Blue and Silver Bookmark as a Gift Accent

Wrapper: blue wrapper with silver floral etchings

Gift Tag: white cartolina colored with silvery blue thumbprints from my index finger using Dong A My Metal Metal Blue 0.7 pen.

Gift Tag Accent: the letter A, which is the first letter of the recipient's name. This cut-out was colored blue using Crayola Flip-Top marker then sprinkled with Leeho Glitter Glue, also in blue. Silver ribbon was added so my friend can later use the gift tag as a bookmark.

Quilled Butterfly

In my first post about quilling, I shared about how I discovered this fine art when I bought butterflies and flowers from Country Crafts, Ayala Cebu.

Of the items that I bought, I was most amazed with the butterflies since I love butterflies.  I also thought it was very difficult to make and so at first I only contented myself with making quilled flowers.

my store-bought quilled butterflies

Thankfully, I found this blog that has instructions on how to make a quilled butterfly.  By looking at it, I was finally able to grasp how the butterfly's thorax and abdomen are made.  That is, by rolling a triangular sheet of paper.

I changed how the antenna was placed though as instead of attaching them to the thorax, I glued it to one end of the triangular sheet of paper before rolling the said paper to give it a cleaner and more polished look.  Below are my some of my quilled butterfly creations.

my very own quilled butterfly creations

Raffia Ribbon and Punch Craft Flowers as Gift Accents

Wrapper: plain pink cartolina.

Gift Tag: plain white folder piece cut into a circle and colored blue using Crayola crayon in cerulean. It was then coated with Leeho Glitter Glue in light blue. The recipient's name was from colorful letter cut-outs from a magazine. The gift tag was ribboned on the gift box using pink raffia.

Accent: craft-punch flowers in blue, dotted light pink.

Discovering Quilling

I discovered quilling or paper filigree when I purchased quilled butterflies and flowers at Country Crafts, Ayala Cebu early this year.  I was amazed at how intricate they looked.  And so I looked up quilling on the Internet and found the many wonders that one can do using tiny strips of paper.

my purchased quilled items

Inspired, I purchased a quilling kit at the same shop and started quilling.  My first creations were flowers created using the basic shapes of quilling.

my first quilled creations

Then I moved on to creating fringed flowers.  I initially thought this was difficult but after creating my first fringed flower, I realized that it's actually easier than making quilled flowers as the former only requires cutting the edges and twirling it on my slotted tool. 

my first fringed flowers

Meanwhile, I found quilled flowers more time consuming to make since they require precision in arranging the quilled pieces.  Nevertheless, each and every quilled and fringe creations I had is worth every allotted time and effort.

Bird Paper Mache as a Gift Accent

Wrapper: Plain shimmery turquoise wrapper.

Accent: A bird paper mache perched atop a silver and turquoise ribbon horizontally tied on the gift.

Gift tag: The letter C, which is the recipient's first name. This foam sticker is colored blue using colored sand in turquoise. The white background is plain white cartolina sprinkled with silver Leeho glitter powder.