Do you remember my 3-D quilled family of mice? They have the cone shape in their base, with some traditional 2-D shapes used for other elements. The same technique can be used to make various characters, including animals, fairies, etc. For example, something like this small squirrel I created some time ago.
Dear readers! First off, I would like to thank you for all those emails of appreciation and encouragement I receive from you, as well as your comments on this blog. I read them all, without exception. And I value them a lot! Unfortunately, I not always have time to reply, so I want to apologize, too.
Now it's time to keep my promise (see Thermometers decorated with quilling) and show you two other thermometers.
Recently I came across my 3D quilled lion tutorial ripped off by a web site from a PDF (along with other tutorials), and shared on Pinterest. Can't help stumbling upon stolen images and tutorials here and there :( Anyways, I would like to remind that the tutorial is available in high resolution, with detailed instructions in English, and absolutely free of charge. It can be downloaded from the page Lion: 3D Quilling Project. Moreover, everybody is welcome to distribute the file or even host it on their website, legally.
Some thoughts for those of you who publish things on the Internet. In the past I released some quality content under a Creative Commons license, hoping to give people an opportunity to use it legally, while also benefiting from this myself a little bit. And here are my observations: for every legal use (if at all), I find tens of illegal ones, that is without even mentioning the source. It looks as though every image without a watermark just asks to be stolen. Sad :(
On my Facebook page I promised to write a blog post dedicated to cards of a new, at least to me, type. So, here we go.
When a colleague of my husband saw my blog, he asked if I could create miniature sheep figures for him. It turned out that he's an Agricola game fan. For this board game you need sheep among other things. Besides the game itself, its fans value handmade pieces for it. The animals have to be tiny, approximately 3/8" x 3/8" (1 x 1 cm) in size. Most of the Agricola animals found on the Web are made of polymer clay (FIMO, for instance).
A new baby was born to the family of mice-lovers, our friends I already made a 3D quilled mouse for. First I wanted to quill a traditional baby carriage or cradle for them on this special occasion, but on second thought found a better idea — a family of mice with a newborn baby mouse. Look how this loving couple have their tails interwoven and how tenderly they are holding their baby :) The father looks so proud!
This image is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
I'm inviting you to download complete instructions for making a quilled lion (2.5 MB).
I've decided to write the instructions for quilling a bat in a separate post. I have also added a diagram to make it clear.
I made this spider cake for one of my kid's birthdays. I thought I'd post it before Halloween, for my readers who celebrate this holiday.
It's time to wrap up making Rosh Hashanah greeting cards for this year. Seems like I've made enough for all friends and family :) This is the third and final set, the previous two can be found here:
Well, the one at the top isn't too much original. Apples (how to quill apples) with honey are traditionally eaten on Rosh Hashanah eve. Size: 3 1/8 x 3 1/8 inch (8 x 8 cm).
I made this bat cake for my twins' third birthday. This happened about a year and a half ago, though. Such a cake is very easy to make: its components are cut out of a round sponge cake and coated with chocolate cream. The eyes, ears and teeth were made of marzipan, although colored cream or candies can be used as well.
I found this great idea in Kids' Party Cakes
Another simple handmade card with elements of paper quilling (a step up from the summer card I showed). The quilled shapes require some experience in quilling (especially the crab, which is very tiny), so I can't say this is beginners level. I also tried to incorporate some embossing into this project.
Some time ago I made many sketches of paper quilled pendants and earrings I'd like to create. I don't have much time to materialize all of those ideas, that's why they show up so slowly. The Hamsa pendant was the first one, and here comes a seahorse. I used hand-cut beige strips for it, gilded the edges using a metallic gold marker. The eye is a red rhinestone. The finished pendant was coated with matte varnish spray. Its length is about 1 3/4'' (4.5cm). I enjoy experimenting with quilled jewelry very much, so more to follow :)
You must also see Ann Martin's exquisite gilded paper pendants! Ann, I know you're reading this, I really love what you do with paper strips.
I have a lot of new creations to show, but no time to post :( Despite this, I'll try to blog as much as I can. This mouse was made as a gift for friends who like mice of all kinds :) The design is based on the one from "Quilling: Techniques and Inspiration
With my elder daughter we like window sticker paint (we have Amos Glass Deco - Window Sticker Paint
First, we drew fish and other sea animals with pencil on plain paper and cut them out.
Some time ago I created a tiny cat and mouse using paper quilling. One of my Russian readers, a remarkable person, Waldorf educator and Waldorf doll artist suggested that they can be used for what she calls "tales on the palm of a hand". The main idea is that such miniatures can be created in the process of telling a tale, or hidden in a hand and then shown, as children watch and listen. The tale must be short and simple, not a classical fairy tale, but a story about familiar, everyday matters. She gives an example of such a tale with the cat and mouse (something similar can be done for these fox and hare):
— Hide the figures in the palm of your hand and begin: "Once upon a time there was a kitty. He was as black as coal. His tail was black, and his ears were black, and his paws. But his eyes were green, like spring buds."
— Open up your hand and show the kitty: "One day he felt very lonely and was looking for a playmate, when suddenly he heard a strange noise".
— Scratch something with your fingers making a noise: "Who's that?!"
— The little mouse shows up (from your hand or pocket), you tell how the kitty chases the mouse, and so on. You can even finish at this point. That would be enough for small kids.
For those interested in making the fox and hare characters with paper quilling, I used simple quilling shapes, made of hand-cut strips. For the eyes the strips are half the width of regular 3mm (1/8 inch) strips.
This is the other cake I made for my twins' fourth birthday. It's a bunny for my sweet daughter, the first one was my son's flying saucer. For this cake I used a rectangular puff cake (like those used for the cream slice), vanilla cream, and some food coloring (the eyes, ears, and mouth). I just cut out the head and painted a cartoon bunny face. His ears are folded to save space on a cake base :) The whiskers are made using licorice laces, the nose — out of a fruity toffee candy.
My older daughter made this greeting card with a quilled lion for dad's birthday. It's not the same level as my present, of course :), but I think it's still very cute and beautiful. I helped her with the rolling, she assembled the quilling and decorated the card. I think I've seen a similar lion design on the Web, but don't remember where.
And this one is a creation by another family member — my husband. He not only respects my passion to quilling, but wanted to try himself. He said he had a wonderful teacher :) As far as I understand, he liked quilling very much, but has very little time for it. As for me, I'm very pleased with his greeting card :)
I must say I just can't help doing paper filigree! It looks like this art has no limits. Or at least its limits are far, far away :) Here's something for kids' fun, a change from the flowers and butterflies. These cat and mouse miniatures are really easy to make, I was able to quill them for a gift in a very short time.
This year my kids wanted to dress up as bugs for Purim. I bought costume hats at IKEA and made the rest myself.
