31.1.12

Quilled Box and Quilled Card

Quilled Recycled Box
Quilled Box 
Quilling is a paper-craft which can be as elaborate or as simple as you want-- the result is always rewarding!
This was the hideous looking notepad holder box I recycled .
Recycled Craft
I wrapped the box in some pearlised paper and added some punched leaves and quilling .
Quilled Box 
I always feel pearls can glamorize even mundane creations!I used 4 types of pearl beads on this quilled box.
Quilled Box 
Added some pink lace to augment the textures of the quilling box.
Quilled Box 
I especially like the way the top folds into place on a slot on the box.
Quilled Box 
Linking the Quilled Box to Craftycardmakers[beads]
The card is not a matching card to the quilled box but a simple quilled card I am entering for CAS at ICR. I find CAS a difficult concept indeed and salute all those ladies out there who churn up such beautiful CAS creations.
Quilled Card
Since many of my blogger pals have expressed an interest to learn quilling - sharing the link of my quilling guru Suganthi!Suganthi has the most awesome picture tutorials to learn quilling !If videos are your preferred learning media my blogger pal Pritesh has some awesome video tutorials on quilling
Do let me know how you liked these simple crafts.
Edited: My quilled box became top 5 at Crafty Cardmakers
 Top 5

22.1.12

Wishing Well Instructions -3 D Papercraft

Wishing Well
Wishing well
My dear blogger friend Jessica is celebrating her blogversary with a blog hop. Its the first hop I am part of and so pretty nervous about everything!!This 3D Papercraft wishing well is inspired by a fantastic wishing well Jessica had made for her sisters wedding .
I was undecided whether to leave the wishing well as it was or to make it into a flower-vase for punchcraft flowers.
Punchcraft Flowers
I used thick 3 D reflective paper and corrugated paper to make this wishing well 
Wishing well
How to make a  3 d Papercraft wishing well 
Make the cylindrical body of the wishing well :Score a thick sheet of paper as shown.[I used a scorpal which is my fav tool for 3 D papercrafts!]
 Snip off small triangles on this flap.Roll this strip of card and stick to make the  cylindrical body of the wishing well
Wishing Well 
Fold over the wedges of the flap as shown.Trace the outline on card and cut out the circle base for your wishing well.Stick the circle base to the cylindrical body using glue and sticky tape[using sticky tape helps save time]. 
Wishing Well 
Make pillars of your wishing well
3 D Papercraft Wishing Well 
Roll paper around a pencil [serves as a mold only] and stick with sticky tape or glue.You can then remove your pencil .Cut off excess length of your paper roll .Line with pretty paper and stick to the base of your wishing well.Similar paper rolls are used to make the central cross bar and handle of the wishing well 
Make the roof of your wishing well
Wishing Well 
Fold thick cardstock in half and lay over your wishing well as shown to decide how large you want the roof to be.
Make supports for the roof of your wishing well
The roof support is triangular in shape and the sloping sides measure an inch less than the roof slope.
Score 0.5inch down the card stock,turn 90 degrees and score again at 0.5 inch as shown. Mark equal distances[mine was 9.5cm] on the 2 scored lines and join to get the triangular support of the roof of your wishing well.
Wishing Well 
This is the diagrammatic representation of the triangular roof support of the wishing well.
Wishing well
Cut off excess card stock.Cut  0.5 inch of one of the scored lines at the apex of the triangular support as indicated. Fold on the scored lines. Stick the flap at the apex and your triangular roof support is ready.Stick the supports on either side of the roof as shown.

Wishing Well 
Stick the paper roll pillars on the inside of the roof supports as shown.Ignore the different color paper roll on the top as its just part of my corrective measure for having misjudged the height of my wishing well!
Wishing well
This photo shows the roof of the wishing well.

Wishing well 
Stick paper rolls covered with pretty paper between the pillars to make a cross bar. [The shiny paper on the pillars and roof support are from Jovita] I also stuck 2 paper rolls in a  right angle to make the handle of the wishing well.
Wishing well
The tiny bucket is just a cone made from paper and a golden chenille stem threaded through holes punched on the rim.
I used shimmery white paper to make some punchcraft roses.
Punchcraft Flowers
Making the wishing well hardly took time but I spent all week making the punchcraft flowers!
Punchcraft Flowers
I hope you like my version of Jessica's wishing well. 
Please do hop along with me in my first blog hop to celebrate my BLEND [meaning Blogger Friend] Jessica's Blogversary 
Here is the Blends blog hop line up.
  1. Jessica -Jessica's Craft Shaque
  2. Candace -Scrappin' 2 Lil Princesses
  3. Luisa -Creative Designs by Luisa
  4. Cindy -Tools of a Cropping Queen
  5. Lisa - A Mermaid's Crafts
  6. Beckie - Just B Creative Crazy
  7. Julie - A Little Bit of Bling
  8. Carri - Double Click Connections AKA Abusybee
  9. Sonia - Cards, Crafts, and Kids Projects
  10. Cindy - cre8ivecindy
  11. Robin - Cricut Scrapper
  12. Nataliya -Love Crafts Forever 
  13. Stephanie -Whimsical Designs
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21.1.12

Wonderful BLENDS [meaning Blogger Friends]

BLENDS means Blogger Friends. I have been extremely lucky to have so many BLENDS ! I am borrowing this wonderful term from my dearest BLEND Jessica who is having a grand blogversary celebration with lots and lots of prizes to win! I am part of her blogversary blog hop which is tomorrow Jan 22nd.
In this BLENDS post I am sharing some of the amazing things my Blends have sent me recently. It never ceases to amaze me how generous blogger pals are with their time, words and gifts!
I became friends with Lisa Jane through MIM and just for fun participated in her Blog Candy-- Most people give away a prize to one or two winners-- Lisa sent gifts to all her friends who participated!! How utterly crazy and sweet is that!
Gifts from Lisa
One day imagine my utter amazement when I opened a parcel and saw a Fiskars border punch from Priya Sivaraj -- I thought she must be really crazy!!! Thank You Priya you are one crazily generous BLEND!

Gift from Priya Sivaraj
I got this beautiful elegant card from Lucy-- it was such a pleasant surprise..Thank You Lucy.
Gift from Lucy
All the goodies below are from Romina who never ceases to amaze me with her generosity...the card in white is a stunner!! 
Gifts from Romina
This gorgeous card and super cute bookmark are from a BLEND who has a very special place in my heart because she flatters me so much!! And literally links to me in most of her blog posts!Thank You so much Bhawana you are a darling!
Gifts from Bhawana
Blogger pals are generous in so many other  ways too.

I want to thank Jani of  http://papercompulsions.blogspot.com/ where she shares so many gorgeous  flower tutorials. Jani has helped me on so many occasions.. she has mailed me templates of her 3 D papercraft projects, and helped me with software to make templates..Thank You so much Jani.

Deepthi is an extremely multi-talented crafter who quills paints and dabbles in so many crafts and I was so touched when she included this blog in her 2011 inspirational blogs list.. I am so honored Thank You Deepthi.

Little things touch our hearts too.. My BLEND Pritesh makes awesome quilling tutorials but I think I must have cribbed about videos [I cant sit through a You tube video!] and can you imagine she posted photos of her quilling box tutorial just for me!! How crazily sweet is that!

Also I want to thank Kalindi for being so sweet and thoughtful! Kalindi had a blog candy contest and my  little one 's snowman couple won.Kalindi had already a big list of candy and  I was so touched when Kalindi wrote to me asking what my 5 year old liked as she wanted to make my daughters win special !! I was so touched I could cry--Love you Kalindi

When I started blogging I never imagined I would interact with and make so many Blogger Friends [BLENDs]!Thank You so much dear friends Thank You so much for always dropping by and taking the time to leave so many encouraging and sweet words .

12.1.12

Folding Box Tutorial - Quilled Box

Box Tutorial
Folding Box
I first saw the folding box in a curio shop and was enchanted.Instead of buying it I thought I would try to make it!! I searched online for instructions but couldnt get anything so experimented and found it was actually not too hard to make your own folding box!
Fold it up ,put on the lid and this is how your folding box will look.
Folding Box
Tried the beehive technique of quilling [Thank You Pritesh] on the lid of my folding box.
Folding Box
Closeup of the  quilling on the lid of the folding box.

Folding Box
I added quilled "buttons" along the sides of my folding box.
Folding Box
Materials required to make the folding box
Boxes- 2- 5.Make or Recycle. [If making boxes,square ones are easier]. Here I recycled 4 sweets boxes.
Glue- white glue or a glue gun 
Scale
Scoring tool-Use a blunt knife/pen tip or a proper scoring tool[my Favorite is my Scorpal]
Craft Knife/Scissors
Cardboard-to make the spine of the folding box-the cardboard should be sturdy but not too thick and you should be able to fold it with ease to allow easy opening and closing of your folding box.
Folding Box
Cardboard spine to make the cover of the folding box 
Width of the cardboard spine will be as long as sides of your box [Side A + Side B + Side A + Side B ] + a few centimeters extra to allow for easy folding + closing flap of the box
Height of the cardboard spine will be a few centimeters more than the height of each individual box as shown in the diagram.
Folding Box
Score the cardboard spine 4 times as shown  to get  the 4 panels and flap of your folding box.Gently fold the scored cardboard into the shape of your folding box.
Folding Box
Line the cardboard spine with pretty paper. Do not glue the paper tightly so that there is enough leeway to open and close the folding box. 
Glue the boxes starting from below .I used white glue to glue side A [short side] to the first panel of the folding box.
Folding Box
Glue side B[long side] of 2nd box a few millimeters above the first one on the second panel.
Folding Box
Allow enough time for the glue to dry or use a glue gun to stick side A of the 3rd box to the 3rd panel of the folding box.
Folding Box 
Finally  stick side B of the 4th box on the last panel of your folding box.
Make the lid of your folding box
Folding Box
I scored thick card stock 1.5 inches [this will be the the height of your lid] from one edge. Turn the card 90 degrees and score by the same 1.5 inch again.[The 2 red dotted lines]. 
Your next score line will be a millimeter wider than one side of your folding box.
Folding Box
You can measure it out or  place the folding box on your card stock from one of your scored lines and score again as shown above. Turn the card and box 90 degree and score  again .[This is the cheaters way out to avoid measuring with a scale!].The diagram shows the score lines for your folding box lid.
Folding Box Lid
Measure 1.5 inches[or whatever you decided the lid height to be] from the last 2 scored lines and score or mark.
The area shaded in pink is the excess card stock which you cut off to get your folding box lid.
Folding Box Lid
Make cuts as shown on the scored card stock for the box lid.
Folding Box lid
Fold in the flaps as shown and glue to make your folding box lid.
I lined the lid with the same matching paper as the folding box.
Make a Closing Mechanism- On the closing flap,you can insert an eyelet and ribbon or use a metallic brad and a concealed magnet like I did here  
Folding Box
Added some quilling , plastic flowers ,pearls and a stocking butterfly  to embellish my folding box.
Folding Box
The folding box is quite easy to make and has such a "WOW" factor when you gift it to someone and they open the lid and the boxes swing out!
I hope this tutorial will be useful to you. Do leave me your comments.
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Edited : This Folding Box tutorial was featured at PapercraftCentral
Here are links to more Box making tutorials