Quilled 2016

     I wanted to try out something fun for a change. I have been trying out the tubing technique I have seen on Jane Jenkins blog . To start with I struggled a lot but it started getting better with some practice. I found the tubes so versatile and strong enough to be shaped. It occurred that I could shape them into numbers for 2016 ,the year of the monkey as per the Chinese calendar.The monkey I learnt from Diane Boden's book- Quilled Animals.
     Today I complete six years of blogging. Last year has been very good for Quilling. It is time for me to thank every one who has encouraged and supported me. My special thanks to all the people who believed in me and placed orders and have shown so much patience  ,when sometimes I took so much more time.
     The memory of Chennai rains will stay with us for a very long time. Thanks again for all the prayers and help from so many people to the people of Chennai from all over the world.
   
     Thanks for stopping by, A merry Christmas and a great year ahead to everyone.

Quilled Lions club international logo

     

        This is one of my most challenging projects so far. I was asked to make a Quilled version of the Lion's club international logo to be gifted to a Lions club Governor.The piece is 10 X 10 inches . I worked on a printed version of the logo and since the design was readily available I did not think it would be difficult but as I progressed  ,I struggled to keep up with the actual printed version.
        I spent an entire day making the words 'INTERNATIONAL' I tried a whole lot of techniques and finally stuck a whole lot of strips together and used them.
       In the Lions club logo the lions are not symmetrical . Their expressions and shapes are different, it took me many hours of trials to finish the first face which is the right side one . The left one then followed on the same lines. I am happy the way the eyes turned out which is one of the most important element of the face. I used 5mm strips for the whole project. expect for the tongue for which I used 3mm strips. I did my very best to make the Quilled version as much close to the original design as I could.
         
       Thanks for stopping by , Have a creative day.

Quilled lion head

    I am ever thankful to people for making requests that make me quill something new. This request came from a friend's uncle whose zodiac is Leo or Simha rasi in Tamil. He wanted a lion head along with his name. I found an image from clipart which was just a line drawing in black and white. I got the impression  of just the outline  on paper and quilled over it. I struggled with choice of colours and the techniques to use to fill different parts. I spent an entire evening doing the eyes.
   I was really happy when my son Akhil said he really liked it and it looks like Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia. I used 5mm paper strips for the whole lion face , 3mm brown strips for the eyes alone.

    I took this picture before quilling the name which was really lucky, for the pictures with the name got accidently deleted. Hope I can take a picture again when it comes back from the framers.

   Thanks for stopping by , Have a great day.

White on white

         Ever since I started quilling I spend a lot of time searching for quilling ideas and bookmarking them  . I found a page bookmarked long ago but quite forgotten here, I found this beautiful white on white quilled work. I was amazed all over again at how the coils can be shaped into so many ways to give life to strips of paper.
       Every quiller has a different talent and strength and I feel a lot of respect for the ones who can come up with such wonderful ideas.I quilled this and learnt (and enjoyed) some more  quilling. I don't own a single book on quilling, and I am thankful to talented people around the world who share their work and help other people learn the craft .
       Thanks for stopping by.
  

Quilling for kids

      This month on take a quill pill, it's quilling for kids.Your entry can be a card,   a tag, book mark , a frame or any such other of your choice  , with quilling on the given theme. Here's more on the challenge.

       A card with a quilled clown was my first choice , I found this clown in the quilled creation gallery. The strips are hand cut and the sentiment hand written. This card is with my brother's son Rithesh.

     Here's  a book mark with a quilled book worm I made some time ago for my son Abi.I found this book worm on a shopping bag from a popular store.

     Gift tags with a quilled girl dress and a quilled dinosaur. The tags are now with two lovely kids in Ireland .

  

      These quilled strawberry earrings- easily the  most popular among all the earrings I have made. I have lost count of the number of pairs I have made in the past few months. Little girls love them, with beads on them it looks really pretty.This pair is with Prisha. I have found it is so much more rewarding when quilling for kids, you get paid with hugs and kisses.

Thanks for stopping by, Have a great day.

Quilled giraffe

      Both my son's think that this is not my style ,but I liked this cartoon giraffe I found on the internet when I was looking for a cute giraffe I could quill.
     Why a giraffe? because it seems Akhil has finally grown taller than me and is very pleased with himself. For months I have been dragged to stand in front of the mirror with him to see if he has grown taller than I am . It would be  with shoes on , without shoes , after a meal , after a haircut ....Now I hope it his father's turn. My elder son Abi is more than six feet and this giraffe is for my tall boys. 

     I drew the giraffe on  a yellow colour paper and cut it out ,I added quilling only for the dark shade.Then I stuck thick black colour strips to the outline. I also cut out  the  tree and the bark of the tree from brown hand made paper.

There is also some good news. I won Kavitha's blog candy. 

      Kavi is my first blogger friend and of course namma Chennai girl. I initially visited her blog for her excellent paintings and then for her cards.  I have seen her grow more and more creative with her cards.She amazes me with her aptitude to craft . We both have one thing in common we both are not happy until we fill up our entire card::)

 For me making cards is just an excuse to quill ,I hope I learn to use all these cool stuff.

  Thanks for stopping by, have a creative day.

Akhil's birthday.

    Today Akhil is turning thirteen and he is having a wild  party. He is my younger son and  a ray of sunshine in our home. We both have a lot in common , we both love to do art work , we both are daydreamers and both of us spend at least an hour a day looking for things we miss-lay:)).


    We share the same work table , so when I am blogging he is doing his home work and  I get to share all the wonderful blogs I visit with  him. He is good at quilling too and loves making quilled cards and he takes time to admire my work.For his love of his guitar I wanted to add some music notes on the card , but it looked too crowded and I gave up the idea.


      I started this card with the idea of quilling his name with a  tiger for the letter 'I', but the tiger turned out like a teddy bear .For the rest of the letters I quilled the alphabet first and added on leaves and berries to give the look of plant vines .There is a caterpillar on the letter 'K' but it looks just like a design, and there is a ladybird on the letter 'L' .


      I am very pleased with the card, it looks so much better than the photograph(quilled work always does).For the paper bunting I cut out small triangles of quilling paper and I have stuck each of them on small pieces of double tape to give it some dimension.The cake is on a tree trunk , the honey bee is bringing an apple and the ant is carrying a gift.My son liked it and I am happy (and relieved:)) ). 

     Thanks for stopping by,Have a great day.

Gift tags

This is the owl I saw on Ann Martin's card .I couldn't resist it.While I was about it I made some more quilled animals to be used as gift tags.

I made these seeing images on the internet. Since I am quite new to quilling , I found it a little bit difficult .
My kids too had lot of fun seeing me quill these cute animal figures. They were amused at how I managed to give them all big mouths.