Holy Family

It was a beautiful Christmas and, like last year, I enjoyed making several miniature nativities to give as gifts.  The ones I made in 2010 included an angel, star, a “stable,” Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.  This year, I kept it to just the 3 figures of the holy family––Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.  I made the change partially because it is much easier and faster to make 3 figures than 4+, but I also realized that the arrangement of 3 figures looks better too.

Joseph stands about 2 inches tall, just to give you an idea of size.

I would like to give a shout-out to Cheryl at a paper {life} (www.CardsbyCheryl.blogspot.com) who originally inspired the design with her own beautiful (and more comprehensive) nativity.

A Simple Quilled Nativity

I hope you and yours enjoyed a wonderful Christmas season!

In past years, I have included quilled snowflakes with many of my gifts; this year, I still gave some snowflakes, but also decided to attempt quilled nativities for giving.  I was very much inspired by a talented quiller/blogger named Cheryl from Cards By Cheryl.  The nativities were easier to produce than expected, it helps to keep the nativity scene simple!  Mine included the Holy Family and an angel—no animals, no shepherds, no wise men.  I also created the scene out of just 2 colors—ivory for Mary, Joseph, and the angel; white for the angel’s halo, Jesus, and the manger.  The white is meant to signify the divine nature of the 2 figures.  While I appreciate the symbolism, I think I will stick to ivory for the entire scene in future nativities.  The ivory is much gentler on the eyes and I think doing all the pieces the same shade will make it more aesthetically pleasing.  My favorite thing about the ivory pieces is that, from a distance, they kind of look like they are made of wood… very cool.  🙂

The “stable” is simply a triangle formed from card stock with the Star of Bethlehem poised at the peak.  Every piece of the nativity has been sprayed with sealant for added stability.

Happy 2011… and happy quilling!

Army in Pink

One of my most quilling-supportive friends requested this one back in December… I finally finished it just yesterday.  It’s not that it took me that long to work on it—the whole thing, beginning to end, took about 3 hours—but between moving and other life busyness, it just kept getting put off.  The request was for a certain army unit patch to be quilled using a lot of pink and was going to be given to a friend who is retiring from the army (and happens to be female).  The emblem on the patch was a huge quilling challenge and I’m not even sure that I beat the challenge very well; I think I got the general likeness to the original patch, but the symmetry issues were never fully resolved.  That’s where the “embellishments” came in!  The butterfly, flowers, and swirly bits were not originally going to be part of the piece, but I think they furthered the femininity and boosted the pink theme nicely.  The final product is about 4″ in diameter and was designed to fit inside an acrylic case that protects the quilling beautifully, but also serves as a coaster or paperweight if the recipient so desires.  You might see that there is one little swirly piece that is bent in the photos… I have noticed it and will be sure to repair it before shipping.

The first photo is the original unit patch (sorry, it’s the largest photo I could find), with the quilled versions following: