Yes, I swear sometimes I have the worlds largest learning curve. I decided that it would just be fantastic if I created this spectacular Quilling gift for my mother on her birthday. It was going to be a giant J with a flower off to the side and fill with wonderful quilled paper.
First issue I ran into, base paper. Having the proper base paper will make or break your project. Mine warped, bubbled and I swear disappeared in places. I was using a thick paper, but not card stock.
Next, paper stretches when wet. Allow your paper to dry before applying that last coat to the piece. It was fun having to cut and reset the outline (yes it took me forever to just get the outline done, that darn base paper can kill you).
Get a small ruler. I learned the hard way that trying to make do with something that is almost straight isn't as great as if it was straight. It'll also help you with length measurements.
Realise what type of mog pog your using will effect the base paper. I used dark gray paper and a gloss like mog pog. It was shinny and you could totally see where I used the brush.
Watch that frustration level. If you find your project isn't work because its too wet, the paper's sliding or not sticking, the papers kinking (I had this problem a lot), please and I mean please, take a break. Let what you've done dry and come back. It helps immensely and you're more likely to finish the project.
Currently I have the J completed and part of the flower.
Because it was taking so long, I decided that she needed some Calvin and Hobbes ornaments. I found clear plain glass balls and proceeded to cut out small pictures of Calvin and Hobbes. Number one fact you should know about ornaments. They're curved.
Who knew! This causes pinching, buckling and overall frustration with the pieces you where imagining would look spectacular. But I continued on and in the end they weren't too bad.
I used the mog pog again, coating the back of the paper or the ball and pressing and holding the paper down until is stuck to the glass, smoothing any wrinkles by lightly creasing areas. Let dry and apply one more coat of mog pog to the outside of the paper. The mog pog dries clear. Next time I'm going to try a colored ornament.
Showing posts with label crafting ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crafting ideas. Show all posts
Friday, December 10, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Wedding thoughts, crafting ideas and Etsy
Ah, I have so many wedding questions floating around my head. Should I keep my invite ideas of a Madd Hatter top hat? Do I want to make my own veil (yes!) and what kind do I want? Where the heck is the wedding going to take place and can I even afford the darn thing!
I don’t know if I’ve put myself off of the Madd Hatter invite solely based on everyone else’s reactions. I’ve gotten mixed reviews, with high points from Mike, and perhaps its just that its so early in the planning of it all (I’ve had a year already to think of ideas and plan) that maybe I’ve burned myself out of weddings for a while. Lately I’ve become obsessed with wedding blogs, searching for elusive ideas to create a ‘story board’ as the wedding industries call them in order to set everything for the wedding before actually acquiring them.
I have loads of pictures from flowers to table arrangements, foods that will be served and what the glasses could look like. I’ve even gone back and fourth between pondering supplies for the apartment I just moved into to deciding if I could afford a hundred of those glasses and what exactly I could do to them.
May marks the one year proposal anniversary and the year count down to the main event. Needless to say I’m feeling the pressure and yet at the same time, the burning desire to just ignore it until the date gets here.
I’ve also had another guilty wedding buy hiding in the trunk of my car for the last week. I recently purchased a heat gun, brush and embossing powder. I got the heat gun 40% off and the remaining two items 20% off. The one thing I will say that really helps with wedding planning this far out from the actual wedding date, is you can calmly wait for the sales that come your way to help cut down on the price cost of the mundane quantity (yes quantity) items that will be needed for a wedding.
The other plus is that you have time to shop around and find what you want and hopefully in the price you’d like it as well. Personally I need to find little boxes or containers for the ‘eat me’ portion of the wedding favors and little glass bottles for the ‘drink me’ portion, although I don’t have the faintest idea what I’m going to put in them.
Lately I’ve been trying to expand my Etsy shop with requests to complete other peoples personal alchemy requests (items they want but can’t find anywhere else). So far I believe I’ve bid probably on 10 items, and not received one confirmation. Since I’ve never really done any of the items requested (but am planning to for my own wedding), It both scares and excites me at the same time. Currently I’ve bid on printing a monogram on a paper napkin but since the requester didn’t put letters or colors desired, I’m currently waiting for a response.
How does this relate to my own wedding? Well I’m planning on printing a few characters, one on each napkin for the wedding reception, if they aren’t provided, so that it matches the theme and isn’t exactly the same for every person. This is just one of the ideas that may or may not pan out of the wedding.
Another alchemy request I bid on was to create a dive shirt with an octopus on it with ‘DIVE’ written on one sleeve and the other would be embellished with the Dive Flag.
Unfortunately I didn’t win this bid. It would have been fun making the shirt and seeing if I’d stay within the budget. I might just make the shirt anyways and see how it turns out (this would be helpful for any other shirt items that I bid on).
I missed out on using the Borders 30% off coupon last week and didn’t pick up the new book by Lora Leigh, mostly because I wouldn’t have had time to read it and I knew I would have missed sleep to finish it. I’m waiting for more Joann and Michael’s coupons because I’m itching to buy new items to make.
On an aside, I’ve changed almost all my addresses to get forwarded to home. Now to get the cable and internet turned on.
Wedding purchase:
Heating tool
Embossing Powder
Brush
Total: ~$18.00
I don’t know if I’ve put myself off of the Madd Hatter invite solely based on everyone else’s reactions. I’ve gotten mixed reviews, with high points from Mike, and perhaps its just that its so early in the planning of it all (I’ve had a year already to think of ideas and plan) that maybe I’ve burned myself out of weddings for a while. Lately I’ve become obsessed with wedding blogs, searching for elusive ideas to create a ‘story board’ as the wedding industries call them in order to set everything for the wedding before actually acquiring them.
I have loads of pictures from flowers to table arrangements, foods that will be served and what the glasses could look like. I’ve even gone back and fourth between pondering supplies for the apartment I just moved into to deciding if I could afford a hundred of those glasses and what exactly I could do to them.
May marks the one year proposal anniversary and the year count down to the main event. Needless to say I’m feeling the pressure and yet at the same time, the burning desire to just ignore it until the date gets here.
I’ve also had another guilty wedding buy hiding in the trunk of my car for the last week. I recently purchased a heat gun, brush and embossing powder. I got the heat gun 40% off and the remaining two items 20% off. The one thing I will say that really helps with wedding planning this far out from the actual wedding date, is you can calmly wait for the sales that come your way to help cut down on the price cost of the mundane quantity (yes quantity) items that will be needed for a wedding.
The other plus is that you have time to shop around and find what you want and hopefully in the price you’d like it as well. Personally I need to find little boxes or containers for the ‘eat me’ portion of the wedding favors and little glass bottles for the ‘drink me’ portion, although I don’t have the faintest idea what I’m going to put in them.
Lately I’ve been trying to expand my Etsy shop with requests to complete other peoples personal alchemy requests (items they want but can’t find anywhere else). So far I believe I’ve bid probably on 10 items, and not received one confirmation. Since I’ve never really done any of the items requested (but am planning to for my own wedding), It both scares and excites me at the same time. Currently I’ve bid on printing a monogram on a paper napkin but since the requester didn’t put letters or colors desired, I’m currently waiting for a response.
How does this relate to my own wedding? Well I’m planning on printing a few characters, one on each napkin for the wedding reception, if they aren’t provided, so that it matches the theme and isn’t exactly the same for every person. This is just one of the ideas that may or may not pan out of the wedding.
Another alchemy request I bid on was to create a dive shirt with an octopus on it with ‘DIVE’ written on one sleeve and the other would be embellished with the Dive Flag.
Unfortunately I didn’t win this bid. It would have been fun making the shirt and seeing if I’d stay within the budget. I might just make the shirt anyways and see how it turns out (this would be helpful for any other shirt items that I bid on).
I missed out on using the Borders 30% off coupon last week and didn’t pick up the new book by Lora Leigh, mostly because I wouldn’t have had time to read it and I knew I would have missed sleep to finish it. I’m waiting for more Joann and Michael’s coupons because I’m itching to buy new items to make.
On an aside, I’ve changed almost all my addresses to get forwarded to home. Now to get the cable and internet turned on.
Wedding purchase:
Heating tool
Embossing Powder
Brush
Total: ~$18.00
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