Open Quilling Heart

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to post a quick picture of the final heart that was shipped off to Ramona.  Since the theme colors were red, white, and blue I stayed true to the colors when mounting the heart. 

The back sheet is red, a Martha Stewart punch created the border and a white ink pad was run along the sides.

What I loved about her post was the poem she included by Alexander Pushkin in 1825.  The poem is quite beautiful and I wanted to share it here with you as well (thanks Ramona). Apparently there are two English translations of the poem available - this version was translated by M. Kneller.

If By Life You Were Deceived...
by Alexander Pushkin (1825)

If by life you were deceived,
Don't be dismal, don't be wild!
In the day of grief, be mild
Merry days will come, believe.

Heart is living in tomorrow;
Present is dejected here;
In a moment, passes sorrow;
That which passes will be dear.

Enjoy!
Antonella :-)

Giveaway Winner!!

I am so happy to tell you that Ramona from the Paper Princess is the winner of my giveaway.

I have left her a note and will make arrangements to get her heart to her as soon as I can.  Hop on over to visit her blog for a while, she has some great recipes... I may have to try her peanut butter cookie recipe (my hubby would love it!)

Thank you to everyone who participated, your comments and kind words fill my heart with joy!  Here is a wish that everyone will be able to have a life filled with balance.  I am personally struggling with this, but am trying my best.... off I run to try and get that balance by going to the movies with the family!  Hugs!

Enjoy!
Antonella

Happy 4th of July and a Giveaway!

I wanted to take this opportunity to say a special Thank You to all those serving in the armed forces.  I hope that you are well and may you come home safely.

In honor of those who serve, I am offering this little beauty to one you lucky folks who comment on this heart.

Some background on this piece... I am very intrigued by the work of Yulia Brodskaya and decided to play around a little.  I actually started with a birthday cake that I will share with you on another day, but I am going to share with you today my Red, White, and Blue Heart in honor of Independence Day!

Note that all these pictures are of the same heart... I simply placed it on different backgrounds :-)

I went old school with this project, I pulled out my heart stencils and cut 3 hearts in increasing sizes. You guessed it the hearts are red, white and blue (I know, sometimes that creativity is scary - lol)... I glued them together and then started to add my paper pieces.  I hesitate to call this quilling exactly, but it is definitely paper filigree work...

I hope that you enjoy this heart and this inspires you to try something new today too :-)

I would like to offer this quilled heart - on your choice of background - to someone who posts a comment on this post.  I will leave this giveaway open until the end of July.  I will announce the winner on July 31st.

For your chance to win, you can do one or all of the following for 3 chances to win:

1. Post a comment on this post and let me know what background you like the best
2. Become a Follower of this blog and post a comment - if you are already a follower, then post a comment and let me know you are already a follower.
3. Write a post on your blog about this giveaway and post a comment with the link to your post.

Remember, to win you must post a comment on this post, don't forget about your other chances to win too!
 
Enjoy!
Antonella DeFalco

Boy Birthday Card Pinwheel Tutorial

Here we go again, another pinwheel card for a Birthday Boy!

This card is all about the paper.  I cut a Top Fold card out of a dark blue paper:

• Cut a 4-1/2 x 12 in strip, and fold in half
• Final card size is 4-1/2 x 6

I then used various scrap pieces of paper, inked the edges and layered them onto the card for texture on the card.  All the papers contained some blue or green to coordinate.  For added interest, I stamped an image on some of the papers.

The pinwheel on this card is smaller than the one I made in the previous card.  I inked one side of the paper because I didn't want to leave it white.  The pinwheel instructions:

• 1 - 2 inch square
• Cut in toward the center, but do not cut all the way through (see picture below)
• This creates 4 triangle shapes
• I used 1/16 inch punch, and punched one corner of each triangle and the center of the pinwheel
• Pull the punched corner from each triangle in toward the center
• I attached a brad and as I pulled each side in I pushed the brad through the punch
• After all 4 were attached to the brad, I ran the brad through the center of the pinwheel to keep the wheels in place :-)

Banners and/or Flags - I created 5 of these:

• They are approximately 1 inch long, they were cut free hand
• I used my 1/16 inch punch to punch in the top 2 corners and then took thread from my sewing kit to connect them.
• I cheated a bit and added a touch of tape to the back to hold the thread and banners in place.
• I liked the effect, because the banners gave the card some movement which is always fun (hmmm, that reminds me of those slider cards I used to make... that will have to be another day)
• I attached the banners and then used pop dots to layer the papers holding the pinwheel above.

For the inside of this card, I used one the double sided papers.

This was relatively quick and easy to put together.

Enjoy!
Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco