Welcome 2013--Happy New Year! Handmade Season's Greetings Kraft Card

It is a new year on the east coast of the US in approximately a minute! Within this time, I would like to thank you all for sharing this past year and, now, ringing in the new year with me! I am overjoyed to have been able to reciprocate ideas, encouraging words, and share this craft with all of you! It has been a delight to grow together, as a person and as a papercrafter.

This is a card that's based off of the tags I made in September 2012 and inspired by LoveofCreating's card. Snowflakes were wet embossed in white on a super thick kraft mat and rhinestones adorn a few of their centers.

Thanks for stopping in today! Without further ado...

Happy 2013!!!

Cream Colored Quilled Snowflake Handmade Ornament

Today I will be visiting my boyfriend's family in the afternoon. Since they speak Russian, I feel lost half of the time. It will be exhausting to keep up. It isn't the first time, but it doesn't get much easier if you know what I mean. The way I feel after may be the equivalent of running after a hyper child all day. lol Wish me luck! :D

This snowflake ornament was made using creamed quilling paper--37 cut strips to be exact. It took me about double the amount of time planning and putting this one together as compared to the other ones I've been posting.

Below are two pictures taken a week before Thanksgiving at Astoria Park during sunset. 

RFK Bridge, formerly Triboro Bridge

Upper East Side, Manhattan

Best,

Silver Quilled Star Snowflake Tree Ornament

Only a day away from the new year. Do you have any plans? I'll tell you the truth...I just want to sleep! The energy here is too exhausting. I don't know if any of you have been to Times Square for the ball drop, but it was far from fun the only time that I decided to go 6 years ago. Unless you're totally committed to listening to deafening levels of music, being without toilet breaks, cold, hungry, and crammed to stake out for hours upon hours, I would say to avoid the craziness there. Much of Manhattan is closed off to traffic and even certain train stations are closed to accommodate for the massive crowd gathering which causes even slower than normal commute times. Go figure...I wouldn't say to not try it if you are into the experience itself, but being the party pooper that I am I would strongly advise against it. :) How does your local area celebrate?

Here is a two-tier star ornament. The top layer is more of a standard layout of a flower. 16 strips of paper go into the making of this one.

Entered in:

-2 Sisters #124 Anything But a Card

Quilled Mr & Mrs Wedding Shaped Card, Butterfly Flourishes

It has come to my attention that I am only 3 posts away from 100 for the year while typing this entry! Therefore, I will strive to make it to the 100 mark by 2013. Though crafting is rewarding in and of itself, it is also a good feeling to see documentation of the progress. For those of us who blog regularly, it may seem so routine at this point. I was thinking about how initially foreign the idea was to write posts about what I make. Familiarizing myself with Blogspot and blogging communities, in general, was sometimes intimidating. Please give yourself a pat on the back for me for coming this far in your own craft journeys and especially to those of you who journal about your crafts--I am so proud of us all! :)

A few months ago, I made this card for another crafty friend's wedding. We met in our teens during one of my first jobs at a tutoring center in Brooklyn. For a while, we lost contact due to our 2 year age difference and attending different schools and colleges altogether. Facebook. Ah, what my generation would do without...I can't even imagine. Anyway, we reconnected through there as many others did during our freshmen year in college when it was first introduced to the college world. Who would've thought that we would find this unlikely connection through crafting so many years later? You see, it is very uncommon for those growing up in a place like NYC to be taking on any hobbies. Unless you're born to a hippie or into a privileged family, it is more likely that we would have a part-time job in school than pursue our interests. It wasn't until college that I was able to pursue papercrafting.

I notice that I put in a bit more effort into designing things when I know I am gifting a handmade item to another artsy person. Why is this? Well, this person will be better able to appreciate and connect with what is presented to them, for one. Another thing that may or may not be true is my impression that I am suppose to WOW this person because they have been exposed to so many more amazing works by the array of talent out there. I cannot accurately make this comparison, but it is still an illogical reasoning I have. Do any of you ever find that you are in this situation as well?








Lastly, I should comment about the actual card. :D "Mr & Mrs" are paper pierced and then the paper I used to fill in the letters was taken from gift wrapping scraps. It actually shimmers through and does not take away from the overall look, in my opinion. Silhouette butterfly is embellished with tiny rhinestones. Flourishes are quilled.

Here is a shot of the interior. It's also lined with the same gift wrap as the lettering that peeks through the front of the card. I am still holding onto the cut-outs from "Mr & Mrs"...perhaps for another wedding project I will integrate them.

We are expecting a snowstorm in the Northeast today, so we'll be staying in. Hopefully everyone is doing the same to stay safe and warm.






All the best,


Entered in:

-DYSU 104 Turquoise

-Charisma Cardz #51 Anything Goes

-Delightful Challenges Anything Goes

-Make It Monday #120 Anything Goes 

Almost 2013 Quilled Gold Snowflake Star Ornament

Catching up with posts!!! Here's the first ornament I made this season. It's gold, quilled, and I tried to make it look as compact as possible for a snowflake. It's got that star shape because I gave it 5 points.

Hope you like it! Enjoy your Friday everyone!

Entered in:

-Tuesday Alchemy #46 Anything Goes

-Make it Monday #120 Anything Goes

-Through the Craftdoor #50 Anything Goes

Baby Boy Blue Blocks Card With Teddy

I thought I'd change up the genre a bit and take a short break from the holidays. :) This is a card that I made during the summer for my best friend who then brought it to Hong Kong for a mommy-to-be!










You can probably guess that this is to be for a newborn baby boy. I added a bib to the teddy bear and balloon hearts for added cuteness. :) I also went a little glitter crazy on this one. The glitter spray is by CC Interational. I coated EVERYTHING! lol








Have a great Thursday afternoon!

Entered in:

-Tuesday Alchemy #46 Anything Goes

-Make it Monday #120 Anything Goes

-Through the Craftdoor #50 Anything Goes

Merry Christmas! Handmade Quilled Purple Glitter Snowflake

Hello!

We just returned from our long weekend in DC. I was missing home the entire time. :X

Merry Christmas to all of you who live in North and South America (for the rest of you, well, this is old news)! It is an hour after midnight and I was too excited to wait to share my news!

The Jan 2013 Papercraft Inspirations is featuring one of my cards on their blog feature section! Papercraft Inspirations is a craft mag that publishes in the UK. While it is already out in stores overseas, it will not be available in stores in the US until next month! I'll be hunting a copy down at B&N then. :D This is my first time being published, so it's pretty exciting for me. :)

Here is a list of other blogs that were featured for this spread: http://papercraftinspirations.themakingspot.com/blog/beautiful-blogs-from-issue-108

The cover:

I am on the bottom, left: 

The card that is being featured can be viewed from this previous post.

BIG thanks to Lucy and their team over at Papercrafts Inspirations and thanks to everyone for your continued support! It means a lot to me! :)

Today, I leave you with another quilled snowflake (16 paper strips to complete this one). It's a purple one that I made while tabling 2 weeks ago. I will slowly work my way up to catching up with all of the posts that I've been meaning to get up on the blog.

This snowflake will be entered in:

-Make It Monday #120 Anything Goes

-Artistic Inspirations #20 Anything Goes

Enjoy and stay merry!

Quilled Shiny White Snowflake Ornament

It has been a super busy week for me. I tabled at a mini craft fair on campus where I work--thanks to Jolene for setting up this event at Teachers College, Columbia University. I met a lot of great people in the community. Thank you for all of your wonderful support and to Susan from Naturally Susan for guiding me on my first event! It was a lot of fun and I will be looking forward to the next one!

Here is a pic of the table:

I originally only booked half of a table, but in the end I got the entire table as a student decided to cancel to focus on her finals. I now know I very much prefer the space!

The hardest part was lugging everything by myself on the train. It was extra exhausting considering how already stressful regular commutes to work are. I have a lot of things to work out for the future. :)

I also attended two work parties yesterday and today I stopped by the 3rd Ward Holiday Craft Fair in Williamsburg to see what goodies are out there. 

How was your week? Full of wonderful surprises, I hope!

Below is the first post in a series of quilled ornaments that I made during this 2012 holiday season.

It's absolutely one of my favorite ones of all time that I've made. It glistens and sparkles and looks fabulous! There are 31 paper strips and 15 rhinestones in all. It was really fun to make too.

I'm not sure if I'll be posting anymore before Christmas as I will be going away for a few days. If I'm not around, then have a warm, happy, and safe holiday!

Entered in:-Unique Crafters Challenge Christmas-Delicious Doodles Challenges #15 Anything but a Card

Merry Christmas Quilled Holly Berries Card

Oh where, oh where has the time gone?! Already that happy time of year again. Are you planning anything special this Christmas? I think I will be driving to Washington DC for a few days to walk around their museums--did you know most of them are free?! I did not know that! I've driven through DC, but never gave myself enough time to be a true tourist. I expect the drive will be 4+ hrs each way as there will be a lot of people on the road for the holidays. It will be COLD too, but it's okay...if it means we have to go when the university is closed for the week, then that's when it will be!

I have here a card that was inspired from CardMaker's Notebook. Yes, lately I have been borrowing ideas from others because my brain is totally fried and unable to come up with new ideas at the moment. It's a super red card save for the quilled leaves and glitter balls of berries. Sentiment was wet embossed in gold.

Before I go, I want to mention that I joined International Directory. It's free to join if you have a blog (just read the rules for joining). It looks to be a cool new meeting place for us bloggers to let the world know of our voice on the internet.



Have a good evening lovely visitors!

Entered in:-Paper Pretties PWC 235 Christmas Inspired-Deep Ocean #40 So This is Christmas 

Blue and Silver Quilled Bunting Card for Men

How was your thanksgiving? We cooked on Saturday. Had a turkey, but some of the accompanying dishes were chinese-style. We had a Chinese-American thanksgiving you can say. It was a much smaller and easier to manage party versus the one last year where we had what must've been 20 people. I was in the kitchen the whole day and night last year--ready to crash when it was all done, so I paid little to no attention to the rest of the gathering unfortunately. This year we were able to breathe with about half the people! :)

For this card, I gathered inspiration from Paper Daisy Card Design. This one was made for my manager's last day right before Thanksgiving. It's tough making cards for men and this one was no different. At first I thought to myself, do I want to quill a bunch of flags? In the end, my comfort zone kicked in and the next thing you know I have the bunting banner ready. lol

It's snowing at the moment. I can't believe how cold it got and so fast!

Entered in:

-Bearly Mine Challenges #63 Blue and Silver

-Paper Pretties PPMC67 Anything Goes

-Party Time Tuesdays #96 Anything Goes

-MIM #117 Anything Goes

Printed Happy Birthday Unisex Leaf Cards Autumn/Fall

Good afternoon! We started our Thanksgiving shopping yesterday and will finish off out list in the next few days with the perishables. How are you all doing with it? Last year we had a big one with friends and it was a nightmare. By the end of the night we were about to pass out from all of the cooking. This year we're a little smarter and will do a much smaller one and make sure to start preparing much earlier. :)

Autumn cards are quickly being retired for the season, but I got in at least these 2 before it becomes completely weird to hand out! :D Here are 2 cards that you can give to both men and women alike!  I was inspired by a Hero Arts card that I saw on a Pinterest board. The gold leaf is a vellum sticker whereas the maple leaf (Thanks Laine for the stamp set!) was stamped and then wet embossed with glitter embossing powder. You can compare the appearance of the two against the same background. 

Eyelets sit in a row on the upper left corner of the center frame. Flourishes were stamped with white ink for a DIY pattern paper. Inside square with "Happy Birthday" in brown was printed with a photo printer. Leaves were centered on top of yellow vellum paper. 

You can see how the maple leaf interacts with different light angles. It really is an explosion of iridescent colors. 

 Have a sweet, short week!

Entered in:
-Cards for Men #23 Anything Goes
-Challenges4Everybody Anything Goes
-Dream Valley Challenges #45 Anything Goes
-Gingerloft Challenge GL52 A Touch of Gold