Fabulous Filigree Quilled Blue Bird Ornament

Hello and Welcome!

I have a new addiction passion... I am in love with my new cutting dies... I now have a small collection of Spellbinders Nestabilities dies and these incredibly detailed Memory Box dies....

I have to share what I have done with them over the holidays... I made these super cute ornaments! It is always a bonus when the fun products you have purchased actually make your handmade gifts even more beautiful and special.

So my plan is to share some of the ornaments that I have made and also embark on my 2012 calendar project, so each month I will show you a new calendar page, I can see where this is taking me already, I cannot decide which images, so I may have more than one calendar - at least this is something useful that I can force my friends to take give to friends! lol

It is a new year, so I have lots of ideas and energy... now if I could just win the lottery so I could do all of them :-)

These dies are so much fun to use! I am really having fun cutting them out of different paper and seeing how they look, what I like best.... Oh, the possibilities - now only if I could get my imagination to catch up to those possibilities!

For this lovely Blue Bird Ornament I used the Nestabilities Lacy Ovals  -I picked those specifically because I knew I was going to make ornaments and I wanted to be able to have something so they would hang nicely, and this lovely die did the trick! I also absolutely had to use some of my new Memory Box dies, and this lovely Frosty Border is what I chose.

Well, maybe I should take a step back and tell you how the process works... You see the ornaments are for my son's teachers, so on those years that I think I will be able to make handcrafted ornaments he gets to decide what his teachers get... So, his music teacher needed an ornament with birds and music notes... So with that information in mind, I get to pull my hair out figure out how and what exactly to make... This year he was very specific that they had to be blue birds :-)

Ok, so now that I have birds and music notes, I really did need something for them to be resting on, and did I tell you I absolutely love my Memory Box dies? So you see I had to find a way to include them, I really did! And this lovely "Frosty Border" die arrived and the idea was born.

Now, for my blue lovelies, I could have chosen quilling strips that were blue, but as I was placing my order for Christmas colored quilling strips, I happened upon this lovely paper called "Touch of Blue Gilded on Edge" and I thought, now that will make a statement!  Isn't it pretty? The base paper is white, and on the top edge is this beautiful shimmery blue!

To make the birds I followed the same process, I just used a little bit more paper for the larger bird!

• I started with the tail feathers - I really did, and you'll find out why in a sec... So, for the tail feathers...
• 2 - 2 inch (5 cm) strips of paper, fold them in half, and curl the ends.  
• Now, I rolled the teardrop for the body of the bird
• 1 full strip of my Touch of Blue quilling paper, rolled and shaped into a Teardrop
• Don't glue it just yet... but hold on tight to the pinched end, because this is where the tail feathers go :-)
• Where you would normally glue your teardrop, you will take those tail feathers and glue them to the bird before you glue that outside strip to hold everything in place.  
• Squeeze tightly to get a nice set of tail feathers

Beak, Feet, and Wing

• For these remaining pieces, I took small scrap pieces and added them to the cuties
• I can't give measurements, because I literally cut small pieces (and didn't measure, just figured what I thought would be proportional)
• A small piece cut and bent for the beak and glued to the nice rounded end of the teardrop
• A small piece bent in half, and then bent again for their feet
• Finally 2 small pieces bent and rolled for the "wing"

I am entering this in the Sentimental Sundays "Snow, Blue, and/or Glitter" and my project has all 3 Yeah :-)

Make It Monday - Anything Goes!

I used the following products on this ornament:

Spellbinders Nestabilities Lacy Ovals and Classic Ovals




Memory Box Frosty Border from Ellen Hutson

Quilling Paper from Whimsiquills (thanks Pat)

Enjoy the ride!! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

Auld Lang Syne - Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve is one of those love-it-or-hate-it holidays.  But no matter how you feel about celebrating, odds are you're going to hear "Auld Lang Syne" at least 500 times. There is really no escaping it... but the question is do you know the words to this song? Do you make them up? Probably.  Don't worry, you aren't alone - lol.

I admit it, I don't know the words either, so I naturally turned to google and did a web search... and I found some really fun articles and information about this song that I wanted to share with you :-)  So, before you head on out for the evening and are required to sing the song that "no-one really knows," you should be armed with this "fun, but relatively useless" information....

According to the good people at TLC, the song is an "extremely old Scottish song that was first written down in the 1700s." The poet Robert Burns often gets credit for the words.  Or at least some of them.

Apparently I am not alone, and people often hum or belt out their own lyrics, an article published recently says that "74% of people make up the words" (click here for article).

A site dedicated to the poet Robert Burns explains, "In spite of the popularity of 'Auld Lang Syne,' it has aptly been described as 'the song that nobody knows.' As for the the music, it's more of a traditional folk song."

So, what do the words actually mean? Basically, the words "auld lang syne" roughly translates into "times gone by," "for days past," "days gone by," "for the sake of old times," you get the drift... appears that everyone has a derivation of these....

But no matter what the literal translation is, the sentiment is the same. It's a song that aims to honor the good old days on a night that's all about remembering the past while ringing in the new.  So this year when you sing the song, try not to cry as you look forward to a new beginning that will hopefully be everything you imagined.

So, I've done my research and searched and searched, so let incorrect lyrics be forgot... print these and take them with you (pass them around for your friends too) and now you will be able to sing all the words this year (even if you can't pronounce all of them)

If you have trouble reading the lyrics, you can click on the image below and it will open up larger in a new window (and will be easier to print)

Happy New Year!

Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

Happy New Year - Good Bye 2011, Hello 2012!!!

WOW!!! Can you believe that today is the last day of 2011? I know it is true, but am aware of all that has happened this year and hoping that 2012 will be a fantastic year!

I thought it would be fitting to take a look at some of my favorite projects from 2011...

A Year in Review if you will... It was difficult to settle on just these ten, but I had to put some parameters around what I would share, or I would still be writing this - lol.  I have linked each picture to the original post that will show the technique, digi, printable, and/or tutorial.

I have included some quilled items... yeah, well, most of them are quilled projects... what can I say? I love to look at the quilling.  It actually makes me realize that I haven't done as much quilling as I would have liked, but something that hopefully I can make up for in 2012 :-)

I've also included some of the printables from the year, I am working on my tabs across the top to make things like the printables easier to find... look for some blog updates in 2012 :-)

And then I had to share the winter snowstorm before Halloween - I am still cold remembering that one!

I hope that each of you has a SAFE and HAPPY New Year!!!

	Ahh, my Blue Quilled Snowman. I absolutely love his scrolls, and the open quilling! Don't you?		Birthday Cake Card. I had lots of fun making this card and trying a new technique too!  I even got to play with a cuttlebug, neat.
	Spirit ATC This is my all time favorite ATC, probably because I love horses.		Christmas Angel Who can resist this sweet little angel ornament?
	A Hug Card This is one of my favorite style of cards... and works so well with those gift cards.		Our Halloween snowfall and a week with no power - Brrrrr...
	Father's Day printable I had lots of fun with making printables this year.		Folk Art Bird I love folk art and this was inspired by that tradition.
	A Cross Ornament I find that I make a lot of spreuer designs, and this is no different!		Flag printable Thought this was a nice way to end my year in review with a patriotic printable!

May 2012 bring you lots of inspiration and joy!

Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco

Filigree Friday Cross Ornament

Happy Filigree Friday Everyone!!

I hope that you are enjoying your day! It is too early to know for certain, but I am hopeful today will be nice and sunny (a bit on the colder side, but the sun will definitely go a long way to making it a beautiful day!)

Wow! The holidays are here!!! I cannot believe it, last week was Thanksgiving (for those of you who live in the states) and ourselves with lots of food and goodies... I personally love the goodies - lol!  And now we are almost a week into Advent! Christmas is just around the corner for us!!

I am way, way, way behind in my Christmas ornaments... I am definitely starting to feel worried, because every time I think that I have set aside time to work on them something comes up!! I actually took off yesterday and today (now I didn't have the whole day planned to work on them, but you would think I would have found at least an hour yesterday - nope, didn't happen!) Between running to do something in the morning with my stepdaughter (that was supposed to be 3 hours and ended up being 5 hours - travel time included) and then regular afters school stuff and dinner and yeah, let's not forget the long phone conversation with a friend who moved to Florida, I kinda didn't get anything done... but today will be different... Positive Thinking!!!  and for extra motivation, my friend Lucy will continue to provide the necessary positive reinforcement as she continues to design her awesome Christmas cards this year!!

So, because I have been so bad, I decided I'd share an ornament I made a few years ago.  This is a cross ornament with a sweet dove in the center, the ornament is hanging from an easel card so it could be easily removed or the card itself could be where the ornament was displayed.

Here are some links to similar projects that have more details about the techniques used, if you want specific instructions for this cross, please let me know and I will post them....
Easel Cards and Spreuer Crosses (click on the pictures to go to those posts)

Easel Card - Graduation

Easel Card - Snowman

Quilled Spreuer Cross - Christmas

Spreuer Cross - Communion

Have a wonderful day and may it be super productive!!!

Hey, I've linked up to this wonderful 26 Day Christmas Craft Marathon Linky Party - http://lisascraftblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/christmas-craft-marathon-linky-party.html

and The Winter Holiday Craft Party - http://www.craftsunleashed.com/index.php/seasonal/holidays/winter-holiday-linky-party/  

Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco