Something new with something old, something with Needle craft

Extending the craft work from candles and paper crafts to clothes and patterns. Quilling is my most favorite craft which had further motivated to learn different other art and craft forms like sospeso, murals, decoupage, jewelry making etc. My love towards designer candles had driven me to learn candle making at home. However, one of the most initial craft forms which we all used to learn and do at school, needlecraft, was nowhere in my favorite list, so far.

The paper craft and candle making materials were getting over and I had already created close to 40 pieces during the last 4 months of my stay at Orsay. I literally had not counted them until one day my neighbor Darshan came and I was excited to explain him about my passion towards crafts and also about this ancient form of paper craft with which one can make so many beautiful projects. That was when I realized that it is time to think seriously about how to sell these products in nearby markets. I had to take a break due to limited materials in stock and also to refrain myself from piling up a lot before I can clear them up to have something new into place.

Now that Christmas is commencing and the festive mood is already on, I hope I can really get some way out. However, crafting kind of makes you addicted. So I started to do some old crafts for which materials are easily available online and which are comparatively easier to store without an extra care or finishing that one has to do with paper crafts or candles. With all those constraints in my mind, I had to think practically about a craft form, with which I can spend my time and also can carry them whenever and wherever I go.

In school, during the art classes, the only needlework which I used to like the most was "Cross-stitch" patterns. I had no more technical ideas about the tools, threads, and fabrics being used then. During the past two weeks, when I was literally missing my craft work, I came across this site called "Sew and So" and could not resist myself to buy some beautiful cross-stitch kits. They have different forms of needlecraft kits, charts, tools and project ideas ranging from cross-stitch designs, weaving, tapestry and embroidery patterns as well. I had previously worked with Anchor Stitch Kits and this time I am eagerly waiting for the DMC Cross Stitch kits to arrive so that I can start something new with something old.

I also found one more site which sells knitting materials, named as "love knitting", which someone who loves to knit can really have a look at.

Hope to post some nice cross stitch projects soon on my page :)

"R"oyal and "M"erry

The final two typography on 6/8 inches cardstocks completed the series.
Presenting the "royale initialen" calligraphic font which indeed looks very artistic and royal as a font itself.

Here comes "R" with a Royal touch and "M" for merry, keeping in mind the upcoming "Merry Christmas". May the festive season fulfills our heart with all positivity and happiness and the royal celebration starts soon.

The snapshots are as follows.

Hope to start with the new series of paper quilling and craft works soon.
Thank you so much for keeping me motivated with all your feedback and support, Friends, and hope to post something new, soon!

Please visit my page "Lights and Papers" in Facebook and stay tuned for more.

"A"ffection and "P"rayer

The next two monogram in the quilled typography series is completed with the letters "A" and "P".
This time, a simpler Adine Kirnberg calligraphic font is used for the text. Beehive pattern for filling and distressing ink is used to create the colorful background with a contrasting effect.

Here comes "A" with affection and "P" with prayers.

The Outline

Side View

The Outline

Thank you, friends, for reading and liking my posts and motivating further :)

A set of round gift boxes

Again it is time for some 3D quilling.

Here comes a set of three round shape boxes in white, yellow and black color themes. The bases are created on embossed papers, cut in round shape. However, it can be also done without that base and fully with 3D tight coils by quilling.

These can be used as small gift boxes with some light weight gifts inside or some nice quotations inside as gift tags.

Love and Joy

Typography is my most favorite in quilling. Be it a single letter or word(s), I have created 25 projects so far in typography related to gifts and customized orders for sale.

With a limited set of paper strips in hand, my plan is to create a series of 6 quilled monograms in Royale Initialen calligraphic font on 6/8 inches softly textured cardstocks.

The festive season has commenced. I wish this season brings us a lot of joy and smile and keep us bonded with love with our near and dear ones. This is a homecoming season as well, however, this year I am really going to miss my home and especially the festival of "Durgapuja".

Here's presenting the first two letters of this series. "L" for Love and "J" for Joy.

The snapshots and close views are also provided in the pictures below. The Royal Initialen fonts are available in www.dafont.com and can be downloaded and installed to use them further in your projects.

The font printed on a plain paper

The impression is taken on the cardstock

The font printed on plain paper

Please visit my page "Lights and Papers" in Facebook for more pictures.

The Wings of Freedom

"Birds have wings, Souls have dreams"....Anonymous

With that, I will like to present my next picture quilling project which I named as "The Wings of Freedom", the freedom of soul, the freedom to fulfill our dream in our own way.

The steps are as follows:

1) The background is created on a 6/8 inches softly textured card stock paper using umber black acrylic paint from the brand camel.
2) Yellow, orange red and green are chosen as theme colors.
3) The fist step towards the picture quilling is to take an impression on the card stock. As the background is very dark pencil tracing or impression will not work in this case. Another way to do this is to cut out the picture (printed on an A4 sized paper) finely with a long tipped scissors and paste it on the background within a defined area.

The picture is finely cut and pasted on the project background

4) The next set of steps includes working on the outline using white and light green text strips (from A1 Crafts) each of 3 mm width.

Completed outlining of the picture

5) Once the outline of the silhouette with text paper strips is completed, normal standard weight yellow and orange-red paper strips (from dimensions crafts) of 3 mm width again, are used to fill up the inner areas with the beehive pattern.

Beehive filling is going on

6) In parallel, set of Malysian flowers in yellow and orange color theme are created separately on silicone glue base and are kept for drying. Few light green leaves in marquise shape (with 4 inches, 3 mm wide paper strips) are also made and arranged below the picture as shown below.

Here comes the completed picture and one from the side view as well.

"If dreams of flying are the last hope of freedom, I will pray for wings with my last breath".. Steven Erikson.

Please visit my page "Lights and Papers" in Facebook for more pictures.

The Pink Lady

It has been four months since I came to Orsay, France. When I came, I brought limited materials for my art and craft and had to sell most of the staffs. However, I feel even if materials were limited, because of my strong addition to quilling [now that I am 100% convinced about that !! ;)], I was in full swing all these months to create almost close to 20 projects. I would love to continue more and more and I wish and pray that this time I can seriously put my effort to do something in larger scale and in a more regulated and professional way.

With that small introduction, I am introducing my latest creation of the quilled picture series. Here comes the beautiful and sweet "PINK LADY", walking along the path of love and happiness.

The Pink Lady, as I named her, who is ready to walk the path of love and happiness

As with any quilled typography project, the steps are similar. The quilled picture and monogram series is wisely planned to be done on 6/8 inches card stocks, as I had limited materials. This one is also done on a white textured card stock paper, on which distressing effect is created with broken china ink from Tim Holtz and 3 coats of the ink in applied. The impression of the picture (hard copy print on any plain paper) is taken on the cardstock, which is very easy on these kinds of softly textured papers and you really do not have to press very hard to get a nice impression from the print (as shown below). Please use a pencil and just take an impression by keeping this printed paper on the cardstock (within the given area) and pressing a pencil over the outline with an optimum force.

The next steps are outlining, filling and decorations.

Zoomed view of the outlining

Crimson red, cream and black text strips (each 3 mm width, high gsm) from A1 craft supply is used to outline the gown, body and hair respectively. Thank you, Neha Gala, for providing the nice text strips to work with.

The Silhouette is Completed

Even if one wants to create a simple silhouette project, this can become the completed project by itself.

I was planning to work on it further. The composite flowers as shown at the left down corner on the gown are created with 3 mm wide papers. The length of 5.5 inches of dark and light pink paper strips and the length of 4 inches of light pink and orange color paper strips were used to create the larger and smaller composite flowers with marquise shape.

Series of beehives and spacious filling with loose coil or teardrop shapes in pink shades were followed to complete the work of the gown. Small Malaysian and tight coil flowers were made separately on a silicone glue base and were used for decorating the gown.

Once more the completed project with a side view. I really loved working on this and I hope you all will like her as well.

Thank you all for reading my post and please visit my page "Lights and Papers" in Facebook. Hope to present more such projects with time.