Quilled anniversary card

Hello everyone,

My husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary earlier this month. I always find it hard to think of designs for cards for him - well, for any men really, but an anniversary is the hardest I think. In the end this is the card I made for him:

It was based on a very old design with a new twist on the colour. Seemed to suit the occasion.

I'm looking forward to this coming week as it is half term and I have the week off work. Hoping to get lots of quilling done alongside some of the inevitable jobs that I can't keep finding excuses for not doing - like cleaning the oven!

Jill

Another quilled sympathy card

Hi again,

Just popping in here quickly to show you the second sympathy card I designed last week. Although the quilling on this card is just as simple and minimal, somehow it seems far more "busy" - I think it's that embossed background.

Which sympathy card do you prefer?

I think this design would also be suitable for a wedding congratulations card - might have to try that when I get a minute.

Jill

Quilled sympathy card

Hello everyone,

This week I was asked to design a sympathy card for a customer - it's not something I get asked for frequently, but I was happy to oblige. The customer wanted something simple and elegant, but was happy to leave choice of colours to me. I opted for muted shades of white and cream.

I made another sample too so that the customer could choose the one she preferred - I'll show you that one next time. In the end she bought both!

Jill

Another quilled birth announcement

Hi everyone,

Yes, I know, two posts in a week - how unbelievable is that? I'm trying hard to catch up, as when I started this blog I was intending to post at least once a week, so I need to have 52 completed posts by the end of the year. As I've actually missed quite a few weeks I need to start posting more frequently.

As promised, here is another variation using the design from last time on a quilled birth announcement card:

This time it is on a bigger card - 6" x 8" with a little bit of further embellishment in the form of a quilled flower and leaf spray.

I bought these card blanks, with the embossed edge and frame, many years ago from a company in the UK called "Craft Creations" - I think I originally bought 500 and I'm now down to my last 50. Sadly, they have been discontinued so I won't be able to get any more (unless anyone out there knows a source). I'll be very sad when they are used up - they are the perfect base for a lot of my quilled designs. I still have lots of 6" x 4" cards left, just running low on 6" x 8". So if anyone has seen anything similar anywhere please let me know - I'd love to find a new supplier!

Well, that's all from me today - will try and be back soon.

Jill x

Quilled birth announcements

Hi everyone,

Oh my, where does the time go? Unbelievable that it's nearly a month since I last posted. Life just keeps on getting in the way. Since my last post, I've dispatched my oldest offspring to Uni in Brighton, celebrated the 17th birthday of the middle one and continued with the quest of the youngest to see just about all the musicals currently playing in London (she has aspirations to sing/be on stage).
In between all of that, I'm still holding down the day job as a specialist advisory teacher, meeting the orders from my Etsy and Folksy shops and trying to develop all the new ideas for quilled cards that are in my head.

This card has been in my shops for a while and has been a popular design for a new baby copngratulations card:

A few months ago a customer asked if I could personalise the front of this card with the name and date of birth of the baby. The original "It's a girl" message was made with an embossed rubber stamped image so I needed to work out how to print the name etc instead on computer. It took me a while to work out how to plan it to print in the right place (IT skills are not my strength!) but once I'd had a bit of a play it turned out like this:

I think maybe the text is a little higher than I'd like it but otherwise I'm quite pleased with it - just trying to find time to list it as a birth announcement card rather than a birth congratulations card in my shops. But even before I do that, another customer has this week ordered 60 personalised birth announcements in this design.

That's it for today, but I'll try to be back before too long with another variation on this card.

Jill

Quilled wedding cards

Hello again,

Today I thought I'd share with you another wedding card design.

This card design has become my number one bestseller and resulted from a request from a customer for a wedding congratulations in a "more sophisticated" colour scheme. Up to this point most of my wedding card designs had been variations of cream, white, gold and silver - just goes to show how you can get stuck in a rut! Once I'd made this one and it began to sell well, I decided to try it in other colourways:

This one was again for a customer, for a couple who were being married in the Carribean.

In pinks....

And autumnal shades.

Which one is your favourite? Are there any other colour combinations you think I should try?

Til next time,

Jill xx

I'm back!!

Hello everyone,

Well so much for me thinking that I'd be posting loads during the summer holidays. I'm so sorry for my delayed absence - I've been having a fantastic time doing all sorts of lovely things but as a result my card-making and quilling have taken a bit of a back seat.

However I'm back today to show you a card I made for my husband's niece and her new husband for their wedding yesterday. This is really just an update of a design I've been making for ages, but it was in need of a little something and this is what I came up with.

Sorry, the photo quality is not great. I took them very early in the morning so the light was all wrong.

For those of you who like to know, the heart was die cut from pearl cream card with an X-cut nesting heart die - the secong largest one. The scallop border is cut from the same card using Stampin' Up's Dotted Ribbon Scallop Punch, but I've cut it in half. And the font I've used for the greeting is "Hayseed" - currently one of my favourites!

And here is a photo of the recipients on their big day:

And one of me, my husband and two of our offspring (the youngest wasn't able to attend as she is away at a West End Theatre summer school):

That's it for today but I'll try to be back soon with another quilled card.

Jill xx