DT post – Altered art/Recycled art/Upcycled art - Challenge No 24

Dear all,

Here is my DT post for the march month’s challenge of IQCG. Firstly would like to thank Shylaa for giving us such an interesting theme to work on.

Please find the challenge details by visiting the IQCG blog in the below link
http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.in/ or click here.

Here is what I have created for you all.
A Glittering/sparkling flower vase using an old cd and a kulfi pot that were lying unused at home.

The kulfi pot was cleaned and washed before use and painted using black acrylic paint. The cd was then cut into small pieces in uneven shapes and sizes using a a craft sissor. It was then pasted over the pot using a white adhesive covering it on all sides. Once it was given some time to dry completely, a quilled flower with an aluminium wire stem is placed in the center of it,by filling some sand inside the vase.

I have used 5mm quilling strips for the entire flower that has been created. The center part is done using fringing technique and the petals of the flowers have three quilled pieces each, with pink colour strips in the center,  red strips one each to their sides and orange strips to secure the shapes. The readymade leaves are then placed to the sides of the flower while placing.

I was thinking to use those pots and cds lying at home, in my craft for a very long time and hence took the chance this time, as this small piece of recycled/upcycled work would fit the challenge theme.

Please give your valuable feed back and comments if you like my work.Also do not miss to participate in the challenge and get a chance to win some exciting stuffs from our lovely sponsors. Looking forward to see some beautiful and wowee work from all.

Cheers,

Aparna Balakrishnan(shequills)

Quilled transparent rangoli – DT work for the IQCG’s pink challenge: No 23

Dear viewers,

Happy to give one more inspirational work for the pink challenge of IQCG..

Please find the challenge details in the following link:

http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.in/2016/02/iqcg23-anything-goes-with-pink-in-it.html

This time I have created a transparent quilled rangoli in shades of pink.

 The piece is a quilled version of the traditional floating rangoli / kundan rangoli work. I have used quilling strips in the place of kundan stones in its making.

As this is my first try, I chose a regular shape circle as a start up. I have used 5mm strips and zero size golden colour ball chains to fill the pieces .As some of you might be aware of, the process is quite simple but little time consuming. You need to have 100% patience to complete it as it requires lot of pieces to be quilled depending on the size of the sheet you choose to make. Quillers knew it. But still mentioning it for beginnersJ)J)

Coming back to the process, 7 pieces of small size circle cuts and one large size circle cut of transparent sheets are used. The circles can be either drawn using a compass or any circular object available at home. I used lids of boxes that were lying at home .So didn’t measure the size of the pieces. Each piece of the sheet is then filled up using ball chains and quilling strips in a circular alignment starting from outside. It can also be started from the centre point of the sheet. Again the choice is completely yours. It took hardly 20 to 25 mins to complete every single piece and the bigger one took more time.

That’s all. It’s done. :))J)

As this quilled rangoli is done for the pink challenge, I used only pink shades in all the pieces.

I have also shown the different ways in which the pieces can be arranged according to your wish.. This art piece can be used anywhere and for any occasions and celebrations for decoration purposes or it can also be gifted to your dear ones for festivals too.

Hope you all liked my work to get an idea and boost up your creative thoughts. Visit the IQCG blog to know about the challenge details and give your participation to win some exciting stuffs from our beloved sponsors. Looking forward for more entries from you all. Good luckJ)J)

Also share your feedbacks and help me to improve my art skills too...

Stopping here,

Cheers

Aparna Balakrishnan (shequills)

DT post for the IQCG Challenge No 23 - Anything goes with pink

Dear  viewers of IQCG , 
Glad to give my first DT work for the theme anything goes with pink(feb 2016).
First of all , I would like to express my happiness for having been selected as a member in the design team for the year 2016 and feeling happy to give my DT post every month..
Coming to the challenge ,the task is to create any quilled work in pink.. 

You can find the challenge details in the below link:http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.in/2016/02/iqcg23-anything-goes-with-pink-in-it.html

I have started my first DT work with my favourite Jewellery Quilling.. As the theme is pink , I have created a pink Quilled Jewellery set to match a silk saree which has the golden pink shade in  it.. The jhumkas and the Pendant are quilled using 5mm pale pink strips.. 6 strips each for the Square jhumkas and 12 strips for the pendant. It is then sealed and coated using pearl pink colour followed by two layers of metallic gold paint to give a golden pink finish.

The jhumkas and the pendant are then decorated with pale pink and dark pink stones matching the work done in the blouse.. The chain size is bit long so that the pendant comes down the pallu border when worn and the pendant is visible enough.. Frosted pink beads and golden seed beads are used to complete the chain and tiny size rhinestone chains have been used in the quilled pieces to give a grand and rich finish..

Please excuse for the difference in the reflection of the pink shade at some angles.But I am glad that I have given a small try to bring this shade of pink, which was running in my mind so long ,unlike the regular solid pink shade .
Hope you all like my work. Please create and submit your beautiful entries and give your active participation in the challenges hosted every month by our Shylaa.. Looking forward to see your lovely works for this month's challenge.. Good luck everyone.:))Give your best an show your creative skills to this world...

Happy Quilling , 
Aparna Balakrishnan(shequills)

My entry for IQCG DT Call 2016

Hi all ,
I am glad to make a try to join the design team of indian Quilling Challenge group.. Find below some of my quilling works that I am submitting for this IQC DT Call 2016..Click here to find the details of it..

1) A multi purpose Quilling work.. It can be used as a candle holder , a flower decorator , or to keep anyting in the center as a center show piece in decorations.. The entire piece is done using different colours of 5mm quilling strips..

2) A ornamental quilling type cash gift envelope..The envelope is decorated using 5 mm strips and some kundan stones here and there.

3) Some Quilling jhumkas made using 5mm strips

4) Saree brooches decorated with ball chains and rhinestone chains of various sizes over a quilling base..

Hope you all like my entries and looking forward to work with the current design team of my favourite group.. 

Please visit my face book page shequills for more of my quilling work ... We are also having a contest this month .Give it a try; participate and win..

Thanks!

"shequills" SECOND ANNIVERSARY CONTEST

Dear all , 
Wish you a very happy and a prosperous new year...
Happy to share that shequills has completed two successful years and stepped into its third crafty year.

Strength, progress and growth come through continuous learning, effort and hard work .
A little progress everyday adds up , to BIG RESULTS.. Every progress of mine happened, with wonderful people around me who supported , motivated , encouraged , acknowledged and valued the piece of work I did. I sincerely thank each one of you who made this happen and I am pretty sure , I will have this tremendous support in the coming years too.

Unlike last year which was a starting point , this year kept me quite busy with many orders lined up and I managed to complete few bulk orders too with more customization work and got a chance to exhibit my work in a mini stall. Apart from quilling jewelleries which I started shequills with , I expanded my work and tried my hands on Quillography , Frame works , Candle Holders(which became a hot selling piece in a season) and turned as a teacher, teaching this wonderful art to many, when requested, both on jewellery making and Quilling techniques through workshops.

I not only managed on my sales but equally engaged myself , by giving my active participation in Indian Quilling Challenge, organized by Shylaa Shree a crafter, and became a topper three times and a winner in frame it up contest held in the month of august 2015.. Thanks to IQC team which played a very major role in bringing out my crafty thoughts to this creative world.

Once again thanking everyone who made me what I am today..

Please visit my page shequills to see my quilling works and feel free to text to shequills@gmail.com for orders , enquiries and workshops.

As a token of thanks, shequills is having a second anniversary celebration contest for its viewers and supporters . 

Second Anniversary Contest

Please check the contest rules and inspirational work from me to bring your creativity, in the pictures present in this post and win some beautiful stuffs from me.

A small piece of work to tap your creativity
A quilled Candle holder or a flower holder..

One more inspiration from me .
Ornamental Quilled cash gift envelope

Looking forward for all your beautiful entries and active partcipation. Feel free to text to shequills@gmail.com if you have quieries regarding the contest... 

Tha contest will go till 5th feb 2016 and winners will be announced on 10th feb 2016.

Do not wait.. Start your work today....:)):))

A Grand Quilled mugappu jewellery

Hi all,

Welcome to my blog after a long time.. I am here today to present a grand quilled mugappu jewellery set in a traditional combo that is very much seen in southern silk sarees. -  Green  and Red..
This jewellery set is so special becoz, it is designed for my own use for this year's festive season to celebrate and satisfy my festive mood by accompanying my new dress with this beautiful handmade stuff. I am so happy with the way it has come out exactly with the richness and elegance that I had in my mind and eagerly waiting to wear them..
The set has been designed with the following materials and few other jewellery findings.
*Quilling Strips
*Crystals
*seed beads
*Rhinestones
*Cone Outliners
*Acrylic paints and varnish to protect it.
 I have used green seed beads , bigger size green crystals and smaller size red crystals for the chain and a flower shaped mugappu is done using paper strips with acrylic red coated over it.. Small golden rhinestones and green outliners have been used to decorate the mugappu pendant, the jumbo size jhumkas and the oxidised studs. The jhumkas are bordered using bigger size red rhinestones half way in and out to get an umbrella patterned finish . The pendant can also be positioned in the center as a regular jewellery if desired...

What more we need to celebrate and make the festive season grand, rich and memorable..
Do give a try on a mugappu jewellery on your own and experiance the beauty of it..

and finally , I am super happy to submit this jewellery piece as my entry for Indian Quilling Challenge's Make it festive and click here to know the challenge details  and submit your entries..

Happy quilling..

Quilled Key chains and paper cut keychains

 I had a chance to try a paper cut keychain with multi colour ball chains and cabochon as a complimentary gift when one of my friend gave a bulk order of 20 pairs of jumkas to gift for her friends.

This is what I could give her

Another quilled keychain in black green and blue made for an order..

If u find them appealing and attractive , text to shequills@gmail.com or comment below this blog post or leave a msg on my fb page shequills for placing your orders.

Customization is also done.

Quilled Circular frame

Hi everyone,
Glad to give you all a  new post which is a quilled circular frame. As I have already stated many a times, I am a great fan of Indian Quilling challenge and love participating no matter how busy the days keep me and never miss to give my submission for the challenge every month.

This month we have been invited to showcase our creativity on Quilled frames and I have taken it again. Please find the challenge details here.

Observation is a key to catch the method in which any craft/work is being carried on step wise, which in turn makes you a good implementer when it is tried on your own. This is applicable everywhere and anywhere and I applied it here by observing the ready to use rectangle shaped frames which is available in any normal craft shops. So how it is done?? I tried to bring my own frame from the scratch using papers on which I can quill and give a beautiful handmade circular quilled frame.

The materials I used for creating the circular frame:
1)plain A4 executive bond sheets(as they r much thicker than normal ones) 20 in nos.
2)pencil
3)sissors
4)compass
5)White glue
6)OHP sheet
7)eye pin/head pin
8)A needle tool
9) a small red seed bead
10) flat nose plier
11) a frame hanging ring

Materials I used for Quilling work:
1)5 mm Quilling strips in shades of light green , dark green , aqua blue , dark blue and shades of pink
2)7 mm Graduated Quilling strips in shades of orange and lavender
3)Quilling comb for leaves
4)Crimping tool for flowers
5)Quilling needle
6)Quilling board
7)White glue.

So here are the steps that I carried one by one.
Taking my first plain white executive bond paper, I drew a circle with 5cm radius and 8 cm radius using  a compass and a pencil.

I repeated the above step for 20 sheets and using the sissor I cut the inner circle and created a 5cm radius circlular space for the photo space inside the frame.

After repeating the process for all 20 sheets I glued them one by one using a white glue and glued a thick black paper behind them as a base. I then glued a patterned thick paper in the front just to hide the plain white sheets and give a patterned look. 

so you will get a frame like the one above with a black base behind. I created some space to insert the OHP sheet and the photo while gluing the black base, and inserted a plain 5.5 cm radius white circular cut paper and an 5.5 cm OHP(transparent) sheet above it to secure the photo inserted. Then I started to quill my work as below.

I gave an inner circlar border using 5mm strips in shades of pink and started crimping the 7 mm graduated strips in two alternate colours and created 10 flowers . Then I created two colour leaves using combing technique in 5mm green strips and inserted between the flowers with a teardrop piece in light and dark colours of blue over it. 

With this I completed the quilling part and moved on to create a stand for it so that It can be placed anywhere with an object lying at home supporting it behind, and also a hook to hang it on the wall as a wall decor/frame. I managed to provide both the features in it by the below steps

I created two rectangular shaped card stack/paper stack using 15 to 16 paper pieces and glued them as shown above. I allowed it to dry completely so that it becomes secure and strong enough to hold the frame in position when placed anywhere. 

Then a hook was created in the top center of the frame by creating a hole using a needle tool through which the eye pin was inserted. A loop was created in the eye pin using a flat nose plier and a wall hanging ring was attached to it.

The back view of the frame having both the stand for placement and a ring for hanging it on the wall.

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 and here is the final piece that I achieved.

A Circluar Quilled frame for a photo size 5cm in radius.

The frame when placed with a supporting object behind.

The frame when hanged on the wall.

Hope you found the post interesting by going through the steps of the circular quilled frame created by me. I hereby link this to the IQC frame it up for the month of august.

Please leave your comments and feed back for the little effort I have taken and text to shequills@gmail.com for any further communication related to my craft work and visit my FB page shequills to purchase my quilled and craft work.

Thank u so much shylaa for bringing out my creative thoughts to this craft world one more time.

Happy Quilling,

Cheers - Aparna Balakrishnan. 

WINNER AND TOPPER IN INDIAN QUILLING CHALLENGE

hi all,
I am a great fan of indian quilling challenge , a group created by a talented crafter shylaa Shree of Adhiraa creations , which organizes quilling challenges with different themes every month , inviting the crafters of India to participte and give their entries. Every month one winners and toppers are selected and honored in awarding prizes and given a badge to claim.

I am so proud to share that I am one among the winners and toppers of IQC in the year 2015 for the following entries submitted so far.

The entry which got selected as the winner for the frame it up challenge no 19 2015.
View the winners and toppers post in the link: http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.in/2015/09/wiiner-post-iqcg19-frame-it-up.html

The entry which got selected as one among the three toppers for the January month’s Anything goes with thank you challenge 2015.
View the winners and toppers post in the link : http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.in/2015/02/winner-post-challenge-no12.html

The entry which got selected as one among the four toppers for the june month's quillography challenge 2015.

View the winners and toppers post in the link : http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.in/2015/07/winner-post-iqcg17-quillography.html

The entry which got selected as first topper among three toppers for the July month's Ombre / Monicromatic challenge 2015 .

View the winners and toppers post in the link:http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.in/2015/08/winner-post.html

Hope this post will go long and long with many topper post and winner post in the future too.

Ombre / Monochromatic Quilled set

Dear all,

Glad to give a post after a long time. Indian Quilling challenge is making me do it again and again. 

Yes this time the challenge is Ombre / Monochromatic quilling. Click here for the challenge details.

I love to participate in the challenge everytime but I really didnt know what to do for this month's challenge. After thinking thinking and thinking , I finally went for a jewellery set in Blue shades.

Making use of the Qrganza cords , Oxidised bead caps, pendant bails and Studs bases that I bought recently, I made a quick Quilled jhumka pair and a Quilled pendant out of them. I chose the blue colour and just went from the lighter side to darker side both for the jhumkas and the pendant. .The Strips used are 5mm strips and the jhumkas are bordered using 2 row tiny size silver ball chains. Please have a look at the set and click here to get its price and place your orders.

Thank u Shylaa Shree and the IQC team for making me active and stay craftaholic and Quilloholic all the time. Readers if my creations impress you, please visit my page shequills for more of my Quilled and craft work.

Happy Quilling ,

Aparna Balakrishnan.

How my Quilling journey started

Hi all,

Firstly I thank everyone of you who have taken time to visit my blog and read my posts. 

I am Aparna Balakrishnan , a home maker and a mother of a lovely little boy. 

Though I am an MCA post graduate and a university rank holder, I have turned as a Quiller/Artist/jewelry designer owning a page called shequills in face book.

Quilling is a paper art where you roll and curl paper strips with a specially designed quilling /slotted needle to bring various shapes and patterns to create many beautiful quilled pieces.

You can create beautiful cards , jewelries , fridge magnets , candle holders , key chains , frames and many more using this art. As everyone say sky is the limit for your creativity.

Creative thoughts have no boundaries isn't it?

Coming back to how I started it....

I saw quilling art for the first time when one of my sisters gave me a quilled card that she bought in a sale happened inside her office premises. I didn't even know the name of the art when I saw that day. Later on I surfed the net during my free hours, skipping my noon nap and slowly found the art very interesting and just felt to give it a try and that is how I started to quill. As days passed by, I became familiar with the basic shapes, techniques and patterns and spent most of my time quilling strips ,when I was carrying my son . later on , as months rolled and a year scrolled , when I realized I had little space to spend on my craft , I took the art very seriously and started my page shequills in FB to showcase my handmade quilled work on dec 30th 2013. 

Quilled S for Indian Quilling Challenge #17

My Entry for the quillography challenge #17.. Chose the letter S as my blog name and FB page name "shequills" starts with S. Happy to see the way it has come out..

If you find this work interesting , visit my FB page shequills  for more of my quilled work.