Happy 31st Birthday Handmade Quilled White Flowers Card with Heart Leaves

Hello everyone and happy Wednesday!

This summer we decided to try to eat more organic veggies and support local farms by signing up for CSA farm shares. I'm pretty sure it's nationwide, so if you're interested you can read a little about it. It's probably more interesting to those who live in cities since it's hard to access fresh produce. The season has been starting off on the slow side. I hope it picks up soon! We've had a lot of salad-type greens and even tried spring nettles for the first time! My husband said that in his motherland, Belarus, they learned to avoid them at an early age because of their ability to give you horrible rashes, similar to our poison ivy. Therefore, they're pests and he said if his parents knew, they'd laugh at us and call us idiots (so we won't tell them then :D). We had to handle them with gloves until we got it into the water to boil. Sounds counter intuitive to stick something like this in my mouth, but I did it anyway...I didn't mind it so much in the end, but it wouldn't something I'd be dying to try again!

On to the card:

This card has a playful nature to it that I like. It's clean, simple, and modern. I played with the leaf petals to try to get it to look like heart outlines. It was a little hard to control the waves, so parts of it weren't fun at all! They came out a bit clunky, but I am satisfied with the outcome. 

Lots of hearts~

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Quilled White Heart & Flowers Initial K Bridal Shower Card

I'm finding it easier to sit in front of the computer today with the severe thunderstorms outside, so here I am writing another post. It's so rare for me to get into a back to back blogging groove nowadays. We're trying desperately to settle in as much as we can since we're receiving a lot interest from family and friends about visits next month. I don't know what's so special about June, but apparently it's a good time to travel? I could use the company, so I'm not complaining!

This summer will be really different for me in that it's the first summer I am not spending in NYC with my friends and family. Yes, I've been away in college and yes, I've been gone for extended periods of time to other places, but never have I not been able to check in with people physically at some point during the summer months. I think I'll feel it a lot more than usual because summers in NYC are unlike any other. Whether you spend time alone or with others, it's always an exciting time with a lot of action. I am struggling to understand what there is to do in this area while my Facebook feeds have been buzzing with activity from all of my connections in my hometown. I'm not one to truly take advantage of and embrace city life, but I do enjoy little doses of it sparingly. I'm curious as to how I will sum up this period of time when September rolls around.

On to the card:

This is a card that I made for soon-to-be bride, Karen, for her bridal shower earlier this month. I've known her since late HS/college days and I can't believe she's finally marrying her fiance after so many years (est. 2005). It's a rare thing for people of our generation to push through all of the changes and pressures of life to make it so many years later. They've had to endure many periods of long distance dating when her fiance was in dental school. Well folks, he's finally starting his residency in the city, so they can finally reunite and have the happily ever after they always dreamed about. I wish them all the best! 

The card consists of a quilled white heart and flowers. Flowers have chalked centers. I distressed the background sheet a little bit with purple ink. Flourishes were wet embossed with clear glitter embossing powder and tips are decorated with purple rhinestones. The heart, "K," and leaves are die cuts. 

That's all for today; have a wonderful weekend! 

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-A Creative Romance - Girly Creations
-Alphabet Challenge - H for Handmade Embellishments

Congrats Wedding Card with Quilled White Flowers

All the wedding festivities have come and gone...a month has passed by, yesterday! Time really doesn't wait for you to catch your breath!

I'll have to put up some wedding pictures in another post because I haven't gotten them myself from the photographer!

Many more weddings are coming up next month! It's a busy year for those who are my age. Here's a card that I made with simple quilled white blooms:

The cut out of the couple is actually the portion that I didn't use for the luminary table numbers I had made for my wedding. I will be sure to put pictures up when I get my hands on them!

Have a sweet day!

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-The Pink Elephant Challenge - Anything Goes

Bridal Shower Thank You Photo Cards

The girls threw a surprise bridal shower for me a couple of weeks ago! I rarely get to see these girls anymore being that I live 3 hours away now, so it was definitely a treat for me. :)

The background decor was made by Jenny on the far right, back row. She's a really great friend to craft with and it's one of the things I miss most about living in NYC. All of the details that went into it was really awesome of her since I treasure that kind of stuff a lot as you may already know. ;)

This great picture was taken with a tripod on Colleen's camera (far right, bottom row). It felt a bit funny re-gifting the picture she took for me, but what can I say...it is one of the best group pics I've seen out there for any of our gatherings. hehe

I put my own personal touches on the picture to personalize it a bit more and then printed it with my photo printer. It turned out fabulous! The mat I cut from a larger sheet of pattern paper. It worked out well...quicker than most other cards I've made!

It's the final stretch! The wedding is next Sunday! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and, truthfully, getting this over with!!!

Have an eventful Easter weekend!

28th Birthday Quilled Pink & Yellow Flowers Card

It's my birthday month and I am actually going to be celebrating my 28th birthday! I'm not big on doing anything, but we do have a lot to be happy for this year so I'd like to think of it as a nice time for reflection. Hopefully it'll be warmer and I can get in a nice stroll. I'm scheduled for the dentist to get in a permanent crown on that day, so it'll make for a memorable birthday for that reason if nothing else. 

This is a card with a chalked background and 3 quilled flowers. I don't know why, but I really wanted to scatter the leaves a little bit to use up some of the white space. 

Enjoy this Wednesday afternoon!

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-{Pin}spirational Challenge #99

Upcycled Coupon Holder for Fridge Door

Lately I've been doing a lot of coupon clipping because why not? What I didn't like was the clippings ending up randomly all over surfaces when I wasn't ready to use them yet. Therefore, I borrowed an idea from my friend, Jenny, and decided to upcycle a small box that I already had:

From here, it'll turn into a functional box and affix temporarily by way of magnets to the fridge.

I snipped off the top portion to create an opening. Then, I covered the entire box with my choice of scrapbook paper, which happens to be a gray polka dot paper. I did a crisscross on the front with peach ribbon (yeah, I know I'm loving peach these days!). I threw on the die cut flourish and a premade flower from Michaels.

All you need to do now is put on the magnets! I actually didn't glue mine to the back. Do you know how the N and S poles of the magnets attract? Well, keeping that in mind, I put multiple magnets on the fridge and I followed up with an equal amount of magnets inside of the box. Just as strongly as they repel, they seem to attract. This allowed me to keep the set up as temporary as possible. My reasoning was that if down the road the box starts falling apart, I would still be able to salvage the magnets cleanly and fuss-free. The trade off is that I am using double the amount of magnets upfront and I'm sacrificing the thickness of the magnet on the inside (where I could've kept more sheets of paper instead).

So there you have it; a quick project with materials that most of us crafters have on hand and totally useful for coupons, menus, and other notes you may want to keep easily accessible.

Happy crafting!

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-MIM#181

Gold and Peach Quilling Flowers Card (29th Birthday)

I've been really out of tune with the blogging world and I apologize!

On the one hand, I have the opportunity to work on all of the crafts I could ever want for my wedding. On the other hand, I do so many repetitions of each aspect that I really miss the freedom of making whatever I want in a heart beat. I am really proud of what I've done thus far, but just in case anyone from my guest list is reading this, I don't want to give away anything prematurely. :X I'm mean like that! :) I am currently working on my guest signing poster. I was glad to shift gears to this after completing a few shy of 100 invites (I will make a separate post for this). Fortunately, they're all out of my hands now and I am very relieved of that. :) We will be traveling down to NYC for it on April 27th (a week after our 5 year anniversary actually) as that is where the majority of our friends and family are. As you can probably imagine, it hasn't been the easiest planning things from 3 hours away.

For now, I have for you a quilled card for someone celebrating their 29th birthday. I quilled 2 flowers in gold paper, but I felt that it needed more gold so I went ahead and wet embossed the tops in gold as well. That gives you the added metallic look that you see above. I really like this color combo and in fact, I will be using it as part of my wedding color scheme.

Have a very wonderful Tuesday!

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-MIM#181

Valentine's Hearts in a Vase Quilled Card

...And just like that we're almost a month into 2014!

January 31st marks Chinese New Year (lunar calendar). It's the year of the horse. Since the zodiac is on a 12 year cycle, the next year of the horse will not make it's next appearance until 2026!

I've been pretty bad with keeping up with things lately due to getting settled in and working on my wedding invites, but here, alas, is my contribution to current events in crafting...a Valentine's Day card!

There are 3 hearts that are acting like blossoms in a vase. I've taken a liking to swirling my foliage lately if you can't tell. :) The background is embossed with blocks of hearts from Cuttlebug and the sentiment was printed using my photo printer. It's a little hard to see it, but I also dabbed some glitter on the hearts for added effect.

Sending you all my best,

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-Just Inspirational Challenges Swirls

Circles Quilled Purple Blossoms Picture Frame Card

As usual, November comes around and everyone is working on Christmassy crafts and I'm always stuck in lalaland thinking about flowers. :D C'mon holiday inspiration...any year now!

Right, so flowers :P...here we go:

This darling little guy is one of my bridesmaid's son. He's pictured here learning how to walk just a month shy of turning 1 this summer. They really do grow up so quickly!

Yesterday was a gorgeous 64 degrees and today we're back down to high 30s. Huh? I hope we move into our new home before the snow hits!

Have the sweetest Tuesday--

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-Artistic Inspirations #68 Anything Goes/Friendship
-Through the Craft Room Door Anything Goes
-The Cutie Pie Challenge #57 Little Cuties

Softball Cupcake Handmade Birthday Card for Khris

I found this card that I never posted from back in June. It was to my coworker, Khris, for his birthday. He so proudly shows off his softball injuries each week that it's hard not to think of this theme for his card to make his day complete.


The card took on a cupcake shape and instead of regular frosting, I decorated it using acrylic paint to look like a softball. Each stitch was brushed on with red paint and then sprayed with glitter.

This is the free cupcake card template I used.

I hope spring comes around again soon!

Stunning Thinking of You Card w/ Quilling, Embossing

I have to admit, I am a little in love with the clean and simple look of this card. :X It's mostly white, but the gold on it really pops!

2 quilled flowers and rhinestone centers. The frame was dabbed with a pearlescent paint by hand to create the effect. "Thinking of you" was wet embossed with gold powder. 

It's my 2nd full weekend in Albany. We've been driving down to NYC every other week as my cats are with my dad and we try to drive up things in little batches--whatever we have left in storage. Driving is like night and day. I don't miss that about NYC at all! 

Wishing you all a great weekend!

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-MIM #166 Anything Goes
-Paper Playtime #23 Sparkle

Pink Picture Frame Card Quilling Flowers Pink/Periwinkle

Hello from upstate NY--long overdue post!

We're only halfway through moving...and by that I mean that our stuff is in storage and we live in temporary housing. Hopefully for not more than another 2 weeks! I'm getting a little cabin fever here. :O

Below is a picture frame card that I made 2 days ago. I had a hard time finding a place to photograph in this small room, but there you have it...a window ledge!

This picture is about 3 years old of Dimma and I. We were much skinnier in those days. :D 

I have some pink in there to match the background and I'd like to call the other color periwinkle, but I'm not sure if that's correctly identified. :P There's some glitter on the leaves as well. 

Hope you're all having a wonderful Thursday!

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-Crafty Girls Challenge Anything Goes
-Creative Moments Anything Goes
-Fab 'n' Funky #193 Anything Goes