Quilled Snowflake

Technique Used: Quilling

Materials:
white quilling paper strips
quilling tool
pva glue
adhesive spray
fine glitter

Tools:
quilling tool

From the strips, cut the following:
one 6-inch-long strip (center round);
eight 3-inch-long strips (arms);
four 6-inch-long strips (scrolls);
four 3-inch-long strips (teardrops);
four 2-inch-long strips (marquise shapes)

For the centre round: Using a quilling tool, begin rolling a 6-inch strip from one end. Roll strip into a tight circle. Finished center round should be 1/2 inch wide. Use a dot of glue to secure end; let glue set.

For arms: Roll one end of a 3-inch strip around quilling tool twice. At opposite end, roll strip around tool until finished arm is 1 inch long, with a small scroll at one end and a larger scroll at the other. Make eight of these. Glue arms together in pairs so that the they are mirror images of each other and allow a few minutes to dry. Glue the large scrolls of the arms in place around the center circle.

For scrolls: Fold a 6-inch strip in half. Roll each end to the center so that it resembles a heart shape. Make four of these. Glue the bottoms of scrolls to bottoms of arms near the center round, awhat you are doing here is lining up the middle section where you creased with the large scrolls of the arms. Let glue set. Gently extend the heart shaped scrolls open and ahere these to the arm sides of scrolls to arms.

For teardrops: Using a 3-inch strip, make a 1/2-inch round. The length of paper used here is pretty short, and when allowed to unwind naturally it will be much smaller than 1/2 inch. What i did here was to wind up a tight coil from the strip, then open it up fully and rewind it loosely by hand. Place the loose coil into the 1/2" circle on the quilling board and glue end down. Allow a few minutes to set, then recoil the centre with the quilling tool. Pinch one side into a point. Make four.

Glue the teardrops between rolled ends of scrolls.

For marquise shapes: Using a 2-inch strip, make a 1/4-inch round. Pinch opposite sides into points. I used the same technique here as previous for the 3" strips. Coil, unwind to relax the paper, recoil loosely with your fingers and then place in the quilling board to set into the correct size.

This is the working sketch I used to help with the placement of the pieces.

Let ornament dry overnight. Spray one side of ornament with adhesive and sprinkle with glitter; let dry. Turn over ornament and repeat on opposite side.

Whilst making this ornament I reminded myself that the only woman capable of creating a perfect snowflake was Mother Nature!

Knitter's Ornament

Technique Used: General Crafting

Materials:
styrofoam Ball approx 2" to 3" in size
knitting Yarn
bamboo Skewers
small Wooden Beads
PVA glue

Tools:
Scissors

Using scissors trim the bamboo skewers to about 6" in length making sure you trim the blunt end and keep the sharp, pointed end intact.

Insert the skewer about an inch into the ball and remove. Take the end of the yarn and make a loop about two inches long, then catch the loose ends of the loop on the pointed end of the skewer and push back into the hole that you made. This secures the start of the wool invisibly without the need for glue or pins and creates the hanging loop. Push the skewer all the way through so that it resembles a knitting needle pushed through a ball of yarn.

Wind yarn around the styrofoam ball so that it is 100% covered and you can no longer see any of the ball, this will take several rotations all the way around. When you are satisified that there is enough yarn wound around the ball cut the yarn and once again catch the loose end on the sharp tip of the bamboo skewer and push it all the way through the ball, inserting the second knitting needle and securely ending the yarn.

Glue wooden beads on the blunt ends of the bamboo skewers so they better resemble knitting needles.

Holly Cross Stitch

Technique Used: Cross Stitch

Materials:
Embroidery Floss in the following colours -
Light Green
Medium Green
Dark Green
White
Red
Dark Red
Black
3" square of Aida cloth
suitable frame

Tools:
embroidery needle
scissors




Key To Colours

º Light Green

· Med Green

x Dark Green

* White

♥ Red

· Dark Red

Grandma's Buttons

Technique Used: Basic Crafting Skills


You will need:
An old lightbulb
Variety of small buttons
Tacky Glue
Braid or ribbon

I have a huge jar of buttons that was started by my Grandma, and then passed along to my Mother, who in turn passed them along to me. A glorious collection of colours and textures, most taken from old clothes before they were turned into rags. I had been mulling around ideas in my head on how to use old lightbulbs, and this is what I came up with:

I followed this step by step tutorial on how to hollow out a lightbulb. I used a candelabra style globe, but a regular round globe would work also.

Once it was hollowed out and cleaned I went through my button collection searching for any that were a pink, beige or cream colour and small enough to fit through the top of the lightbulb. Once it was sufficiently full I glued a dusky pink braid around the screw fixture of the bulb using Tacky Glue.

The hanging part was my son's clever invention. Taking a thin piece of cord I threaded it through the holes of a button and tied the ends together, and then glued the button to the top of the lightbulb.