Annie's birthday cards

Hello everyone,

It's nearly the end of the summer holidays for me - back to the day job on Monday. Not a happy thought! I've had a great 6 weeks, with lots of time for organising my studio and crafting. But I've also done a lot of sorting out in other parts of the house, tidying and clearing out rubbish - our recycling bin has been overflowing most of the time! My youngest daughter Annie decided to join in with the spring (or summer?) cleaning and had a sort out in  her bedroom. As a result she found a box containing many of the birthday cards I've made her over the past 17 years! I thought you might like to see them. I must admit I had completely forgotten about most of these. They are not all quilled and a few years are missing - no idea where they went!

Her 4th birthday card, made from a design by Diane Boden from JJ Quilling.

This is her 6th birthday card, during her "Angelina Ballerina" phase!

Another Diane Boden design for her 8th birthday.

I think it was around age 9 that she developed her passion for rabbits - several subsequent cards, as well as this one, feature bunnies as you will see!

A bunny again for her 10th birthday.

This is one of my favourites - a concertina card for her 11th birthday.

This must have been around the time her Harry Potter obsession began - her 12th birthday. 

An easel card for her 13th birthday.

Back to quilling for her 14th birthday.

And, finally, more bunnies and more quilling for her 15th birthday.

Hope you enjoyed seeing those!!

Have a great weekend,

Jill

Quiled birthday card

Hello everyone and a very happy Easter to you all,

I'm enjoying a little bit of "down time" to do some of the things I rarely get a chance to do when I'm at work, including posting on here. No new Easter designs to show you, but thought I'd show you a special order I recently made for a customer. She liked this card:

but wanted a bigger 6" x 8" card, with a longer message. Here is the design I came up with:

Looking at it now there are some changes I'd make, but I think the customer was happy.

Enjoy the rest of the Easter weekend!

Jill

No quilling!

Hi everyone,

I generally keep this blog "pure" by only posting quilling related items, but I actually make a lot of cards without quilling, especially for my family who have received quilled cards from me until they are fed up with them. So I thought I'd just pop in quickly to show you a card I made recently. This was for my brother's birthday. I still find men's cards really tricky and often give in and just go and buy them. But my brother appreciates a well-designed handmade card, so I usually try and make an effort for him.

This card was made with dies from Papertrey Ink, an American company. I have lusted after a lot of their products for a while, but whilst their actual prices are quite reasonable, there is no way to order them from any UK supplier. So it means paying very expensive postage and customs charges. However my brother bought me a Gift Voucher for Papertrey Ink for my birthday, so this card showcases what I bought (amongst other things!) - I just LOVE that birthday die!

Hope he liked it!!


Jill

Happy Birthday Mum

Hi everyone,

Just popping in quickly today - I'm enjoying the last day of my long weekend off work. Back to the day job tomorrow.

This is the card I've made for my mum's 83rd birthday which is next Sunday. I'm safe posting this early as she doesn't "do" computers!

It was difficult getting the lighting right to take these photos today. In the end I went outside and used the rabbit hutch as a stand! The photos still don't really do justice to the actual card :-(

Jill 

New spin on an old design

Hi everyone,

At last I've found some time to "play" with some of the new crafting goodies I've been buying lately. I bought a set of word dies back in May and here I've used them to put a new spin on a previous design. 

I was previously using a die cut alphabet to cut out individual letters which looked great but was very time-consuming. See this card:

I'm really pleased with these word dies - I like using them much more than just printing the message on cards. Expect to see a lot more of them soon,

Jill

Quilled dragonflies

Popping in quickly to show you this new range of quilled dragonfly cards. These were inspired by some quilled stickers I bought many years ago. 

And that's it. Said I was going to be quick!

Jill

New twist on old design

Hi there everyone,

Wow, life has been so busy once again. Lots of orders from my Etsy and Folksy shops to keep me out of mischief!
Just thought I'd pop in here really quickly to show you this card:

The quilling on this card is a design I've been making and selling for years. But previously I mounted it some lovely blank card blanks which had an embossed border which showed the quilling off just perfectly - see below:

I think I originally bought 500 of those card blanks but am now down to the last 12 or so. Sadly I've had to give up on any hopes of buying any more. I contacted the company I bought them from (Craft Creations) only to be told that they were the only card blanks they have ever "bought in" rather than manufacturing themselves. The company they bought them from went bankrupt a few years ago and the machinery for making the card blanks was destroyed.

So I need to find an alternative. After spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to print an appropriately placed border on blank card blanks and failing miserably, I resorted to using a different card blank (again from Craft Creations). I like the foiled oblong border but just wish it was a little bit bigger. Compared to the other card, I think the quilling looks a bit squashed. What do you think?

However, I love this colour combination - it's not one I've used before. They are all JJ Quilling papers - cyclamen, petunia and spring green (which is now discontinued - I have a little stash of it to keep me going!)

Must dash - lots to do this evening, including getting ready to go back to the day job tomorrow as half term is now officially over. Roll on the Easter hols!

Jill

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my readers and followers.

Just popping in here quickly, to get the New Year off to a good start. This card was made for the birthday of my niece who celebrated her 13th birthday on Christmas Eve. It always seems such a shame to have a birthday so close to Christmas - never the same as when they are well spaced apart. One downside is that there is never anywhere for her to display her cards, as there are Christmas cards everywhere by that stage. However, I am hoping that this card was on display for a while at least.

This card is not a new design for me but I tweaked it a bit, as I was very short of time. For a start I usually die cut the letters for the greeting but decided instead to print it. The font I used is Hot Coffee I think, which is very similar to a Quickutz alphabet called Moxie. And then instead of adding quilled stems and leaves I cheated by using a punch - the leaves from the Stampin Up bird punch. The fringed flowers were made using a fringed quarter length strip of 6mm paper attached to a quarter length of contrasting 3mm. I always try to use 6mm rather than the more usual 5mm - JJ Quilling will cut papers in any width you need so its not a problem.

Hope you like the card. Will be back soon with another.

Jill

Something different

Hi everyone,

Hope you've had a happy weekend. Not the best weather here in Surrey, but that's just a good excuse for staying in and making cards!

Today I want to show some cards that are a little different from my usual style. I was inspired by a card I saw online somewhere - apologies for not being able to give credit, but I spend far too many hours every day surfing blogs and can't find the original source. Anyway, I have changed the design enough to make it mine.

I have a whole raft of birthdays of friends and relations in June and July so mass produced these cards to be ready and organised.

These colour combinations just make me sooooo happy!! A far cry from my usual colour palette of muted pastels, but I really love them. Which is your favourite?

I used a Sizzix embossing folder on the black card and the daisies are cut from a Sizzix die which I've had ages but not used much. There is a similar one (if not the same) in the current Stampin Up catalogue. Each daisy has a quilled fringed flower as a centre. The message banners on the pink and yellow cards are again from stash I've had ages - from Craftwork cards. I didn't have a turquoise one, so made it from a scrap of card and a peel off.

Hope you like them. Also hope none of my friends with birthdays coming up are reading this! Haha!

Jill x

Special order quilled card

Evening everyone,

Hope you've all had a great weekend. I can't believe how quickly it goes - it's now 7.30 on Sunday and I still have a heap of things to get done. Mind you, I spent all day Friday at a Health Spa with a very good friend, relaxing and generally doing very little and by the evening I was exhausted!! So I think the lesson to be learned is just to keep going!

Today's card that I'm going to show you was another special request from one of my lovely customers. She lives in Australia and wanted a special card to send to a relation in England.

It was her idea to outline a map of Australia with quilled daisies, in gold and green (appropriate Australian colours!).

I was a bit concerned about how this was going to turn out but the customer was delighted with the photos I sent through - hope she likes it as much in real life!

Today I've been busy coming up with new designs for Christening cards - not totally happy with any of them yet but I'll post them on here next time so you can see what you think.

Right, better go and sort out the teenagers in the family - we are living in a state of heightened tensions at the moment as one is taking A-levels, one doing GCSEs and the other revising for mock GCSEs. What joy!!

Jill

Quilled 60th birthday card

Hello everyone,

Hope you're all managing to stay warm if you're in the UK in this unseasonably cold weather (for May!).

I'm back as promised to show you a card I made recently for a friend.

Well, that's it for me today - short and sweet!

Jill

Quilled 90th birthday card

Hi everyone,

I seem to have had a lot of requests recently for 90th and 100th birthday cards - seems like more and more people are living to see these ages nowadays. This is a card I made a while ago but haven't got around to photographing it until today.

The quilled flowers are mounted on an oval cut with a Nestabilities die and likewise the scallop mat. The message is punched out with a Stampin Up punch called Elegant Label, I think. Add a bit of chalking around the edge of the label, a piece of ribbon to mount it on and TA DA!!



Just off to list it in my Etsy shop. I have to admit my Folksy shop has been sadly neglected recently - I have had so many sales from Etsy that I've had very little time to maintain the other shop. However, I am wondering if the strong sales to the USA will continue after the huge hike in postage costs here in the UK this week. It now costs £3.30 to ship a card to the USA, Canada, Australia etc. Add the cost of a padded envelope etc and I really need to charge £3.50 for shipping!! At the moment I've increased it to £2.95 and I'll absorb the excess myself, but eventaulally I'll have to put them up.

Just before I sign off, I'd like to send birthday wishes for Friday to my crafting friend Lesley, who sometimes reads this blog I think. It's a very special birthday for her this year! I'll show you the card I made her next week.

Bye for now,

Jill

Quilled birthday card for men

Good evening everyone,

Another very late post from me. I do have good excuses though. Firstly, I've been putting the final touches to the assignment I've been working on so that's it's now ready to print and hand in. Hurray! I really feel as though I will now get my life back. Secondly, my youngest daughter borrowed my camera today and I've only just got it back - the photos I want to show you tonight were on the memory card in the camera!

The card I'm sharing tonight is a rare one for me - a card that's suitable for men. Like a lot of crafters, I really struggle with designs for male cards, especially if I want to make it a quilled card. The idea for this one came from one of my very good customers. She asked if I had any cards suitable for a man and said if not could I do one of my bunting cards in more appropriate colours for a man. Well, here's the result:

The original idea for the quilled bunting once again came from my very reliable source of inspiration, Diane Boden Crane. I did a workshop with Diane this weekend and again came away with lots of ideas for very special cards. I made a lovely card for my mum for Mother's Day which I'll share week.

I have this bunting card for sale in my shops but in much more fun girly colours, although you can request any colour scheme you would like.  I made a card like this for my youngest daughter's 14th birthday and she loved it - bunting is so "on trend" at the moment.

Hope you like it! See you next week,

Jill