think about the card. Your comments mean a lot to us. They keep us going on days when the general business of life makes it difficult to take out time for creating :). Have a great week ahead all of you and happy crafting.

Handmade Welcome Baby Girl Greeting Card with Paper Quilling

A very Happy New Year to all our readers. Hope you all had great holidays with your families. As you might have noticed , it has been little (quite) quiet here at CIFA  lately. Well we had a busy holiday season , it being the first one for Navanka Creations. That also meant less time for our little kids and we just felt we needed to take a break to make up for our busy schedule in Nov and Dec. So we took a vacation , both of us with our hubbies and the kids.  It was such a treat to be in warm California during winters.

Right now we have almost 2.5 inches of snow in Seattle..its cold but very pretty. With so much beauty around me I got inspired to take time and share my first project of 2012. I made this as a custom order for a friend who wanted a bigger card for a group gift at work. The card measures 5.5" x 8.5 " and since its a non standard size I also made a coordinating envelope for the card. It is an updated version of one my old designs.  Here is a close up pic of the card.

I used border punches from Martha Stewart to create the effect of lace. Loved using crimped quilling strips for the stroller and rattle.  Little footprints always take the most time to quill but I just love them and make them whenever I get a chance :).

I hope the recepient loved the card. Being part of the special moments in somebody's life is what makes card making such a special art. I leave you with one of my favorite shots of today. Enjoy!

Feature Friday - Paper Quilling Hair Pins from our Etsy Shop

As our regular readers know we have an etsy shop and we have been devoting a lot of our creative energies these days towards developing new items for our shop.We are starting a new series.Feature Fridays where we will share some new items from our etsy shop Navanka Creations. The first one in the series is our new line of paper quilled hair pins.We like to call them "Cute Clippies". It was so much fun creating these. Hope you like them. Would love to get some feedback :).

Here are few pics of the clips packed and ready to ship.

Paper quilling leaves card

I made this card for our ETSY shop  Navanka Creations some time back. I wanted to design something that could be given to men as well as women and for all occasions. I love the shaded quilling strips and I guess it did add dimension to this design.

Its surprising how the weather here has switched over to Autumn in a day. This entire week it has been cloudy  and rainy :(.  So from amazing summer in Seattle we are back to the Rainy Seattle.Back in India, with the hot summers rains used to be so welcome..Monsoon was my favourite season. How things change when you have too much of anything :).

Fall is beautiful here so thats one thing I am looking forward to.  With fall approaching I am thinking of revisiting this design with fall color shades. What do you guys think? Will love to get your opinion.

Hope to get some sun this weekend.
cheers

Baby Shower Greeting Card with Paper Quilling

 

It was one of my friend's baby shower today. I made this card for her. As you can see, she is having a girl ! Baby showers are fun here ...we do both the traditional Indian God Bharai  ( Blessing the would be mom and baby) ceremony as well as the Baby Shower party with fun games and of-course lots of food. So its like the best of both worlds. 

Its their first child. I wanted to make something special and cute for them. And also something new....repeating designs is not much fun. So yesterday night I made this cute little pink and white onesie. I used crimped strips to get that frilly girly feeling for the onesie. I also decorated the envelope with a bow and tag for message. I ended up having a late night ( means less sleep when you have a toddler who wakes up at a fixed time in the morning) but her reaction when I gave her the card today made it all worth it. She simply loved it and I made up for the lack of sleep with a late afternoon nap after the function was over. Off to sleep now ...have a fun Sunday all of you!

 

Beautiful coasters with paper quilling in colors of rainbow

I love rainbows. They are one of the nature's creations that bring a smile on every one's face regardless of age. Somehow they also remind me of my childhood and care free days of summer.

Recently I made these rainbow coasters for our Etsy shop Navanka Creations. It took more than 100 quilling strips and quite a while of rolling I would say to finish these coasters :) .I did follow the rainbow colors sequence inside out ... remembered my childhood days and how we used the acronym VIBGYOR  to remember the rainbow colors in sequence.

It was also part of a challenge in one of  ETSY teams, ETSY paper's  rainbow challenge. Its a group of very talented people and it was fun to see various rainbow creations.

Here's a beautiful poem ...enjoy and have a Happy Day!

God is the greatest artist
To whom no one can compare,
Streaking sunsets very beautiful,
Painting rainbows in the air.

Brushing green the hillside scene,
Blotting blue the sky above,
Splashing flowers 'cross the ground beneath,
Shading white clouds with His glove.

Of the wonders God has made
There is none that is so fair
As the smile He paints upon your face
When you realize He's there.

                        - Udiah

Handmade Welcome Baby Girl Greeting Card with Paper Quilling

I made this Welcome Baby Girl greeting card as a custom order for a friend. She wanted a big enough card for atleast ten people to sign and write their message. So I made this card with a 8.5" x 11" card-stock folded in half.  Since the card size is non standard I also made a custom envelope for the card.  For the rattle and stroller I used crimped strips. For the lace I used Martha Stewart border punch.

I simply love quilled feet. They just look so delicate and adorable with tiny toes and remind me of the time when the nurse took my son's footprints in the hospital. I have been making a lot of baby cards  these days. Some for our etsy shop Navanka Creations and some for friends. Two of my girlfriends are expecting. Looks like will be making some more :).

Cupcake birthday card

This summer we have been attending lot of Birthdays :). I made this cupcake card for my friend's daughter. She turned four and is very very sweet..just .like a cupcake! She had been telling everybody for weeks that she is almost four and is now a BIG girl.  The way she would bring up her coming birthday was simply adorable.

Here's a closeup of the cupcake.

I  loved making this card and am going to make one for our ETSY shop too. For those of us who are new to our blog, you can check out our ETSY shop Navanka Creations here .

Days have started to get shorter and I can not believe summer is almost over. Wish it stays like this a little longer :) .

Paper Quilled Butterfly and Flowers

The day I tried quilling for first time I made these butterfly and flowers and that project has been proudly hanging in my corridor since then. One of my students wanted to make the same design and that's what we made this Friday. It was a fun project. She saw crimped strips in one of the cards I made and wanted to try that and I do think it looks nice.

This project brought back lot of memories of how I stumbled upon the art of quilling and how it has become such a big part of my creative life!

Cheers to quilling :)

Paper Quilling Khanda

The Khanda is one of the most important symbols of Sikhism . In the symbol the sword to the left represents truth, and the sword to the right represents the willingness to fight for what is right- dharma (religion). The circle in the middle means that there is only one God, never beginning and never ending. One of my students is a Sikh and we were quite excited about making a Quilled Khanda.

We took a printout of the Khanda symbol outline and traced it on a tracing paper. Then carefully we arranged all the coils pinched into petal shape to fill the outline. Then we transferred the finished Khanda on white cardstock. I have to tell, it took us quite some time and patience. Its tough to get a seven something girl to make so many coils. It took us two sessions to complete the project and I did chime in to make some coils :).

She is planning to make a few of them and gift them to her relatives in India when she travels there this winter. I am sure they will be touched to receive such meaningful handmade gift. Here is Sirjan with her beautiful creation.

Paper Quilling Flower and Butterfly Note card

I always knew that sharing your skills is a good idea and but didn’t know that it will be so much fun and at the same time will give such creative satisfaction.
This beautiful Paper Quilling note card was created by one of my students - A very talented, soon to be 9 years old girl. She is full of enthusiasm and very eager to learn new concepts and techniques. She made this during her first quilling class.

What amazed me was the ease with which she grasped use of quilling tool, the neatness in her work, considering it was the first time she was quilling. I am sure it came from the efforts she and her mom would have put in doing various kinds of crafts earlier. We believe that if you are good at one craft, it does give you an advantage in learning other kinds of craft. I guess it is something like if you are good in one sport chances are you will do well in others as well.


It gives me immense pleasure to share her creation here. In this class she learnt

- History of quilling
- Tools used for quilling
- Basic quilling shapes : tight coil, loose coil, tear drop shape, scroll
- Different kinds of paper strips used for quilling
- Quilling with multiple colors
- Concept of contrasting colors
- Using Martha Stewart Border Punch

She was very excited throughout the process. Hope she continues to learn this wonderful art and many other beautiful and challenging crafts.

Quilled number 25 for Silver Anniversary Gift

One of my friends, will be celebrating 25 years of her marriage this month. She is an artist herself and has been very encouraging always. I wanted to gift her something special and handmade for this occasion and the idea of quilling the number 25 in silver and white seemed perfect. I used metallic silver and white quilling strips from Quilled Creations . I also added some red hearts to introduce the color of love. The finished project measures about 8" x 6"  and is framed in a black shadow box.

Here are few more pictures of the project.

As with most of the quilling projects, this looks much prettier in person.

I hope both of them like the gift. Wishing them many more years of togetherness and love.

Happy Anniversary Ami and Jon!

Paper Quilling Flowers

Summer vacations are on here in US. Its amazing how busy parents get when kids are not going to school. It becomes a big task to keep them engaged and not listen to " I am getting bored " all the time ( so I hear from other parents..mine is still on two syllable words). Luckily when kids are interested in crafts its not that uphill a task :).

I have a new student and I must say for a 10 year old she is really is quick at learning. I enjoyed teaching her and was surprised how fast she picked up the techniques. She has little background in quilling so its not totally new to her. She saw one of the cards I made with husking flower and wanted to make one. Here is what she made on her first attempt.

Our second class was all about fringed flowers. We made variations of the fringed flowers and then arranged them to make a card. It was a fun project and now she has a sample of each to practice later at home.

You can see our tutorial for fringed flowers here.

It is so fulfilling to see your student understand and enjoy what's being taught. We are going to attempt making a butterfly in our next class. With summer at its best in Seattle, it seems to be just the perfect project to try.

Paper Quilled Theme Photo Frames for Kids

Like most of my creations, this one was inspired for two kids who happen to be my kiddo's closest and best friends. It just so happened that while thinking about some new product ideas for our online etsy shop (which I call product development) it dawned on me what to create if it were to gift to both of them. Luckily I didn't have to think much. I had a helper, my 3 yr old daughter helped me out.
She immediately told Fire Truck and balloons for Aarav and Air plane or Space ship for Arhunth. What followed was cute little photo frames with paper quilling embellishments of their choice.

It is so interesting to watch kids interpretate your creation. I was happy that Aarav could really see the fire truck in those paper quilled strips. And yes, what I thought was balloons were actually lollipops for him. Thankfully those are his favorites too. I learnt my lesson, look for a better way to make balloons :-)
This is what Aarav got for his birthday.



Now it was Arhunth's turn to get something personalised. He loves airplanes of any kinds. My daughter Anoushka had recently learnt about space shuttle so that was her obvious choice. This is what Arhunth got as a keepsake gift, a picture frame with paper quilled space shuttle and paper quilled alphabet A. This time I got full marks as he was able to identify the space shuttle as well as the alphabet A.


Both kids loved it, as well as their moms. Anoushka loved giving it to them.

Paper Quilled Veena

I made this Saraswati Veena with paper quilling sometime early this year. The Saraswati veena (also spelled Saraswati vina) is an Indian plucked string instrument. It is named after the Hindu goddess Saraswati, who is usually depicted holding or playing the instrument. In Hinduism Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge, art and music.

Saraswati is also known as a guardian deity in Buddhism who upholds the teachings of Gautama Buddha by offering protection and assistance to practitioners.

I wanted to try quilling a musical instrument and this seemed to be the perfect choice. It took me a lot of time to finish this project. I mostly worked at nights as that time my son was only about a year old. The finished design is 8 x 10 inches approx. Entire Veena except the strings is made with quilling strips. For the strings I used golden thread( Zari).

I loved the final results and hope you like it as much as I do :).

Paper Quilling for Kids

I have been taking quilling classes for some time. I was surprised how quick even young kids can pick up this beautiful art. Here are few of my student's creations.

I am so proud :)

Little hands at work!

This was the first one! A quilled butterfly can make anyone fall in love with quilling!

Sunny in Seattle! I love the birds. Adding the rainbow was her idea :).

She made the colorful balloons for her baby sister and added two hearts for her Mom and Dad. So thoughtful!

She loves kitties. So we made this quilled cat and mouse duo. Aren't they cute!

A gift tag with quilled dragonfly.

So we decided to make a snowflake. But she did not want it to be white. She wanted one with lots of colors. Who am I to stop! So here we have a colorful snowflake :). Could also pass as a quilled rangoli :).

Earlier I posted some pics of her quilling for Mother's day. Will write a separate post for the Father's Day Project soon. Its nice and bright out here after a long time. Looks like finally summer is here. Hope you all have a great summer!