Quilled 21st Birthday Card

I'm back! After ages of no updates - sorry about that! Uni work has been piling up and life is crazy as usual.

At any rate, I've been somewhat addicted to quilling projects lately - although not to the amount of time and effort involved - and this was a project I undertook for a friend's 21st birthday. I think the toughest thing about quilling is even knowing where to start - you need the right sort of paper in the right colours (and I'm terrible at coming up with good colour schemes), and a nice design that takes well to being quilled. And after that you have to sit for hours on end, painstakingly rolling/curving each strip of paper into just the right shape and size, and then glue it on carefully (without the help of tweezers = the most excruciating job ever)

But the end result was SO WORTH IT. <3 I almost wish I'd made this for myself! I sort of ruined it with the atrocious writing, but the recipient loved it anyway so thank goodness.

More projects to be up on my blog soon!

Washi Tape LOVE.

Finally, FINALLY got my hands on some authentic washi tape - and at an amazing price too!!!

I think I finally understand why craft bloggers are so crazy about this - I catch myself looking around my room nowadays, wondering: what else can I cover with washi tape? :)

Double Happiness

Congratulatory card for my cousin and his fiancee, whose wedding I will be unable to attend. :(

I found this beautiful Chinese-wedding-themed wrapping paper in Kinokuniya (cost a small fortune) and it made my life infinitely easy for this card - I selected a section of the paper, cut it out and centered it before splitting it in half. I like the double-door card for this because it feels like two halves becoming one.  

As a note to the significance of the design I chose for the centre of the card - this is a Chinese character commonly used in Chinese weddings - it consists of two 'happiness' characters, side by side, hence the name 'double happiness', and represents the joy of a couple coming together in matrimony.

I used Chinese-knot buttons (used for cheongsams etc.) as a clasp to hold the card closed. 

Thanks for everything!

Another really quick and simple card made, basically, using my entire set of Pilot Spotliter highlighters to make rainbows. I then added letter stickers and star punch-outs, and dots of glitter all over.

The Most Awesome Dad Ever

This is a variation on the previous paper cut-and-paste starburst cards I made - this was blue cardstock masked and painted with silver paint. (Will put a link up to the tutorial on my blog later)

Then I used a mathematical compass to draw a circle from the point of radiation of the starburst, and cut it out. Using that as a template, I drew the circle onto a square of tracing paper, and then messed with some fonts on my computer to design the sentiment ('awesome' and 'dad' are copied from fonts) I copied the fonts and handwrote the rest on the tracing paper using Artline Drawing System 0.1 black pigment pen, and coloured some of it in with blue and red Sakura Aqualip pens, and drew over the rest with clear Sakura Aqualip to give it a slightly raised/shiny look. 

Then I stuck the tracing paper behind the front of the card so that the sentiment showed through the window. I finished it off with dash lines in a white gel pen around the circle window. 

Hello, Little Miracle.

Someone I know has just had a baby, so  congratulatory card for the family :).

I did a variation of the 'Starburst' theme I've used before on congratulatory cards, but I thought it would be nice to do stitching instead for a change - and for once, I remembered to take photos of the process!!

There are products available on the market to make card-stitching easier - a sewing machine would be one, and I've heard of something called 'Sew Easy' that the talented Kristina Werner has used in some of her videos. It's a tiny pizza-cutter like thingy that punctures cardstock with specific patterns to make it easier for stitching. However, I don't have either of those, so here's a more time-consuming but equally effective method to puncture card for stitching.

Here's what you'll need: 

- cross-stitch thread

- cross-stitch needle (this has a bigger eye so it's easy to thread with the thicker cross-stitch thread, and it is also blunt-tipped - which means your fingers will suffer less.)

- a compass (not a directional compass, but a mathematical compass - which most of us would have, presumably, from our school days. You need one that has a sharp point.)

- a ruler, and a pencil.

Step 1: Choose a point on your card front and mark with a small 'x' or dot. I prefer this to be off-center, but it really depends on what sort of arrangement you're going for. This point is where your starburst will radiate from. Then taking your ruler and pencil, draw lines radiating outwards - you can make the rays as thin or as wide as you like. Because I was just going to stitch them in without filling in the 'rays', I didn't bother checking if there were an even number of 'rays' and spaces in between ( I will post another tutorial soon about how to create starburst rays like those in my previous card here).  

Step 2: Now, taking the sharp end of your compass, start poking holes along the lines you've drawn. Try to space them evenly, although there's no need to be too perfect about it if you're stitching the entire line fully. I find it best to perforate the card once on a harder surface (like my cutting mat - do it on a protected surface or your table will be riddled with holes!!!) and after that, lifting the card up and carefully widening the hole by wiggling the sharp tip a little. You could not bother with the second step, actually, because when you start stitching the cross-stitch needle would widen the hole anyway. 

Step 3: Once that's done, start stitching! I'm no expert on sewing, so I just improvised with some sort of backstitch so that the whole line was stitched through. You can see in the photo I didn't bother stitching the centre of the starburst because I knew that it was going to be covered anyway. 

So there you have it, that's how I do stitching on cards. You can finish of the stitching at the back with a knot, and then cover the messy back with a piece of card cut to size and attached using foam adhesive so that the awkward bumps of all the knots and stitches don't warp the card when it's laid flat. 

On the rest of the card:

I had a 'new baby' sticker set lying around so I picked one of the round stickers to be part of the sentiment. The turquoise/white stripes pattern was added by using some washi tape on a piece of white card. (Might be obsessed with washi tape now) 

Also got out my tiny star sequins to spruce up the card. Haven't actually used them in awhile!! 

News of births make me warm and fuzzy inside.  Can't wait to go visit the new baby!!!

Panda!

Second part of commission. A card for a panda lover... which didn't turn out like I originally envisioned it, but ended up being pretty damn cute anyway. 

I hand-sketched a panda face and cut it out to use as a template for the base card (China White) that was folded in half with a small hinge left on top for the card to open. The separate bits - ears, eyes, nose and mouth were cut out of dark Mocha cardstock (I'd completely forgotten to buy black, but this colour worked well too) and pasted on.

For the inside of the card, I used letter stickers to make the word 'panda', and I drew a cupcake on a separate sheet of cardstock, coloured it in with Copics and Aqualip, cut it out and put it on with foam adhesive.

The face can be flipped to the back so that the inside is displayed with the ears still visible :)

They say a good book is like a good friend...

First part of commission, finally done! :D Couldn’t go to bed until I’d finished it. Someone commissioned a birthday card for a friend who’s apparently loves books amongst other things, but I chose books as a theme (resonating with my inner bookworm). 

The ‘bookshelves’ were inspired by a few sources - all the bits were cut out from various scraps of card/paper, and I have no idea if the quote is from somewhere else but it just popped into my head so I used it (lemme claim credit? XD ) 

Thanks, Octonauts

The cat is Kwazii and the penguin is Peso. They’re characters from BBC’s children’s show, Octonauts. Also the favourite of a child I’m visiting. (These visits are making me learn a lot about current children’s shows).

I printed out the two characters and traced them onto corresponding coloured paper, cutting out the bits and pieces. (The faces were coloured in though, too much effort to cut everything - the collars/boots/feet were cut out). 

The ‘thanks’ banner is an old technique, I just cut out banners from a strip of kraft paper and wrote on them in funky fonts. The white string is cross-stitch thread.

I drew in the ‘bubbles’ (the Octonauts are an underwater search and rescue team) using blue Sakura Glaze, coloured some of them in with the same pen and coloured the others with glitter glue. 

All in all, two hours? 

Fire and Blood

A birthday card for another Game of Thrones fan - a House Targaryen dragon-lover. :) The Targaryen dragon was referenced from a banner online - traced and cut by hand from brown cardstock. Not fun. I later outlined it in clear Aqualip and shaded in some details using Copic markers. Some glitter was added for effect.

To embellish the base card, I went around the card using the point of a circle compass and then threaded red cross-stitch thread through, for the ‘fire and blood’ element. 

The dragon was attached using foam adhesive too add dimension. I mildly regretted this decision when I got to the tiny parts like the forked tongues and cursed having to cut pieces of foam tape small enough to fit onto them without being visible. 

The greeting was written on tracing paper with one of the LoTR fonts - First Order, I think, I screwed up slightly and smudged the still-wet Aqualip ink - and I cut the backing strip out of an old Kinokuniya catalogue page. I then folded it and trimmed both ends into a ribbon ‘v’ to make it look like a banner. 

Once again, inspired by Kristina Werner's circle cards: see example here. I don't have any special circle cutters, so I improvised by folding a piece of cardstock in half, then using a circle compass (from the geometry set I used during secondary school Mathematics!) to draw an almost-circle - leaving a 'hinge' at the folded part of the card.

Kristina uses such beautiful round dies to cut out lace backgrounds and such, but I improvised by using the snowflake kirigami technique to cut a circular pattern out of tissue paper, and pasted it on. I then built layers using tracing paper, old catalogue paper, and sentiments cut from a Paperchase Christmas wrapping paper.

Merry Christmas

A Christmas card inspired by Kristina Werner's Washi Tape Christmas Tree. Since washi tape is pretty out of my budget, I used leftover strips of green paper and tore them carefully to create the jagged edge effect, before giving each strip a light coat of Pentel Silver Poster Colour for shimmer effect. I glued a piece of white string down and arranged the green strips over it, adhering them using foam adhesive. The presents were cut out from random scraps and wrapped with string.

For the sentiment, I'd actually bought a beautiful gold-on-kraft wrapping paper with framed Christmas sentiments all over it from Paperchase, picked one of the sentiments and cut it out, putting it on a brown cardstock background and pasting it on. The tree was decorated using a gold star and fuchsia sequins, and glitter glue.

To The Lovely Gentleman

Birthday card for a lovely gentleman in our class with a love for all things classically British. 

Black cardstock, cut to shape using a rough template of a top hat printed off the Internet, and outlined in copious amounts of black Aqualip. Cream cardstock cut out in the shape of a hat-band, and pasted on. The Union Jack was printed out and attached to a pin I sourced from my sewing kit, and the letter ‘Q’ is an alphabet sticker.

The whole thing was given a very light coat of Pentel Pearl Silver poster colour (if you dilute it enough it gives a satiny sheen to the background paper without colouring it silver).

Window Card

Fairly frequently done so it’s not a particularly original idea, but it’s an easy way to make something very pretty. 

Window frame and window flower box cut out from cream textured card, the flowers and little butterflies were punched out from various coloured papers and pasted on. The green vines were drawn on using green Aqualip pen. The larger butterflies were cut using a pattern printed off the internet as I don’t have a large butterfly punch. The curtains were cut from patterned card and the ties are leather strips. 

The banner inside the card was made like the previous ones, just cut out and written on. 

For a friend who has been sad lately, in hopes that something pretty will cheer her up, even if only by a little.  

Nyan!

 Remind me never to try recreating a pixelated character again. 

Nyancat birthday card, made from a multitude of coloured cards - the cat itself was made from a black card as a base, cut to shape, with the beige, pink and grey areas cut to fit so that the black outline would show. 

I take no credit for the general idea - it was a semi-recreation of another longer card Nyancat card I saw online.

For another cat-crazy friend. :)

Just Married

For my dear cousin whose wedding I could not attend. :( Little surprise in the mail~

She mentioned before that she really liked my previous giraffe thank-you card, so I decided that she’d have a giraffe wedding card. Same giraffe template used as before, except that I had a bow for the groom - and I cut up a small white lace doily that I’ve been saving for ages, ad pleated it to make the veil and the ‘dress’. 

The white textured card was expensive (!) paper, bought from a specialist paper shop in MidValley, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The note section inside the card is simply tracing paper. I used a dove-hearts border punch at the bottom and then secured the tracing paper using tiny brads. 

Winter is Coming

Birthday card for a Game of Thrones fan - although I’m not entirely sure if House Stark is her favourite. 

The idea was to have a ‘House Stark’ banner with her initial/name on it. The insignia was referenced from a great Game of Thrones poster I saw somewhere - please tell me if you know the original artist.

Three layers - black base, turquoise layer (her favourite colour is turquoise), and the white banner. I cut a window through the turquoise card for the sentiment. little details added using white Pilot Choose and translucent Aqualip. 

Ribbons and Gifts

Fairly simple birthday card made using shimmery, pale yellow cardstock for the base plus a lace-edge cut out using pattern scissors. 

The 3D ribbon bow was made from shimmery red paper following origami instructions easily available online (it’s really easy, and turns out amazingly beautifully). The ribbon ‘wrapping’ the front of the card are just strips of the same paper cut and pasted on. 

The gift tag was actually a recycled clothes sizing tag, in good condition, and the flower cake is a reused pattern drawn on in fine lineart pen and coloured with red Aqualip. 

Swirl designs were added to give subtle decoration to the base card, using white (clear) Aqualip pen. 

Toothless Wants Cake

This one took me a long time to figure out. (Needs to put some effort in to researching paper engineering and pop-up cards) Somehow I never get Toothless’ expressions right! :( 

Made using a lot of cardstock - one sheet of dark blue, one sheet grey, one sheet brown for the backing (of which the edges can be seen in the photos. I used the kirigami eagle card pack shown here - spending a few hours staring at the sample photos and haphazardly putting my own version together - not really a kirigami as I used a ton of adhesive and glue. >.< But oh well. It worked out in the end. His tail design was drawn on in white Pilot Choose pen. 

I WANT A NIGHTFURY PET. 

TARDIS Chocolate/Trinket Box

A gift for a Whovian friend, made from 80% recycled paper materials (cardboard, cereal cartons, catalogue papers, etc.), inspired by another photo making its way around the internet, of an adorable TARDIS chocolate box by Michelle Quinn here.

The walls are made from four pieces of rectangular cardboard, held together by sturdy cardstock wrapped around them and painted dark blue. The boxes (including the three stacked squares making up the roof) are stiff cardstock folded into origami boxes and glued together where appropriate. The little light at the top was made using a stiff plastic sheet, cut to shape, scored and folded before adding the roof and gluing it all in place. I added the little details as well, like the ‘POLICE BOX’ labels and the notice outside the door (all handwritten), and the tiny door handle made using thin, twisted wires. The whole thing was then given a few coats of varnish to seal in the paint and give it a smooth appearance. 

Birthday Hearts

For mum. Letter stickers, felt flower and ribbon were bargains from Popular’s BookFest - and I broke them out for this project. :) They were nice, and saved me a whole lot of time cutting out letters from paper. 

The heart squares in the background were formerly a huge sheet of valentine’s wrapping paper that I cut out, square by square, and now stash and assemble when I need them for projects like these. 

The lace border at the bottom was cut the way I did it in the previous pink doily card (it’s going to be a staple favourite now) :D

Mum loved it. ♥

Fabulous birthday

A belated birthday card for an acquaintance… Before I knew it, it had turned out really pink and girly. 

The lacy borders were strips of pale pink cardstock cut using Victorian pattern scissors by Unicorn, then the little holes were punched using the sharp end of my compass to create more patterns (improvisation!). It turned out beautifully, and I will definitely be using this method again.

The doily was cut from pink tissue paper using the paper snowflake cut-out method - except I rounded the corners instead of cutting points as you usually would when cutting a snowflake. I may make a video tutorial of it sometime. It’s one of the prettiest snowflake/doilies I’ve ever cut and I’m pretty proud of it~ It was a real hassle to put on the card though - first I used glue stick, then white craft glue to get the stubbornly not-sticking parts. It would be lovely to have spray adhesive, I think, but that's one of the pricier things I've never gotten around to buying.

The girl holding the heart was copied from an old tracing of a stamp I saw in a craft book years ago (this would work with any interesting images too - just copy with tracing paper, and transfer!). The little details were drawn using Artline Drawing System 0.1 pens, coloured in using a white Signo Choose pen, as well as various Gelly Roll pens - then cut out and put on using dimensional adhesive. 

The journaling box was hand drawn and cut from kraft paper, outlined in black and white, and the sentiment hand-written. It is also on dimensional adhesive.

Finally, flowers and butterflies punch-outs were used to accent the card (fill up space, more like).

Purple Peacock

Purple Peacock

A peacock-themed birthday card for a lovely friend. The front was inspired by Googling 'peacock cards', and I created this by hand-cutting teardrop shapes out of thin purple paper as well as using a hole punch on shimmery purple paper. I built the tail by first lightly sketching out the curves of each tail feather, and then adhering white cross-stitch thread following the sketch lines using glue. Once that dried, I added sparkle to the thread by going over it with a silver pen. The purple pieces were then adhered to the card using dimensional adhesive.

The additional feathery details were added using Gelly Roll Aqualip pens, and coloured with more glitter pens. 

This was massively time-consuming simply because I am a perfectionist (well, there was also all that cutting to be done). And because I liked it very much.

However, I don’t think I will be working with white card again anytime soon. It’s too easily dirtied, especially since I’m prone to getting ink stains on my fingers. 

Starburst Series

This little series was inspired by Kristina Werner @ kwernerdesign.com - you can see the original card here.

A personalised good luck card for a friend who’s going to study abroad. The radial pattern idea was recreated by cutting out triangles of paper and pasting it on the card. 

The name ‘Eric’ is also hand-cut (letter stickers are so very expensive) - I typed out the name using the Varsity font in Word, and changed the font size before tracing the letters and transferring onto coloured paper, outlining and cutting out. You can also print it out for convenience, but I was rushing this and didn’t have a printer at hand.

And a star sticker was added, from a bunch of stickers I’ve had for a long time. :)

Should’ve done the radial pattern in shimmery paper though, that would have been much nicer. As it is, the glitter on this card was added by colouring my finger tip with a very watery silver pen (Uniball Signo, a priceless set I got from Japan years ago) and rubbing it over the paper. It creates a very subtle, shimmery effect, and is watery enough (like paint, without the wet-warping effect on paper) to spread out fairly evenly. 

Since I had paper left from the radial pattern cut-out from the card above, I decided to use it for another good luck card, again for another friend going overseas (EVERYONE’S LEAVING. :( )

Anyway, I changed the orientation of the card to landscape, to make it different, and pasted the pattern on. The cardstock is a glittery light blue. The ribbon banner is made from strips of paper cut from pages of an old Kinokuniya (one of the awesomest bookstores ever) Christmas catalogue (coincidentally, there was a part of an Archie Comics cover in my set of cut-outs, and this friend LOVES Archie Comics. Unfortunately it was covered up by the other elements). Tracing paper, cut to shape, was pasted over it to soften the colours. 

Like in the previous card, the letters for the name ‘Jo’ were hand-drawn with reference to the Varsity font, with some variations. They were then outlined in black Aqualip and white Signo pens (this is another new love of mine) to imitate the look of the font. I also traced ‘good luck’ from my computer screen using the font The Quickest Shift, then cut it out and pasted it onto kraft paper and cut a banner out of that too, before putting it all together on dimensional adhesive.

It’s a real pity the glittery parts don’t show up in photos, because they look amazing. :)

Pusheen says 'Thank You'

Pusheen says Thank You

Because Pusheen is too cute not to use more than once! 

Pusheen character cut out of grey card, outlined in black Aqualip pen. Ball of ‘yarn’ created by cutting a circle from hard cardboard, sticky-taping the back and wrapping cross-stitch thread around it. 

It was a really enjoyable little card to make! :)

*Pusheen cat character does not belong to me.