Jumbo Clip Bookmarks

While searching the net on tips and techniques for paper art I came across these cute bookmarks made out of jumbo paperclips. These are not your "large" paperclips they are 4" long I used my nestabilities large set, the smallest two, cutting the card stock in the largest die, 2 times and the patterned paper in the smallest, once. Then I punched either a small circle or a blossom punch and added the embellishments and paper pricking. The matching second piece of card stock was used as the back. The adhesive I used was stick dots and it seems to hold well.

There is only two that have punched flowers and I will make more using quilling as an embellishment. They make the cutest bookmarks and with the addition of a magnet on the back it could be used as a note holder for the fridge!

The cream one with the A on it has a beautiful sparkle paper and I thought that it would make a great wedding favor. Think of the gift possibilities of these fun jumbo paperclips! They are easy to make and you could change the round scallop for a square one and use other shapes and die cuts to personalize for any occasion. These are brass colored clips and I found them at Staples but they told me that they were discontinuing them. Accu makes them also. I also found silver ones at Walmart, 10 for .97!

Well I am off to make more!

Until the next post, Shalom,
Sonya
Comments are always welcome if you have the time.

Quilled Invitation Keepsakes

I haven't posted any of my quilling lately so here are the commissioned pieces and gifts that I have quilled. I love the challenge of doing these invitations as keepsakes. The design is determined by the design of the invitation and some, as you will see, have to be cut apart to fit. The colors are also determined by the colors in the invitation and the flowers requested. I try to use the flowers used in the wedding or event, but sometimes that isn't possible and others are substituted. As I said it can be very challenging to do this.

This is the first commissioned invitation that I have done.

Here is a close-up of the detail

Here is another using the same color scheme and flowers with the addition of calla lilies.






This one was a graduation invitation, challenging for the colors and the invitation had to be cut apart and fit to see all the elements. This one has a hydrangea and two tone fringe flowers.






This one was for my nephew's wedding and it uses the flowers that his bride used in her bouquets. It has pink gerber daisies, a lime green spider mum, green and mango orchids with punched accent flowers. This one was much fuller than I would do in the future.

This is the first invitation that I quilled a border for. I took the picture of it which explains the bad angle of it. The invitation had navy writing on it so I put it on a navy background and used white flowers.

I have another two that I will post later. Practice makes perfect so I will keep practicing and now that I am learning how to do floral punch I will have more options to embellish the invitations that I love to do! I might even dig out my wedding invitation from 30 years ago and quill a border for it.

Until next post, Shalom,

Sonya

Comments always welcome if you have the time!

What Ike left

We were blessed by the way of not having very much damage from hurricane Ike. We lost our very large, and only tree in the backyard which split and took out the back fence and then split again! We were only without electricity for 4 days so I count our blessings. The picture above is what Ike left us. This rambunctious boy was running around at a friends house who we were fixing the fence. We didn't want him to run out on the main highway so we took him home with us after looking and asking around if he was someones lost pet.

After a few days of looking for signs of "lost dogs" and checking with the shelters to no avail we decided to keep him. By then Christine, my daughter back from the Navy, was attached to him and he was named Jake. Off to the vet he went and we found out he had heartworms and an infection and thin. Jake is currently being treated for the heartworms and is rotten pug! He will sit by the door when Christine goes to class and howls. He has to be by one of us snuggling when he isn't being a nosy boy getting into everyones business and trying to get the Chloe and Jazzy to play - all the time! He has made himself at home and we have come to love his crazy antics.

Until later, Shalom,

Sonya

Paper Punch Flowers

I had a wonderful time at Scrappily Ever After in Temple, TX taking a Punched Floral class with Susan Tierney Cockburn the author of The Paper Bouquet. I naturally am intrigued with floral punch flowers because of my love of quilling and I use punch flowers with it. So when I saw that there was a class withing driving distance and given by the author I had to go!

I wasn't disappointed. The class was held at a great scrapbook store, Scrappily Ever After, http://www.scrappilyeverafter.com/ . Cheryl, the owner, has a great room to hold classes and has a lot of great goodies to purchase including the punches from The Punch Bunch that are used in The Paper Bouquet to make the beautiful flowers. Susan comes down from Washington state to teach floral punch and there are wonderful examples of what can be made from these punched flowers as you can see from the pictures above. This craft is so versatile in what can be made and adorned with these lifelike creations.


The first class was for a tin calendar that had interchangeable scallops with the months and a different flower that was attached via the magnet that held the scallop in place on the tin. It is so cute, easy to make and makes a great gift! To Jody, my sister, and my Aunt Sandy, I guess you now know what you will be getting next month!


The next class was making cards and gift tags using the flowers and rubber stamps made especially for these flowers. Susan is a great teacher and punched all the shapes out for the class so that all we would have to do is assemble the flowers!


The hollyhock flowers on the pink card were made with coffee filter paper. It gives the flowers an airy delicate look. The color comes from Luminarte H2O's water colors. I love these sparkling water colors. You just take a watercolor brush, the kind that you fill with water, and squeeze some water onto the dry cake of color and let it sit a moment, swirl it around with the brush tip and then paint the coffee filter punch with it. The sparkle shimmer effect is beautiful. These come in over 100 colors and two sizes of pots. Back here at home I tried out these paints by making a hydrangea and sweet peas. Both were beautiful and will be another great version.

Pictures from the morning and afternoon class, with Susan standing.

I hope to be able to take another class from Susan next year. The class was fun and informative and while we were busily assembling the flowers we also tried to solve the worlds problems as only we women can. What did we come up with? Well, we came to the conclusion that we couldn't and that crafting was much more fun!

Comments are always welcome.

Shalom,

Sonya

Newest "try on"

Back to "trying on" backgrounds. I am also trying to update my header, which is harder than it looks for someone who doesn't know what they are doing. There are several sites that have tutorials and when I find one that is real EASY I will post it! I am leaving in a bit to go to Temple Texas for a paper sculpture class taught by Susan Tierney Cockburn auther of "The Paper Bouquet". I love the flowers she creates using punches! I can't wait to use them along with my quilling and of course that means more punches and cardstock to purchase (don't tell my husband). LOL. Not really he is the one "dragging the trailer" as he says to the class, he's so good to me! Below are a few of my first attempts at paper punch flowers. I didn't have the small sun punch for the centers so I improvised until I can get it this weekend. Also I finally downloaded my pics off my new camera and I have about a weeks worth of pics to blog! So check back to see!

Comments always welcome!

Shalom,

Sonya

Playing with customizing!

Under construction! I am playing around with customizing my blog to make it more interesting etc. You may see it in various stages of changes until I get it the way I want it or, close to it! I will try different backgrounds and have downloaded Inkscape to play with the header and such. So check back to see the various "try-ons". It's late and I am going to play dress up the blog some more tomorrow. Until then.

I've been a bad blogger!

It has been a lot more than a little while since I have blogged. The reasons? One I look at others blogs and see great ones then look at mine, ugh. Then I think what do I have to write about that others would find interesting? I love reading others blogs, the little things about their lives, art, collections etc. So I decided to start once again and be faithful to blog. I do have new quilling to post, and still have devotionals already done, just need to post. So look forward to new posts!

First, please keep my oldest daughter in your prayers. My soon-to-be granddaughter is due Aug. 28 but is not doing well and may decide to changer her birthday to next week. Please pray that she is healthy and no complications.

Well that is all for now,
Shalom,

Sonya