Handmade gifts. From: Shena

For my mom's birthday a couple weeks ago, I made her a handmade frame. I know what you are thinking, does your poor family get anything actually bought from you?! Ummmm, yes, they do! HOWEVER, I like to make them things!

AND, as you may or may not know, I have a thing for flowers. No matter what type of project I am working on, I always try to add a flower to make it more 'me.' A few months ago, I saw a 'how-to' on making fabric flowers by cutting circles out of fabric and then burning the edges (silk-based fabric), so of course I tried this. I tweaked this process a little bit and I absolutely LOVE what I came up with.

Anyway, I only took a picture of this frame on my horrible little cell-phone camera, so pardon the HORRIBLE quality of the picture. You can get the idea though. Soon (October), me and two of my good friends are going to 'teach' a class to a bunch of Air Force spouses about making these frames, so I will whip up many more examples and have some much better pictures.

What I did: bought a wood frame from Wal-Mart (for 2.97...but Hobby Lobby also has wood frames for 1.00...however, I live an hour from Hobby Lobby, so you see my dilemna!), glued a piece of scrapbook 12x12 paper on to the frame...cut to fit, sanded down the edges to give it a worn look, then stained the edged with my dauber (see previous entry for my going-ons about the dauber), then attached these FABULOUS silked burned flowers I made and added a few little pearls in the flowers and in the corners of the frame....and waaalaaa: homemade birthday present frame done!!!

You can do all sorts of fun things with these cheap frames to personalize them. Hope this gives you some ideas!!

The Art of Quilling

Many people scrapbook (which don't get me wrong, I LOVE) and compromise paper in all sorts of interesting ways. They tear it, fold it, cut it, stain it...but my most favorite thing to do with paper is BEND IT! I love to quill! Not a typo here...not quilt, but quill.

I discovered the art of quilling when I was going through old things of my mom's. She had her old marriage announcement framed with these beautiful flowers (made of bended/folded paper) around it. It was breath-taking. I knew I HAD to learn how to do that! I found out who made this for her and called this amazing woman up. I took quilling 'lessons' from this lady and I learned how to do this amazing paper-bending-technique.

If you are not familiar with quilling, it is the art of taking tall, skinny (about 1/8 in. wide by 11 in. tall) lengths of paper, wrapping them around a needle and then bending them in the desired shapes you want. It's a long process, but the look is positively unique and something worth the time.

This is the slotted needle which you wrap paper around to create beautiful creations.





When making our wedding reception invitations, I decided to quill little flowers on all of them. About 100 invitations in, I realized there might have been an easier idea.

I am a complete ammature when it comes to quilling. An older lady (who taught me this art) makes the most AMAZING quilling creations I have ever seen. She is truly incredible. If you've never tried to quill and have extra time on your hands, you should try this very adorable and affordable hobby!!


Tightly quilled oranges made by a friend of mine. AH-AMAZING!

A little quilled flower in the corner of our reception invitation.

The top of our invitations...just a row of quilled flowers.