Sospeso Quotation stands

"Sospeso Transparente" is a 3D volume decoupage craft invented and patented by Monica Allegro (an Italian Artist). The procedure involves the following steps:
(1) Preparation of the Sospeso sheets
(2) Cutting and sorting
(3) Heat embossing and sharing
(4) The assembly of the shapes in flat designs to create some gorgeous three-dimensional finishing.

Materials are available online and can be purchased from the craft shop (Owner: Ms. Priya Shivraj)

I have attended the workshop in 2013 by Ms. Kosha Shah from, who is a paper artist from Mumbai. Shabana had organized this at her place and like always I was one of the participants to learn this beautiful paper art. I have made the tissue box and one frame in the workshop. The rest are made by me in the recent past.

Quotation stands (Sospeso on MDF covered with black chart paper)

Quotation stand (Sospeso on wooden plaque)

The wooden products or laser cut MDF are available online at The Crafts Lane.

Sospeso Photoframes

This is my first post on Sospeso art. I learned it through a workshop in Bangalore by artist Kosha Shah from Bombay. Thank you Kosha. I acknowledge Think Color (Bangalore, Ms. Shabana Patel) as well for arranging the workshop.

"Sospeso Transparente" is a 3D volume decoupage craft invented and patented by Monica Allegro (an Italian Artist). The procedure involves the following steps:
(1) Preparation of the Sospeso sheets
(2) Cutting and sorting
(3) Heat embossing and sharing
(4) The assembly of the shapes in flat designs to create some gorgeous three-dimensional finishing.

Some snapshots while working on the project:

Heat embossing using the tool and embossing pad and T-light candle

Assembly planning before you stick them with a glue gun

Sospeso materials are available online and can be purchased from the craft shop (Owner: Ms. Priya Shivraj). The glue gun is available in any craft store along with glue sticks. You require an electric point to heat up the glue and have to be very cautious as the hot glue is really sticky and can also burn your skin.

The first frame created during the workshop (Sospeso on wood surface)

And this is another wooden frame, my latest creation.

Sospeso work can be also done on a glass surface. I have created a small design on this colored cup and this can be used as it is or as a T-light candle holder.

Please visit my Facebook page "Lights and Papers" for latest updates of products.

Star shape assembly

This is a 2D assembly to create an "all-quilled" star shape without any flat paper base. The quilling strip which is used to create the star shape is with following specifications:

Brand: Quilling Essentials  (you can use any other brand as well)
Length of paper used to make tight coils: 10.5 inches
Width of paper: 3 mm
Color: Milky white

Firstly the star shape can be hand drawn, traced or printed on a plain A4 paper. Then a hard plastic sheet or transparent sheet can be kept on top so that it is visible from the top. Next the assembly can be started and outlining can be done by keeping each tight coils one by one following the angles at the corners and straight lines along the sides (62 coils). The inside part can be filled by the same sized tight coils as shown in the picture below. Total 200 tight coils (with above specifications) are used to create the base.

For decoration one can use several patterns by quilling, simple paper flowers, punch craft and many more using unique creative ideas. In this case, keeping the color theme of Christmas which is red and white, I have used quilled Malaysian flowers and red tight coil assemblies to complete the decoration.

For Malaysian flowers the following specifications are followed:

Brand: Dimension crafts (you can use any other brand as well)
Length of red strip: 5 and 1/2 inches
Length of white strip: 5 inches
(Join both the strips before you start quilling)
Width: 3 mm (each strip)
Color: Brick red and white

For red tight coils, 5 inches of the red strips are used (3 mm, same brand) and they are assembled in trios and are also used as single coils.

Fevicryl Hobby Ideas Non-stick fabric glue is used for quilling and Silicone gel glue is good for working on the 2D assembly,

This star shape itself can be used as a 3D embellishment to decorate the Christmas tree, or can be used as a decorative wall hanger otherwise. Alternatively it can be used in any other craft projects like a big frame or card based on cardstock papers or MDF cut outs or wooden plaques as per choice. It can also become a part of a star shaped quilled 3D box for which you will need 634 tight coils (with single quilled outline on paper base) or 772 coils (if the base is also "all-quilled") with six step bricking between the base and top.

And this is another small star with 100 tight coils with the same specification as mentioned above for the white paper strips. The Malaysian petals are created with blue and white strips joined together each of length five and a half inches and of three mm width. The white leaves are created with 5 and 1/2 inches long white paper strips of 3 mm width and quilled into marquise shape.

Keep quilling :)

"K" for Krishna

Well, completed my first monogram quillography after coming to France :)

Quillography is a combination of Quilling + Calligraphy and so can be more or less described as writing in calligraphic fonts using paper strips instead of a pen! Different techniques of bending the paper and filling up the letters give the different finish. Choice of color and font style are also contributing factors. I first came to know about this term and eventually learned this technique from Art'Zire from my friend Pritesh Ananth Krishnan :)

This one is quilling the monogram in "Royale Initialen" font (freely downloadable from www.dafont.com)

The background effect is created with Tim Holtz distress ink pad (Mahogany red) and a border using simple punch craft with small daisy flower as a pattern. The complementary colors red and green are used as outline and beehived filling respectively, also keeping in mind the "green" shades in peacock feather which also symbolizes none other than my favorite Krishna :) 

Here comes the final picture:

The snapshots are as follows:

(1) Getting the impression on the colored background

 (2) Completion of the outline by Brick-Red text-quilling strips (available online at A1craftsupply)

 (3) Adding some distressing shades in complimentary green to add some extra finish before starting the beehive work inside the letter.

This brings me back with a memory of creating my first quilled typography word "Krishna". It was created on a patterned photo paper and using Adine Kirnberg Calligraphic font. The peacock feather is a real one. It is one of my favorite typography work so far and is gifted to a close friend of mine.

Please visit my Facebook page "Lights and Papers" for latest projects and pictures.

Quilled Quotation stands

Here comes a set of quotation stands

The wooden plaques are small ready-made MDF cut-outs which are available in any stationary store or can be ordered online from Nupurcreatives.
The quotes are written using Bo-Bunny clear stamps and Tim Holtz distress ink (better to use Memento Stamping ink) all of which are available from The crafts shop.
The background coloring effect is created by using distress ink pads.

The rest of the craft is a 3D quilled assembly of different floral and leaves patterns using different rolling and bending techniques of Paper Quilling.

The overall project is created on simple A4 card-stocks which are again available in colored sets in any stationary stores like Itsy Bitsy (available also online) and also can be ordered from Nupurcreatives.

The quilling strips are bought from different sources which are from Shilpi brand (http://www.craftuniverse.com/ ), and Dimensionscrafts (http://www.dimensionscrafts.co.in/store_quilling.htm ).

With a nice wooden box framing the quotation stands can be a nice gift for friends and can be customized as well depending on occasion and different themes,

Zoomed in view

Zoomed in view

One more idea with creating quotation stand with quilling work can be working with mini canvases. These mini canvases are available in stationery stores like Itsy Bitsy and Hobby Ideas or any local store. I have bought them from Hobby Ideas, Bangalore. This work is a couple of years old and was made upon order from a client. The quotations can be customized in the black space provided with acrylic colors, stamping ink or can just be simply hand-written with colored inks.

For updated pictures and latest projects also visit my Facebook page "Lights and Papers".

Punch craft and embossed flowers

I was feeling absolutely accomplished to finish another quillography project. It was a Sunday afternoon at our residence in Orsay, France. I was just planning my next quilling project and was looking for some nice background papers. There were some embossed felt sheets kept inside the carton boxes which came from India a few months back when we had moved from Bangalore :)

While just creating some design in my mind I suddenly got reminded of my punch craft tools! Bingo! I just took out all the punch craft and embossing tools and started with some paper cutting, sorting, embossing and shaping. 

Sometimes even without much of planning when you get something nice the happiness goes to an additional level. I could not resist to take out some money envelopes, which I brought long back from Nupur (Nupur Creatives, Pune) and just started decorating them. Here are the results! 

My Sunday fun was completed :)

A greeting card

Set of money envelopes

Some more ideas to create handmade customized photo frames using cardstocks, acrylic colors, embossed flowers and punch craft flowers and swirls. Distressing technique (Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads) is used to create the shading effect on the swirls and paper doilies

Zoomed in view

Customized photo frame (1)

Zoomed in view

Customized photo frame (2)

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Please visit my Facebook page "Lights and Papers" for recent project updates, ideas, and pictures. Thank you!

3D Quilled boxes

Quilling love continues

Now I am absolutely sure that I am not only passionate but a little obsessed with the art of Paper Quilling. How much ever I learn I always feel there is more to it and my wishlist is still longer.

Another set of quilled boxes and tray learned from Shabana in Bangalore and all these are done just within a month's time, just before leaving Bangalore. Indeed, I had finished all the projects on 24th May 2015, a day before my flight from Bangalore to Kolkata. I was leaving Bangalore and moving to France. The last one month of stay in Bangalore (May 2015) was indeed one of the most passionately active months when I was working on my final assignments on Image Management, enjoying my time with this beautiful art and at the same time planning the packing and moving.

If I combine all the three projects almost 3000 or more shapes are created and assembled towards completion. The number might seem to be high, but the joy of creating is much more in comparison to that. And that is when I realized I really can sit and do quilling for a whole day. That realization is a motivation for me to move one more step towards my dream.

So here it comes. A red color heart shaped box, a rectangular box and an acrylic tray with a cover decorated with quilled floral assembly inside, which all I learned during the workshop.  

And the love continues with some more creation later during my stay in France since last three months.

Some nice combination can be created with these quilled boxes. The jewelry is bought from "Jute-Cottage".

For latest projects and pictures please visit my Facebook page "Lights and Papers".