It's HOT!

Hi all, It is SOOOOO HOTTTT here in Houston and it saps the desire and strength to do anything, the reason that I haven't posted much lately. Please pray that we get some rain, everything that was green is now brown! The above picture is from out little get-a-way to Brazos Bend Park. Our opportunist friend here was so hot he came right up next to my DH outside our travel trailer door and decided to help himself to Mason's ice water! When Mason was taking his picture the little bandit wanted to make sure he got a close-up and investigated the camera! Our friend continued to feast from the "buffet's" at all the other campsites delighting the kids!

I do have some cards to post but will do so tomorrow because I want to spotlight some really "HOT" sites for awesome quilling artists and a new resource for embossing templates and supplies today.

The first quilling artist is Inna from Inna's Creations and she her quilling art is near perfection in it's design and execution. Her quills are symmetrical beauty and she combines the quilling shapes to create stunning artwork. Most of us quillers use pre-cut strips but Inna cuts her own with amazing results! Above is a peek at her latest creation, drop by her site to see some awesome quilling and some great tutorials.

The next quiller is Ann Martin of All Things Paper. Her site not only has some amazing and exquisite quilling but she also has posts of "all things paper". You will find her posts spotlighting all facets and ranges of paper artistry that will leave you wondering "how do they do that with paper?" Mixed in between these truly stunning paper art posts you will see Ann's quilling artistry, and you will see why she has been featured in a museum exhibition recently. Above is a peek at one of Ann's beautiful cards, one of my favorites, and she has much more to awe you on her site. I have yet to finish exploring all the links and wonderful things that both these quillers have on their sites!

If you like the embossed cut out cards that I have done here, then you will love this new webstore for the supplies to make them! Jerri K of A Touch of Grace where I have been inspired to try my hand at embossed cut out work (which I do not come close to compare to Jerri's artistry), has opened a webstore and she has the most beautiful imported templates to knock your socks off! Along with the templates she has imported embossing paper and other supplies that she uses in her awesome projects. You can see all that she has to offer here at her webstore. Her blog with her most recent jaw-dropping projects can be seen here. I will have her store button link (above) on my sidebar so you will always know where to find it!

*

Well that is all until tomorrow, enjoy exploring these great sites and all they have to offer!

*

Shalom,

*

Sonya

Punch Shelf for Mother's Day!

Hi all! Funny looking card you say! Well making them requires a lot of paper art supplies and I have a very small space to keep them in. I still have two college attending daughters in my 'some-day' craft rooms. Paper punches take up a lot of room and are heavy in plastic stacking drawers. I researched many different storage solutions for paper punches and decided on a shelf and I asked my DH to make me one. The problem with asking him to make me a storage solution, was that I had to lay them all out on the kitchen counter so that he could measure to make sure the shelf would be big enough to hold them and any more that I would acquire. That meant that he had to see ALL of them and that would cause me grief later when I said I "needed" more, YKWIM? Well no pain no gain!

*

I found a similar looking shelf on a forum and showed him what I wanted and voila, I have a beautiful shelf to hold all of my paper punches. The shelves are slanted downward and have a lip on the edge to hold the punches from falling off. The larger punches fit comfortably on the shelves and the smaller ones could be doubled on a shelf if needed. As you can see there is a lot more room for MORE punches!

My DH worked all day on it and I love my Mother's Day gift! My punches are neat and I can see them making it easier to grab the ones that I need. I will post a couple of cards that I have made tomorrow and Friday. Blessings to all who are Mothers and to those who will soon be! My mother has been gone for 36 years now. She would have loved to be a grandmother and I know my kids, and grandkids, would have loved her. I will continue the thoughts on Mother's Day on a later post, so until then,

*

Shalom,

*

Sonya

Comments are always welcome, I read and appreciate each one!

Custom Quilling Spotlighted Quiller!

Hi all, I received an email earlier this month from Denise at Custom Quilling asking me to be the spotlighted quiller for their March newsletter! It came at just the right time, right after I found out that I hadn't been picked for a design team contest, and was the perfect encouragement that I needed. There have been many gifted, talented and experienced quillers, whom I have drawn inspiration, instruction and encouragement for my quilling, that have been spotlighted in past newsletters and I am honored to be chosen to be among them.

*

Click on the this link: http://www.customquillingbydenise.com/shop/newsletter-i-19.html and it will take you to the page where the newsletter is listed. Click on the March 2009 and it will open up a PDF page. You will need to have Adobe Reader to open it, and there is a link to download it free on the same page.

*

The monthly newsletter has a great section on projects using the current monthly kit's supplies by Custom Quilling's Design Team, which I was also asked to be a guest designer! You know the saying, "when one door is closed a window is opened", it's true! Custom Quilling has a wonderful selection of paper arts supplies, ideas, kits, embellishments, books, patterns, etc. Click on the banner link on the right sidebar anytime to check out all the creative and inspiring things to turn paper into art at Denise's site! Check out her quilling gallery as well, there you will find beautiful quilled keepsake invitations and announcements and other quilling art!

*

The quilled keepsake invitation that is above is done in the brides colors and flowers, red folded roses and gold calla lilies with quilled leaves and buds. It is accented with gold pearlescent vellum punched flowers that have gold pearl centers and two quilled entwined hearts which I like to put on wedding invitations. I like this color combination and the brown background makes the red and gold pop.

*

Check out the newsletter and leave me a comment on what you think

*

Until the next post,

*

Shalom,

*

Sonya

Click "comments" to leave a note.

Quilling and Paper Art

Again I have been neglecting my blog, so sorry. I have been getting ready for a design contest for Spellbinders Paper Arts. I can't post the pics of the entries just yet because of possible publication. I won't know if I have made it to the "semi-finals" until Feb. 9th. I am up against some very talented and experience people, So wish me luck!

So, for now I have posted some pics of some smaller quilled keepsake photo mats, and of a quilled flower trellis. Edited to add: I am having some trouble with adding pics to this post so this is the only one!

I wanted to share with you a blog for a wonderful artist. Her name is Jerri Jimenez and her blog is at: http://jerrikay.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/ . Her water color technique is absolutely gorgeous!!! And now she has posted a wonderful tutorial on how to do it!!!!! It is very generous of teachers who post either a video or picture tutorial on their sites. It takes a lot of time and they are not charging for it, they do it out of the love of the art and want to share it with the rest of us. These tutorials are great because unless you live close to the artist or they happen to give a class close enough for you to join you would probably never get to see these techniques taught.

Other blogs that have a great tutorial sections are: Gina K. Designs at http://blog.ginakdesigns.com/ . She recently lost her father and I hope you will join with me in sending prayers for the family.

Another great site for card making tutorials is: Dawn's Stamping Thoughts at: http://www.dawnsstampingthoughts.typepad.com/ . Dawn has some great youtube video tutorials.

Check them out and their blog links to other fantastic card and paper artists. There are a lot more and so may talented card and paper artists out there. When you see their work you will know why I call these imaginative people "artists"! I will post more of my favorites again. Until tomorrow.

Shalom,

Sonya
Comments are welcome if you have the time!