Quilled Miniature Santa

    Each time I try my hand at quilling miniatures, it is like starting all over again . I hope to do more miniatures next year.This little Santa is lot thinner than what I had planned but he looks really cute. While I did his hair I couldn't help but, think of Cheryl and her adorable little sheep.

   This is how small he is ;-

  Santa sure brings lot of cheer, even as he was beginning to take shape , my kids were so excited  and started giving me ideas. A bag of goodies was much recommended but unfortunately I did not have the time.

Merry Christmas to everyone who stop by. 

Quilled poinsettia Christmas card.

          I started making a simple Christmas card ,the poinsettia turned out a bit bigger than I had planned and then I decided on bigger leaves and before I knew I had filled up the card. The petals are made using alternate looping technique and the leaves are made with different sizes of V scrolls.
          The petals are made using 80 gsm paper strips and the leaves are made using 200 gsm paper strips that I hand cut.
       
           Thanks for stopping by , Have a great day.

Quilled peacock - embroidery design inspired

        

        Sometimes when I am given the choice to make what ever I think best. I take the opportunity  to make something that is on my to-do list. I found this free embroidery pattern on the internet which looked so quillable . I drew the pattern on a sheet of paper and then got the impression of the body alone on to the card.When it came to the tail part I tried to follow the pattern but soon got lost and had to arrange and rearrange the elements before sticking them down. I really love how colourful the peacock turned out. 

        The swirls are made from hand cut 200 gsm paper strips. The rest are 5mm pre cut strips . The feathers are eccentric coils made using four different coloured quilling strips joined end to end( light blue, dark blue, green and brown).

      Thanks for dropping by, Have a nice day.

Quilled sixtieth birthday card.

        It has been more than two month since I made a card , even though I have been quilling a lot. I have been busy making quilled jewellery .  This Navarathri Golu at our library was quite a hit , we did scenes from the life and teachings of Swami Vivekananda ,our sincere effort at celebrating his 150th birth anniversary. I also got a week off to visit my mother .
       A couple of days ago I received an order for a birthday card for a sixtieth birthday. Sixtieth birthday is considered very important in many places in India. Some celebrate the day by performing many rituals including some wedding rituals. Most often children perform the wedding of their parents and seek their blessings.
        I first printed out the 60 and then used white colour 300 gsm paper over it. Then I added swirls and flowers to the card little by little until I liked the final result . I always hope I know where to stop , I love these beautiful swirls and would gladly fill up every available space. As always I enjoyed the on edge quilling. I hand cut the white and heavy green paper used for making the swirls , the rest are store bought 5mm strips.
        Thanks for stopping by , Have a lovely day.
     

More paper beads.

      It is Golu time again, with Navarathri fast approaching . We ladies of our library have started work which will go on till the beginning of next month. I thought I would post some paper beads that I made some time ago and again take a break from blogging until after Navarathri. But then again if I happen to make anything nice with paper for the Golu  I will surely take time to post.

     

     These beads are made out of metallic red colour paper rolled into a cone shape and then hand painted with acrylic gold  . The pendant is quilled with the same metallic paper. The tight coil at the center is also painted. This was made on request from a friend for her son's wedding as one of the many wedding day gifts for her daughter in law.

      These paper beads are made from recycling a catalogue . I really enjoyed rolling these.

Thanks for stopping by , Have a great day.

Paper quilled jewellery

     I haven't posted here for a long while now but I have been posting some of my work on my page .While making quilled jewellery I try to use tight coils as much as I can for I find them more durable. For this set I  used both 5mm and 3mm  green colour strips , the 3mm strips are graduated. This set is made to order for a friend as a gift to her future daughter in law.
     After quilling I rubbed acrylic gold colour paint randomly on the earrings and pendant and I was pleasantly surprised at the beautiful metallic look . I am making a green paper beaded necklace to go with the pendant to make it a complete paper set.  My elder son is now away in College at NIT , Trichy , It is so difficult not having him around. I even have him read my posts before publishing. He has been asking me why I haven't posted for so long , it seems he drops in here sometimes to see what I am doing. We are really proud that he is now in a very prestigious institution.

    These awesome perfect round beads are from Janice Mae of paper beads .I won one of her weekly giveaways on her facebook page . Each week she announces a different prize for the participant with the highest likes. All you have to do to enter is  message her pictures of your work and she posts them in her page.

Thanks for stopping by , Have a creative day.

Quilled wedding keepsake

     I received an order from a very sweet person who wanted me to make a quilled keepsake to be framed for her brothers wedding. Krithi is one dream costumer, she searched the internet for ideas for me and finally zeroed in on my own work, Quilled wedding knot. She said it suited best and gave me the wordings she wanted. I decided on the fonts , which I though would be best for quilling.

     The length of this quilled work is A4 and the height a little less.  I changed the design in the saree to suit the bigger size this time. The wedding knot alone took more than three days to quill . Quilling the letters were a challenge at first since I had to struggle with the heavy paper , but soon it got better. I had originally planned to add lot of white swirls around the letters , but it started to look very busy and  so stopped with just a few. It does not show in the picture , I hand painted the edges of the yellow strips gold before using them. Like wise I painted silver colour to the borders of the dhoti.

   

Thanks for stopping by , Have a great day.

paper bead necklace

        I want to share my latest obsession which is  making paper beads. I have been fascinated about them for a long time, but only recently found time to experiment with them. The yellow colour beads are made from cutting an yellow colour handmade paper, I had used some gold acrylic paint on the paper some time ago to use as background for a project . I did not use it then, but cutting the paper up and rolling  into beads with the gold colour showing here and there gives such a rich look. The beads for the pendant are made from some dark maroon pattern paper the center is quilled and painted with the same gold colour. All the beads are cone shape made from long right angled triangle paper strips.I know I have to learn a lot and there is a lot of room for improvement . I love to cut and roll paper and I am planning to experiment with more shapes.

        Although I have not posted for a while I have been quilling a lot , I have been restocking my cards and earrings. I also took some time to open my online shop.

        Thanks for stopping by , Have a great day.

Swirls and curls

     The beauty of curls and swirls is what draws me most to quilling. Recently I was asked to quill some not so complicated designs to be photographed and used. Here are some of them. I was given reference from the internet most of them were quilling by Yulia.I was also given the required colours and the directions of the swirls required. I was also given lot of freedom to do my own designs. I believe I would never tire of quilling swirls and curls ever. I have not had much time to quill this month ,  I am busy with my Summer English classes.

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     Thank you so much for stopping by, Have a lovely day.

Quilled Monarch

     This is my second Monarch butterfly , I am happy with this because it is an improvement from my previous one and also because I quilled based on a picture of the butterfly instead of other quilled butterflies . All the paper strips except the dark orange are store bought .I quilled the entire butterfly with a very fine needle. It took me about ten hours to complete this. 

   This is a stand alone piece  I strengthened the butterfly by applying glue to the underside.  It was made on request , I had it with me for sometime and found it hard to part with it when I had to . 

Thanks for stopping by , Have a great day.

Quilled wedding knot

      I received a request from a friend for an arathi thattu for her daughter's wedding.  I suggested flowers , but she wanted something different and new. I found this design on the internet on a  wedding card. I drew it out and quilled .I used beehive quilling as it seemed best as I had to incorporate the dots to show some design on the clothes.In some Indian weddings the saree of the bride is tied to the groom's garment symbolizing the union.

Thanks for stopping by , Have a great day.

Quilled banyan tree.

       A Banyan tree has a special place in Indian believes and myths. Princes are said to have learnt their lessons from their gurus under the shelter of the Banyan tree.  It is considered as a symbol of sacrifice and wisdom. A Banyan tree gives refuge to a whole lot of life forms under its huge protective canopy. 

      Some people are also like the Banyan , in the way they support and enrich a lot of lives during their life time.Dr Gnanasoundari was recently honoured by Vijay T.V with a  life time achievement award for this year's Woman's day. I was requested to make a card for her. The first thing that came to my mind was a Banyan tree. My idea was immediately approved by the president of our woman's wing of our library.

      Dr Gnanasoundari was the first president of our women's wing at our library. It was long before I became a member but I still hear about her influence  and the changes she has brought about in many people's lives. She has motivated many stay at home women to come out and take courageous steps in their personal and social life that she is affectionately called as 'amma' which means mother.

      She started her career as a Gynecologist in the year 1957, Overseeing more than 30,000 deliveries spanning  more than fifty years and three generations of mothers. To fulfill her husband's dream to bring health care to people in rural areas living below poverty line she along with her husband worked to establish Dr Kumaraswami Health Center, A multi speciality Hospital at a place called  Agasteeswaram in Kanyakumari district, with every mordern medical equipment. Even before the hospital started functioning her husband ,Dr Kumaraswami passed away . Carrying her husband's vision forward Dr Gnanasoundari started the hospital in 1998. She became the President of Indian Medical Center and Director of Dr Kumaraswami Health Center and Dr Kumaraswami college of Nursing.She is also the President of Gnanadeepam Matriculation Higher secondary School at Agasteeswaram . Her contribution to health care and education is unprecedented. She is a living legend and continues to inspire many women not by preaching but by being an amazing example of humility , hard work and gentleness.

      I looked at lot of quilled trees on the internet and particularly here on pinterest. . I made a sketch of a banyan tree and then got the impression of the trunk alone on the paper. I cut brown colour card stock for the trunk.

At first I thought of quilling the leaves on the tree individually , later I decided to make chunks of bee hive quilling for branches .

I added some colour in the form of small creatures that live in the shelter of the tree .

A tiny nest with a small bird and egg.
Linking my tree to Wondrous things: spring tree

Thanks for stopping by , Have a creative day.

Quilled baby shower card

   I made this card on request from a friend and it gave me an opportunity to make a card for a baby shower. On the day of the baby shower bangles are put on the wrist of the would-be mother by all the female guests. This is done  to bless her and the unborn child . 

   My friend did suggest a bangle in quilling, I started off making a bangle shape with crimped strips. I finished the circle with a red glitter strip cut from a sheet to give the look of a bangle.The background is a gold paper layered on red shiny paper.

   Thanks for stopping by , Have a great day.

QUILLED GANESHA.

      Lord Ganesha or Pilliayar is revered as the God of good beginnings and remover of obstacles. I have always been fascinated by the different symbolic ways in which Ganesha is represented , At one time I collected wedding cards with Ganesha in different styles from abstract to very elaborate designs. This picture is also from a wedding card , I liked it a lot and this has been with me for more than two years. The picture was originally almost monochromatic Akhil manipulated the colours before printing it out. Althought quilling over a picture has a lot of advantages , it is also very difficult since we have no choice of colours and to cover up the printed designs with quilling is quite challenging. Since the picture is from a wedding card it had glitter on it and it shows in some places. Still I have used lot of techniques and had to think a lot and it altogether  took me almost three whole days. I decided to quill the eyes first and to proceed only if it turned out fine.The trunk had lot of intricate patterns and after many trials I finally made tight coils with reducing sizes.

     Both my kids are at home studying for their exams and were quite drawn by this project, Always wanting to know if I am going to use the filler technique or graphic quilling. For some reason I could not photograph very well, the quilled mouse won't show well at all .

     Twelfth board exams for my elder son Abi has started from today. It will be fresh beginning for him soon when he enters college. I only pray he will be happy and successful in what ever choice he makes.

     Thanks for stopping by, Have a creative day.

Quilled pink flowers

     Pink flowers made using different quilling techniques.
     Thanks for stopping by, have a creative day.

Quilled Valentine.

     Here is my heart full of flowers , anyone who quills knows that this is Cecelia's design. It appears on almost every google search for quilling. Almost a year ago when she posted her heart full of flowers, she gifted me the PDF for her tutorial.  I have tried her flowers before  you can see them here and here, In comparison the flowers that I have made now look so much better. I am so very impressed with Cecelia's instructions. Every detail is explained so clearly and with pictures.
     I used pre cut paper strips left over from other projects for making the flowers. My valentine turned out more colourful.It takes very little quilling paper to make these open petal flowers. No two quillers can produce the same result even if they try to make the same thing. I like Cecelia's heart way better than mine, this is just my trial.Following her step by step instructions the flowers were very easy to make and more even.
    Here are some pictures taken in Sunlight and with different backgrounds.

      Thanks for stopping by, Have a great day.

PONGAL GREETINGS.

A Very Happy Pongal to everyone.  May happiness and prosperity overflow this pongal and for the rest of the year.

I quilled another pongal pot this year. I used 200 gsm hand cut strips for most of this piece except for the paddy sheaf .which is 90 gsm paper strips.I made the pot using a circle template for reference and decorated with yellow and violet strips. It looks very good in person. I only planned to quill a pot but with the encouragement of my entire family I included every other element of the pongal celebration. Today being Surya pongal. The Sun is worshiped and thanked for the harvest.

Thanks for stopping by, Have a great pongal.

Quilled flowers

                                            QUIILLED SUNFLOWER

                                                 QUILLED LILAC

                                                 QUILLED TULIPS

                         First post for this year , A lot of quilled flowers.

                         Thanks for stopping by, Have a lovely day.