Sep 30, 2015

3D Paper Pumpkins - Free Patterns


I've been having a lot of fun “carving” my pumpkins this year! I've designed a round, tall, and wide version, complete with stem, twirling vine, and leaf. They're waiting to greet my little tricksters and I can't wait to give this threesome in their treat bag to assemble themselves.

I've mentioned one of the things that was topmost on Craftsy's agenda for me as an instructor, was to ensure my classes taught skills the students could then use in other projects. In Lesson 1, I show how to make a 3D Christmas Tree and wanted to show you how easy this technique is to apply in so many ways.

Although my step-by-step instructions are not as interactive as watching the Craftsy lesson, you'll get a taste of it anyway. As with the tradition of Halloween trick-or-treating, I thought it would be a fun for you all to go to different houses to collect your treats and learn what else is in the land of paper ingenuity.




House #1 - Round Pumpkin
Jin Yong's house is Under a Cherry Tree and she has the most amazing ways of taking regular die cut files and transforming them in subtle ways to become more tactile and dynamic. Her sense of humour is so entertaining and I love to see what her mind comes up with.



House #2 - Tall Pumpkin
All Things Paper is what you'll discover at Ann Martin's house. Ann creates the most exacting quilling pieces, and pairs them delicately with wedding certificates and invitations. She also has a discerning eye for all the different ways we manipulate paper. Just like a newspaper, she edits out the clutter and delivers the best of paper creations by talented paper enthusiasts.


3D Paper Pumpkin - Wide


House #3 - Wide Pumpkin
Journey on to Michelle of Michelle My Belle Creations, where you'll find an encyclopedia set of cutting files and patterns. Her love of teaching shines in her volumes of tutorials and forums and inspiring ideas. Her Mojo Mondays will get you ramped up each week.



I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have these three amazing talents be my neighbours. Not only are they handing out my 3D Paper Pumpkin treats, they are also hosting a giveaway of my Craftsy class! If you'd like to be shown how to make more paper projects, simply leave a way to be contacted on their sites and a winner will be chosen from each house - that's 3 chances to win!

What I love most is hearing the stories of what you end up making and sharing with others. Please let me know if you have a spooktacular Halloween with them!

Cecelia




*** UPDATE *** 
There are 3 pumpkin shapes to download




Sep 24, 2015

Craftsy Flash Sale! 25 to 75% off all online video classes


Hey everyone, guess what? Craftsy is having a Flash Sale (this is my affiliate link) between Sept. 25-27! You can enjoy so many more project ideas on paper and beyond!

As you can see in the photo above, the crew zooms right into the project so you get front row seats to what the instructor is talking about. If you've ever taken a live class, you'd know you're always straining your neck to see something so tiny. Plus if you happened to be looking down, you missed what they said or showed - with online learning, you can ask it to repeat - well, repeatedly.

They have a 100% happiness guarantee, so no worries!

Sep 14, 2015

My Craftsy class is now in session!


It's been quite some time since September heralded school for me, but it certainly does this year! Is that really me up there doing show and tell?!?



I have read and re-read your comments, cheering me on through all these years. Thank you all so very much!

Cecelia

Sep 13, 2015

Craftsy Class - Sneak Peak of Lesson 1 and a Giveaway!


True to my blog and passion, Craftsy chose topics that have always been my readers’ favorite features. I teach 7 classes and show techniques in quilling as well as making flat sheets of paper pop off a page. 

Let me show you a sneak peak of Lesson 1, a Christmas Tree Card. All DIY crafters know Christmas surprises are planned in advance and need a few elves to complete before the special day. In my class, I show how to assemble the tree, dust it with snow, and top it with a 3-D star. Besides the 1/8-inch hole punch for snow, the cutting files are all included in the Class Materials.

If you look closely, you'll also see a little Hershey's kiss tucked inside the tree, just a sweet prezzie for someone special. It's hard to see in this photo, but the falling snow is not simply flat dots - they're textured paper that really look like fluffy snow.

I don't like wasting paper so I used up the space within the tree too. The Class Materials includes a bonus shape to make a place card holder - in case there are any Christmas weddings or large parties being planned this year. It really made my sister-in-law-who-is-a-Christmas-fanatic, start salivating. 


What I learned as a Craftsy instructor, is their high standards for ensuring students receive skills to apply what they've learned in class to other projects. To show how this can be done in Lesson 1, I made a birthday card using the fanned 3D symmetrical shape technique. 

First, I made an oval and elongated it, tapering one end to make the balloons. I assembled the balloons in varying colors to make them more festive. I put two 3D stars back-to-back and glued all three elements to cloth covered floral wire. To make the streamers out of quilling paper, I used the technique I show in my book, Pretty Quilled Cards (Easter Basket, page 88). I chose a font I liked and cut it out several times to create my own chipboard (I show how that's done in this post). Then I assembled them all on my 3D Cake Collection (available in my Etsy shop).


If you'd like to make your own 3D balloons, I'm offering the free SVG or PDF files here. The shapes are simple enough to cut by hand as well.

To thank you for all your wonderful words of support, I'd like to offer a giveaway of my 3D Cake Collection to one commenter of this post. The details are very intricate, so I do suggest using a digital die cutter that can handle SVG files. To enter, please leave a comment and a way for me to contact you. This giveaway will end Friday, September 18th. I'll announce the winner once they've been notified.

*** UPDATE ***

Congratulations to Honey Moser of Honey's Quilling, who won my digital die cut file for a 3D cake. I pulled the number 2 out of a deck of cards and she was the 2nd person to comment. Thanks everyone!

Sep 10, 2015

My Craftsy Experience


After months of preparation, I can finally tell you all about what it was like being a Craftsy Instructor. My class is called Quilled and Sculpted Cards, a combo of both my two loves. It's available later this month and you can bet I'll be doing a giveaway!


They really know how to make you feel like a rock star! Here is the filming studio, complete with my personalized dressing room.


When I put all my prepared cards on their shelf and looked up and saw their logo on the brick wall, just as I had seen in other Craftsy videos, it really hit me - I'm here! I'm doing this! It's real!


This is a teleprompter and Rudy the Rooster hand puppet, who I crocheted way back. I sat him up there to remind me to keep looking up, rather than what I normally do at home, which is to get so involved in what I do that the whole world fades away.


When I look back on this memory, I'm happy that I pushed past my fears of being in front of a camera and made it happen. There is good stress and bad stress in life. This was definitely good stress, and now I know what I'm made of.

Sep 7, 2015

My Quilling Inspiration


Do you have a bucket list? I was very young when I dreamed of one day writing a craft book. After achieving that, I didn't realize I ought to update that list and add more items to reach and strive for. Although I know I want to create a new career surrounded by paper, I don't quite know what that could look like. I didn't realize I could push myself up and reach for something like being a Craftsy Instructor (coming out later this month).

Sep 3, 2015

Hello Denver!


Have you ever had to hold onto a juicy secret? Each time you wanted to share it, it would bubble up inside of you just wanting to burst out of your mouth and escape as a giggle instead?

Well I haven't been able to blog for some time because I've been burning the midnight oil between reality and a secret project. In May of this year, I was invited to {giggle}.... be a Craftsy Instructor!