Wondrous Wednesday Thinking of You

Happy Wondrous Wednesday!

Hope you are having a wonderful day! Our "W" word of the day is:

walleteer meaning one who carries a wallet  

I know, how did I miss that one for FATHER's DAY?!?!?

I guess it wasn't meant to be :-)

better late than never!

Do you love to use the photos that you take and add them to your cards? I know that I do.  Sometimes you capture that moment that is just perfect (or at least in your own mind anyway - lol)... This is one of those cards... This is a picture that goes back several years, my dad, son, and I were going for a walk and he kept trying to grab the flowers that I was trying to photograph... I happened to catch this picture and just loved it (ok, it is probably because every time I see it I think of that day and just being able to spend some time with my dad and my son - he will never be that young again and those moments are so fleeting)

I have made this card many times and have also used different sentiments, unfortunately I don't always take pictures of my creations and this was the only one I could find (you see, I don't have my pictures organized and cross linked by subject - only by date - lol)

This is a very simple card (yeah, I know... just forget for a moment the background I actually used, and use the photos as a reference only)

• Print the photo to a full 4x6
• Crop it so that the hand is the focal point
• Mat and mount on the card
• I then took one of the scraps from the cropping and used that on the card where I then attached the sentiment
• In this case it was "Thinking Of You"

As I said, I've used it for Sympathy, Get Well, and Thank You cards as well.

Why not give this a try?  If you would like to use the photo I have used, let me know and I will update this post with a link to the pic :-)

Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

Filigree Friday Free Quilled Dress

Time for another Fabulous Filigree Friday! 
Update:  I've linked to Top Tip Tuesday, and my T's are Twirled Paper, Two arms, and Two legs - TOO Fun!

This little girl is crafted in the school colors from my niece's school.

Bodice:

• 1 - 6 inch (15.2 cm) White plus 6 inch (15.2 cm) Navy Blue coil them together and make a Coil Heart shape
• 1 - 6 inch (15.2 cm) Flattened V-Scroll
• Tip: I love using a heart as the bodice of my dresses, I started doing this many years ago and adding the V-scroll as the sleeves also helps finish the neckline.  I refer to it as flattened because it will only follow the shape of your heart.  The deeper the top "V" of your heart, the deeper the v-scroll.
• See the photos

Skirt:

• 2 - White 6 inch (15.2 cm) Marquise
• 1 - Navy Blue 6 inch (15.2 cm) Marquise
• I made both of these very loose so that they would be longer
• Glue at tip, place Blue in the center
• I then created a top layer for dimension to the skirt
• 2 - 4 inch (10.2 cm) Marquise
• Take a piece of they Navy Blue quilling paper and go around the white
• Glue these on top of the larger Marquise made previously

• Face: a 4 inch (10.2 cm) Loose Coil in White
• Arms/Hands: 2 - 2 inch (5.1 cm) strip, coil only one end 3 - 4 times to make the hands
• Legs/Feet: 2 - 2 inch (5.1 cm)  strip, attach a small Navy Blue coil for her shoes :-can use )
• Use Photo for placement

This is similar to my "Flower Power Girl" these are a lot of fun to make and perfect for a little girl, young woman, mom, sister, best friend. The possibilities are endless as are the color combinations and styles.

UPDATE:  WINNER Announced... Giveaway closed - check out who won!!







Please check out my sidebar for the Link Parties that I link up to! :-)

Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

Wondrous Wednesday Patriotic Printable

Welcome back!  I know, it used to be called Wacky Wednesday, but I kept thinking I should change it, so here we are with Wondrous Wednesday!  My inspiration was the word I selected last week... speaking of which, let's see what our "w" word of the week is....

wahoo 

A North American burning bush or A large predatory tropical marine fish

(go figure, I was thinking along the lines of celebratory)

I hope you are having a great day! The weather is threatening to storm outside.  I wish it would, but only if it will take the oppressive humidity with it. You know one of those days where you can feel the humidity grab your lungs when you walk out the door? lol!

Today I have a fun printable for you.  The picture is one that I took of our flag that hangs outside our home.  As you can see, I took the picture at night.  I did some playing with the picture, I am no expert by any means, but I wanted the night sky to be darker.  Then I took the photograph and added the words to the "Pledge of Allegiance" the original version :-)  With the 4th of July around the corner, I wanted to share something patriotic with you.

I am happy to share my tutorials and freebies / printables with you, I only ask that you do the following:

• Please leave a comment if you download one of my freebies / printables, I would love to hear from you
• If you enjoy the things I share with you, please become a follower so that you will see all the new stuff when it is posted (no pressure, join only if you want)
• Please do not share any of my digital images, printables, or tutorials directly with others, but please do send them on over to me so that they can peruse and collect the images themselves.
• I would be thrilled and honored if you would send me links to any images or posts that you've done using something that I have shared with you.  If you say it is ok, I will even feature your work here!
• If you want to recolor an images, feel free! 
• If you have a special request, please let me know and I will see what I can do.
• Most importantly - HAVE FUN!!

UPDATE:  WINNER Announced... Giveaway closed - check out who won!!







Updated - I've linked to:
Please check out my sidebar links to see the places I link up to!
Marvelously Messy Link Party - http://marvelouslymessy.blogspot.com/
The Answer is Chocolate - BFF Link Party - http://answerischocolate.blogspot.com/2011/06/bff-link-party-8-and-this-weeks-bff.html
Whipperberry's Friday Flair - http://www.whipperberry.com/

Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

Filigree Friday Summer Flowers Tutorial

Fabulous Filigree Friday! 

UPDATE:  WINNER Announced... Giveaway closed - check out who won!!

It is raining here today, hopefully these will add a splash of color to brighten your day!

These are very simple daisies... If you have ever done quilling you have made a few daisies... If you have never tried quilling, this is your chance... They are super easy and sturdy!

In keeping with my bright, upbeat feel, I have pinks, greens, yellows, and blues... for that added "pop" everything is on a black background.

I don't go far without some sparkle and bling, so the centers are rhinestones and there is just a light covering of paper glaze (next time I will add more - it gives the quilling that glass-like look)

As I said, this is really easy, each of the flowers is the same pattern:

• 5 - 6 inch (15.24 cm) Teardrops
• Place all teardrops with the points touching in the center and glue
• lightly coat with Alene's Paper Glaze, let dry
• Top it off with a rhinestone in the center

For the paper squares I added what you can think of as marker stiching... the "stitching" is a pattern of "dot dash dot dash dot" (. _ . _ . _ . _) with my marker - because you see, I cannot sew, this is about as close I get really... it is fun and I thin adds a finishing touch to the card.

All of these photos use the same type of flowers and squares, they are only different in their composition.

P.S. I hope this posts, I used the schedule feature :-)

Update, I've linked to:
Make it Monday (link on my sidebar) 

Enjoy!

Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

My BloGIVErsary!!!

UPDATE:  Thank you for your participation! This giveaway is now closed!
Hello there everyone and welcome to a new Wacky Wednesday! Today will be a little different... This is my 5 year BloGIVErsary and as a thank you I am offering this blog candy to one lucky winner!  So, without further ado, our word this week is:

wondrous  - meaning to be marveled at 

(corny, I know)

Let's take a step back in time to 5 years ago... This birdhouse was the first picture I ever posted, it is also one of my favorite quilled pieces.  I made this house warming card for friends of ours.  They had just moved back into the area after having lived in Florida for a few years, after having moved to many different local towns.  As you spin the spinner all of the places (towns and states) that they had lived would be displayed.  For the picture I left it on the smiley face!  I look at it and have to chuckle a little as I apparently put a collection of just about every flower imaginable on the front of the card - lol.  The little blue bird hanging out on the brad is a cutey!  Sigh... memories! Which reminds me, I need to make some more of these cards, I remember how much fun they were to make, and you know my affinity to birdhouses... :-)

The candy is made up of a variety of paper crafting items - the book Twirled Paper which comes with a slotted quilling tool and quilling strips! A Fiskars corner punch, Stampendous alphabet stamps, a 4x6 stack of colored vellum, pretty skeleton leaves, and a few more items that I will add in. I thought it would be nice to share the comment wealth to be entered for a chance to win.  The first place I saw this done was over at Becca's Amazing Paper Grace, what you do is go to one of my older posts and pick a comment and leave a message on the blog of the person who commented - make sure you tell them that "Antonella Quilling Art and Expression sent you".  Then come back here and let me know who you commented on.  I know that messages make my day, so this is a sweet way to share.

So, to win the candy you can do the following:

1. Find a comment from one of my earlier posts, and leave a comment on the commenter's blog and tell them that "Antonella from Quilling Art and Expression sent you".  Then come back to this post and leave me a comment to let me know who you commented on.  This is referred to as Sharing the Comment Wealth!
2. Optionally, you can get another chance by leaving me a separate comment telling me that you blogged about this giveaway and have sent your readers a link back to this post.  Grab the badge at the bottom of this post and let me know where you blogged or otherwise posted about this giveaway!
3. Optionally, you can get another chance by leaving a separate comment if you are already a follower, or enjoy what you see here and become a new follower, leave another comment letting me know you are a follower.

That's it, you can enter up to 3 chances to win this candy.  Since this is my first blog-candy giveaway, I will probably add more goodies, because this is way too fun... so stay tuned :-)

I will be selecting one winner on Friday, July 1st using random.org and will announce the winner on this blog!

Good Luck everyone and have a Wondrous Day!

<center><a target="_blank" href="http://quilling.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-blogiversary.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQWgIzl3lWM4zzMnPesZwIH-qXvdx4wdEGDiU6LLRfiFq_5N-pmqhTStgds3Bbunk78yl-6fNWEGpn1DvAGNn_MIlhYEErKWFeBAGOxqtHTAa7SVEH0lHlsM4sdgl7pqiaUvpZ/s1600/Antonella-BlogGIVErsary-July1-Badge.jpg" height=150 width=150 /></a></center>

Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

Simply Sunday

I can't believe it is Sunday already... how quickly the weekend passes :-)

I wanted to share this cute picture for the following  Shadow Shot Sunday and Camera Critters .  Isn't he a sweetie?  He looks like he wants to say something doesn't he?  My blog-friend Ann would know exactly what he wants to say :-)


I hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend!


Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

Free Fathers Day Digital Images

As promised!!!! More Free Father's Day Badges... A rainbow of colors you might say.... :-)
Here is a link to my previous post with the Quilled Sailboat Tutorial for Father's Day

I am happy to share my tutorials and freebies / printables with you, I only ask that you do the following:

• Please leave a comment if you download one of my freebies / printables, I would love to hear from you
• If you enjoy the things I share with you, please become a follower so that you will see all the new stuff when it is posted (no pressure, join only if you want)
• Please do not share any of my digital images, printables, or tutorials directly with others, but please do send them on over to me so that they can peruse and collect the images themselves.
• I would be thrilled and honored if you would send me links to any images or posts that you've done using something that I have shared with you.  If you say it is ok, I will even feature your work here!
• If you want to recolor the images, feel free! If you have a special request, please let me know and I will see what I can do.

Ok, just as I promised.... this is the Father's Day badge I posted (on my "Friday" post - lol).  I simply took the same image and re-colored it to get the various colors.  For those of you who are not comfortable working with digital images, click here to get the PDF printable that you are welcome to use as well!


Remember... I used it here on my Father's Day project last year (see the picture above). I think you can find lots of ways to use this badge for that special guy.  The outside of the badge has the saying below (author unknown):

* Our family is a circle of strength and love * With every birth and every union, the circle grows * Every joy shared adds more love * Every crisis together makes the circle stronger *

Click on the image and it will open up in a new window, then right-click the image and save to your hard drive. 

Blue Father's Day Badge

Green Father's Day Badge

Purple Father's Day Badge

Red Father's Day Badge

Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

Filigree Friday Free Father's Day Badges

Fabulous Filigree Friday! 

As you can see, I have been thinking about Father's Day! It is about a week away, so I had better get moving... In the process of trying to figure out what to do this year, I started looking back at other things I've done because let's face it those masculine cards are tough!!

I happened across this Thank You card I did for someone at work who was into sailing and thought that sailboats definitely fall into that masculine category (you know, like ties, shirts, anchors, golf - c'mon, fess up, we've all done them - lol).

The picture on this card is one that I took.  Are you drawn to the water? So am I, so when these sailboats happened by I couldn't resist.   I made this card and the magnet below a few years ago, and as I look at it now I realize I should have cropped the photo so that the sailboats are less centered and more to the right.  Well, I know that I am going to use this picture again, so I uploaded the photo and cropped it before I sent it to print - I'll let you know how it turned out!

This sailboat uses very basic quilled shapes:

• 1 strip of white quilling paper, make a D-shape.  How you might ask? Start with a Teardrop and then pinch the opposite end which will cause the center to bulge - wala - a D-shape
• Half strip of white quilling paper, make a smaller D-shape
• The boat shape is also a D-shape
• For the mast take a strip of quilling paper and make a spiral shape
• Can't forget the little flag at the top - take a 6 inch strip and make a Triangle shape (take your D-shape and pinch the other side)
• I decided some birds would look perfect and created a few simple flying V's (you know, like we used to draw in school - well, I actually still draw them)

Arrange as shown



I also am including a picture of a magnet I made using the same image - I had made them to give to co-workers as part of a thank you for work on a difficult project.  You can see that I used the same colors as above, and it was basically the same, but I modified the Larger sail and it is a triangle shape.

I hope you like this project.

Free Father's Day Badge... read on and find it at the bottom of this post, first....

I am happy to share my tutorials and freebies / printables with you, I only ask that you do the following:

• Please leave a comment if you download one of my freebies / printables, I would love to hear from you
• If you enjoy the things I share with you, please become a follower so that you will see all the new stuff when it is posted (no pressure, join only if you want)
• Please do not share any of my digital images, printables, or tutorials directly with others, but please do send them on over to me so that they can peruse and collect the images themselves.
• I would be thrilled and honored if you would send me links to any images or posts that you've done using something that I have shared with you.  If you say it is ok, I will even feature your work here!
• If you want to recolor the images, feel free! If you have a special request, please let me know and I will see what I can do.

 Without further ado... Here is a Father's Day Badge that I created.... you may recognize it from my Father's Day project last year.  We have this in our family room and I still love it - of course, it has pictures of the kids, so how couldn't I? Yeah, what a sap :-)

Update: I had some technical difficulties and then there was a terrible thunder storm and a little one interrupted so this post got in a little late - so, let's just pretend it is still Friday.... Ok, to make up for the fact that I posted way late I will be creating a second post with these badges in several colors - click here to grab the other badges.

Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

Wacky Wednesday Spirit ATC Tutorial

Welcome to Wacky Wednesday and a quilled ATC tutorial!

Ok, I have to admit, as corny as it sounds, I am having fun finding odd and interesting words that start with "W" our word today is:

wadmal  -  meaning thick coarse wool

ok, not very useful, but still fun - lol

Boy, am I grateful that there are 24 hours in a day because I need every minute to get some of my posts in...

Today I wanted to share with you my absolute favorite ATC of all time! Last week I posted instructions for my Quilled Sun ATC on an acrylic background and today it is "SPIRIT" this is an ATC I made as part of a SWAP.  I just love the black and white simplicity and I hope you do too!

I started with a white cardstock and printed the words directly onto the full sheet - I played around with placement a bit until I found a font and layout that I liked.  I selected the words:

Spirit

Inspiration

Dream

Once I printed the words onto the cardstock, I cut the cards to ATC size 2.5 in x 3.5 in (6.4 cm x 8.9 cm)

For the horse silhouette, I did a google search (and guess what, I found a site that has the image:  http://karenswhimsy.com/horse-silhouette.shtm)

• I printed the silhouette on white printer paper using an inkjet printer and cut it out
• I decoupaged the horse onto the ATC
• This is where a happy thing happened - the black ink ran a little and created the neatest background effect
• I added a few glue layers to get a nice shiny look
• You have to let the glue dry completely before you can add the quilling (if it starts to curl, place it under a heavy object)

For the quilled elements:

• 8 - 6 in (15.2 cm) Fringed Strips White 1/8 in (  cm) wide paper
• Create 8 fringed flowers by rolling the paper into a tight roll and then gently pressing on the fringes to make the flowers as shown.
• 10 - 4 in (10.2  cm) White Teardrops for flower petals
• Arrange 5 teardrops, glued at the tip (pointed end) to make flower
• You will make 2 of these
• Add a Crystal in the center for added sparkle

Arrange the flowers as shown

I have so many ideas floating around my head about how I might re-do this ATC... Maybe creating an outline of a horse instead of using a silhouette image - perhaps creating a flowing mane and tale instead of the fringed flowers... so many possibilities :-)

Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

Simply Sunday

Ahhh, the heat and humidity is gone for a few days and it has cooled down :-) we have had some perfect days for being outside.  I hope you too are enjoying some nice weather!

This week my Shadow Shot Sunday and Skywatch Friday pictures are the same.  This is one of those lucky shots that turned out almost as nice in a picture as it was in person.  :-)

I decided to add a frame so that the sunset looks more finished.  I like the frame, how about you?

I know you have some nice pictures that would be perfect - I hope you join us!

Hugs!

Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

Filigree Friday Free Graduation Printable

Phew!!! Got this in under the wire... it is still another  

Fabulous Filigree Friday!!

We have so many Graduations this year, so I have been working on a card for all the graduates, psst, if you happen to be one of those who may receive one, just pretend you didn't see it when I give it to you :-) .... So I looked around and got some ideas and believe it or not, when I started trying to plan the card I was thinking I would do something with an owl... As you can see, I went completely off the reservation on this one... LOL!!

I really love easel cards and I gravitated to that design as I started to think of a way to give something that could be more than a card if desired.  My thinking is that the recipient (or in reality their mom) could take a picture of the Grad and add it to the front of the card and then you have a photo display!

For the easel base, I took a 12" x 6" piece of cardstock - make sure it is something thick.  I then scored it at 6" and 9"

For the front, I cut a black 6" x 6" square and punched the corners with a Martha Stewart Double Loop corner punch that my WONDERFUL! FABULOUS! Friend from work LUCY let me borrow!!! I must digress for just a moment... Lucy is a wonderful person who loves to craft, it is so wonderful to be able to have someone I can talk crafty stuff with and we were talking about punches and she brought in her punched samples and let me borrow a few of her punches! Isn't she GREAT?

When trying to decide what to do with the front of the easel I just started throwing words into PowerPoint and somehow ended up with what you see here.  You are more than welcome to print it out and use it on your project too.  I used black for the "Congrats Grad" and "2011" and there are a few pages with some color variations on the remaining words.

As you can see, I cut out by hand a graduation cap and added a quilled tassel to the front.  I used some of my special gold edged red paper just for that little extra shine and also used crystal glaze and some glitter on the cap (I do so love the bling!!)

The tricky part for me with these easel cards is keeping them standing - lol! So I added a strip of decorative cardstock (also punched with the MS Double Loops border punch).  It is hard to see, but I used dimensional tape so that the easel would slide up to it and stay there.  For a little extra support, I took a piece of scrap white printer paper and rolled a diploma which I tied with a thin red ribbon.  It is hard to see in this picture, but the diploma is also painted with crystal glaze so it is also nice and shiny.

I hope you have a Fantastic Weekend!

Updated 6/7 to join these link parties:

The Answer is Chocolate BFF #5:  http://answerischocolate.blogspot.com/2011/06/bff-link-party-5.html
i heart naptime - Sundae Scoop Link Party #2: http://www.iheartnaptime.net/2011/06/sundae-scoop-link-to-party-2.html
Yesterday on Tuesday - Crafty Soiree #40:  http://www.iheartnaptime.net/2011/06/sundae-scoop-link-to-party-2.html




Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

Wacky Wednesday Quilled Sun ATC Tutorial

Welcome to another Wacky Wednesday and an ATC Tutorial!

First, our interesting "W" word of the day:
     wakerife - means wakeful, indisposed to sleep
This is me lately... which is why I am up at 3 am writing this post instead of sleeping in until 4 am when I have to get up to start my day - lol

I am very happy today, our baseball team won their first playoff game!!! It was a nail biter down to the end.  I think the thing that made me so proud was the fact that after the game my son felt bad for the other boys because they were so sad that they lost.  I love the fact that he has a kind heart.  So in honor of all the hard work and the fact that he will be walking 10 feet tall today, I chose a SUNNY ATC for today's project.

For those of you wondering, ATCs are Artist Trading Cards.  They are basically miniature pieces of art that you share / trade.  If you want to learn a little more, click this link.

I started with your basic 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inch (ATC size) paper.  For this project I cut acrylic paint paper from a pad down to size since I knew I was going to paint it.

I then took different shades of yellow and orange and painted the background.  I started with the lightest shade of yellow across the entire background.  It is hard to see, but that is a very pale yellow not white in the background.  Then I took my brightest yellow and liberally applied it to most of the canvas using a dry brush so you can see the brush marks.  Finally I took a more orange color and applied it in a circular pattern in the center.

• For the quilled sun, I took a strip of Yellow and Orange quilling paper
• I started with the yellow and turned it about 8 times and then I looped in the orange
• I did not glue them together, I simply rolled both colors so that you could see both
• When I added the orange, I added it to the inside so that when I ended the Yellow was on the outside
• When I got to the end I cut the orange to the length of the yellow
• I created a loose coil shape so I let it open up and then glued both ends down
• I then took various lengths of Yellow and quilled spiral shapes
• I then arranged the spirals around the sun for the rays of sunshine

And that is it! A very simple and fun card to share with your friends and family.  This pattern is simple enough that you can make them with your kids.

Have a Great Day!! I'd love to see any ATCs you have made!

Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco