Vintage Father's Day card

My dear friend and fellow paper filigree artist, Heidi Bishop, once created a card featuring a filigree fly fishing lure. I had to try my hand at it, and created this thank you card. Don't you think it would make an excellent Father's Day card?

The small piece of paper with vintage fishing logos/labels seemed the perfect thing to pair with the lure.

I found a photo of a Royal Coachman Bucktail lure (photo source)
Creating the hook was time consuming and the entire fly took a good deal of fussing and precision. You can see my duplication efforts below...remember that I was working totally with paper and glue! It required some very, very fine fringing.









The most difficult part was creating the cursive lettering though...was nearly tearing my hair out to get the curves and sizing even and to get the paper to hold its shape long enough to get it mounted!

However, the resulting masculine paper filigree card was worth the effort.

Few guys get excited over floral cards, but boy-howdy do eyes light up when they spy anything to do with angling. And when they discover it's created from paper by lil' ol' you, it might leave them slack-jawed and speechless!

May 2008 Quilling Club Projects

At the May meeting we will focus on two techniques: ASL (alternate side looping) and Wheatears.

ASL is often used for flowers and leaves, and we will make a few of those as we learn the technique. But with Father's Day arriving before our June club meeting, I needed to demonstrate how ASL can be used for something masculine!


The Father's Day card features paper from Flair Designs. It was a real challenge to fit the featured technique into the design, but I finally hit upon flames around the 'grilled' bratwurst, with little ruffled ends often found on old-fashioned sausages and franks.

The bratwurst was made from sandpaper - another hat-tip to dads. Through trial and error, I discovered sandpaper does not accept a stamped design easily; so we'll use a cri-cut word like 'Dad,' a fitting title like 'Grill-meister' or your own pet name for the father you are celebrating.

The second card is actually a money-folder and features the hot color combo of red/black/gray -- a popular wedding pick this season. It is also perfect for graduates of Moscow High School (school colors: red and black). But it is versatile enough to use for any occasion! The artsy design on front is created with the wheatear technique and solid rolls.

Class date is May 19 at 6:30 to 8 pm. Mark it on your calendars and come join the fun! Bring the usual quilling tools, glue, and scissors. I''ll provide background papers and card blanks. Quilling strips required are red, yellow, orange, tan and brown. There will be multi-color packs available if you need them.

As always we'll have a lot a fun, a little giveaway, and loads of tips and hints to share.

Be sure to call Karen at Paper Pals soon to register! 883-4287 (procrastination carries the risk of class postponement or cancellation.)

If you are interested in a purchasing a class kit ($10+shipping) or just the instructional handouts ($4 via email), please contact me at gemstatequilling[at]verizon[dot]net

Camouflaging the 'oops'

Last night was the Palouse Suzuki Strings Spring Concert. The children did a fabulous job and sounded so beautiful! I love the mellow sounds of strings, the high notes float out and linger poignantly in the air. The final piece was simply delightful, called 'Russian Fantasy.'
Bravo, PSS!

With only 15 minutes remaining before our departure from home, I needed to whip out a quick gift tag to coordinate with the frame we selected as a thank-you gift for DD2's lovely and oh-so-worthy teacher....Mrs. Diane Worthey. We thought Diane might enjoy one of my most popular designs, the dragonfly and vine. (I try to keep at least one item with this design on hand, as it seems to have high appeal for many different tastes.)


Anyway, I intended to just stamp a simple 'Thank You' sentiment in sage green with a small vine motif to echo the frame and call it good. Fast and easy. Right.

But as you know, I have confessed previously to my terrible stamping technique. And sure enough, ...I did it again. I got ugly stamp edges framing the sentiment in that awkward, obviously 'oops' fashion. Now what?

Thank goodness for cats-eye liquid chalks by Chalk Box! I grabbed the sage green and started dabbing and wiping. Soon you couldn't see those unsightly edges, but now I had another problem. All my pre-made paper filigree leaves are in sage tones; I needed some contrast. A Tim Holtz Distress ink pad in 'vintage photo' brown was laying nearby from another project, so the dabbing and swiping began again. With just a few minutes left, I popped down a dozen leaves in a vining pattern, and we ran out of the house with the glue still wet!

Could you have guessed that this was a major 'oops' in disguise? (my daughter snapped the photo enroute using her black skirt as background!)


It's not anything amazing, but I wanted to illustrate that mistakes can be covered in some pretty effective ways!

Whipping out place cards

(click on pic for a larger version)

My SIL delegated to me the task of decorating tables for my nephew's wedding rehearsal dinner. Yesterday morning, I suddenly decided I didn't have nearly enough stress in my life and determined to create 32 placecards and 17 tablecards for dinner that night. (I still have the flower girl dresses to hem, but hey...that's what Friday is for!) I'm so thankful for Jacob (16) and Susannah (14) and their excellent attitudes and assistance! At 11:00 am we kicked it into gear and set up an assembly line, with less than 4 hours to get these whipped out. Though I had some folded roses pre-made, I was short over 70. Greens had to be punched, tendrils had to be formed and everything had to be glued together into a lovely whole. The place cards were vellum and were created with my printer...after a lot of trial and error to figure out the best way to feed them. The table cards were stamped with my new flourish stamps and the Fiskars stamp press...just set it up and Jacob whipped out 17 cards in short order, though the center didn't imprint as well as the edges on these paneled cards. It didn't matter as much, since the vellum insert covered the center anyway. Fed the white vellum into my printer in 12"x4" sheets - 4 to a page, which were then cut to size and mounted with glue dots at the top, and embellished with a similar rose motif used on the placecard, but with all large roses. (Man, but vellum smears at the slightest nudge when fresh from the printer!)

Turned out pretty swell for a slap-dash project and added a lovely touch of elegance to the tables. Many of the guests brought theirs home, which is always a nice compliment! I saved the cards left behind and will 'pirate' the rose motif off those for some other occasion. That is the other advantage to using vellum....the pieces actually can be peeled off without too much trouble.

Roses Roses Roses!

I will be sharing the technique of folded roses at the January Quilling Club meeting (Monday, Jan. 21st from 6:30-8:00 pm @ Paper Pals). Here are a few more photos of past orders/projects to inspire you!

A card featuring patterned vellum overlay with oval aperture.

Small 3.5" wooden trinket box, treated with sealant
so the folded paper roses look almost like porcelain.




Antiqued rose frame (some strips were hand-dipped in tea or wine for soft shading and aging before being formed into roses.)



Rose frame using some hand-cut vellum strips and shades of pink paper strips, lending a very soft, romantic look.



Removable swag created for a customer. I believe she intended to use it on a card.

A baby gift for Evelyn, the granddaughter of a friend, along with coordinating vellum gift bag.



A gift of 10 blank notecards, in the bride's wedding colors (perfect for the special 'thank you' notes she needed to write) .


Valentine's Day is just around the corner! Are you seeing the possibilities?! It may look complex, but many people have used my modified technique and report amazing success. Even my 9-year-old daughter was able to create respectable results...and she's a lefty to boot.

No previous quilling experience needed.

Call Karen at Paper Pals soon to sign up for class! (208-883-4287)

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Been a bit since I posted...the holiday rush hit us hard this year. Placed several desperate SOS calls to hubby and eldest to pick up 4 more lbs of butter (we actually ran out in the middle of baking!) or another 10 lb bag of flour (also ran out). Have NEVER been so unprepared! We made it through, but it sure added to the frazzle of preparations.


Below are versions of the gift cards we attached to 15 plates of Christmas cookies shared around the neighborhood. We bake up a storm nearly every year, but this year we gave it all way (except for 3 platters for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve). It is fun to share our holiday fav's with others...and I am amazed at how many people commented that they don't do Christmas baking any more! The kids and I can't imagine the holidays without festive cookies to nibble and share with others.




This card was a knock-off of one Susannah designed for the November Card Party at Paper Pals. We have LOVED these creative nights out together and have picked up lots of creative ideas and been forced to come up with fun designs to share. It certainly helps keep us out of a rut.

Our snowflake cards use a Reminisce paper brand design called "Snowglobe". It was a nice pattern, with the unexpected detail of brown distress marks that really appealed to us.

Snowflakes were embossed on a shimmery vellum, then ripped out and paired with a light blue parchment square to dangled loose under the ribbon.

We ran out of paper for the background, so we had to use leftover pieces to create variations. This one turned out okay.
But we soon ran out of bigger pieces, too, and had to resort to a third variation to get all our cards made.


I actually prefer this one best of all three. I like the big expanse of white because it makes the dangle tag 'pop' more. I suspect it uses the Rule of Thirds, which is why I find it the most interesting and appealing.


After all the bustle and preparations,
post holiday let-down hit harder than usual.

That old David Bowie song 'Changes' has been playing like a soundtrack in my head.


Giving up traditions is hard. Bending and accepting change is usually uncomfortable... sometimes painful.

But one must eventually 'turn and face the strain.' That particular phrase is so spot-on I have to clench down on my emotions to prevent a major 'WAH' session! Change almost always involves strain, doesn't it? Part of you yearning for the old way, and part of you looking forward to the new adventure, and both views playing tug o'war in your brain.

"Time may change me, but I can't trace time."

So much for post-holiday musing.

Where's some chocolate?