Goodbye and thank you 2018!

It's the last day of 2018. I feel a little sad because I was not able to fulfill a lot of things the past couple of months. I haven't been well since October and I have not made any new quilling tutorials since my last post. I vowed to take better care of my health in 2019 and I hope that I will be consistent this time around. 

A lot has happened since my last post here. It has been a real struggle to be creative and work when you are sick. But having said that, I am so grateful to God that even though I was sick, I was still able to create a little bit on some days that I felt a little better. Oh! Another thing I have to add here is that, I was also busy taking care of a little new born kitten at that time. You can click and read all about it at the link  of my personal blog --> HERE. Most of my Instagram followers already know about Stormy. I talk about her every other day. I also post a lot of my quilling work on my Instagram. You can view them at my Instagram link ---> HERE. Since November, I've been experimenting a lot on making quilling snowflakes. It was a lot of fun. It has given me an idea of what I can do for my future quilling projects. There is just so much to learn about quilling. I have learned a lot from other quillers around the world. So many new ideas and methods that I can try out in 2019. No harm in trying something new. 

As always, my new year resolution is would be to update my blog as often as I can. It didn't work as I planned it this year, but hopefully in 2019, things will get better for me and I can write and create more.

I want to thank each and everyone who still follow me here and still support me in my creative ventures. I have a lot of projects pending from 2018 that I will carry forward in 2019. Can't wait for me to get them all done and blog about them. Do pray for my good health next year. I truly need it a lot to carry on doing what I love. 

How to make flowers using a quilling husking board

Hello again!

It's October already and I have been having fun playing with new quilling tools! Oh yes! Believe it or not after 8 years of quilling, last month I got myself a quilling crimper and quilling husking board. First time ever trying out these tools and they are so much fun to use! Seriously!

I knew about the quilling crimper many years ago but never got one because the one I knew of was so expensive to buy until I found out about this cheap one! Hahaha! I immediately rushed to get it. It was worth it. It works really well so far and I've seen many other quillers using it and not having any problem with it at all so I'm glad I got it in the end.

As for the quilling husking board, I only found out about it a few weeks ago when I was browsing through Instagram. Saw a few quillers there who are using it and it seems like fun. I didn't know what it was called in the beginning because they didn't mention the name of the tool. It was such a long search before I finally found out what they call it and where to find one.

I've been busy playing with the tools and experimenting with them on my own now. It's not easy to find tutorials on how to use the quilling husking board though. There are just a few. But it was enough for me to get the idea of how to use it. From there I just figured out how to make use of it for my quilling designs.

Here are some of the husking designs I have made and the crimping obsession I've been having lately that I've shared on my Instagram @azlinaabdul so far. Just playing with a few designs to see what I really like so that I can use them for my future handmade cards etc. 

I made a really simple tutorial on how to use the crimper and also the quilling husking board. I hope you will take some time to watch it and try this technique yourself. Thank you so much!!

Rainbow coloured mandala

At last I completed my rainbow coloured mandala yesterday. My first ever. So far, only one is done. I have to make at least 5  or more of this. Hope I won't get tired making so many of them.

I had a hard time deciding what quilling shapes and sizes I would choose to surround the rainbow shell shape petals. After a lot of trials and errors, this is what I came up with. The mandala itself is quite small and simple. I made it look a little fancy by adorning it with all those bling blings. 

After this, the next step is to put this mandala on my handmade cards. I think it would be great card for any occasion. Although making a quilling mandala means that you would have to make similar quilling shapes repeatedly, I'm surprised that I enjoyed it. It can be rather therapeutic! Indeed!

The only challenging thing about making this quilling mandala was making those rainbow shell shape petals. Which by the way, takes so long to make! Yikes! Other than that, it was easy peasy making those basic quilling shapes. It's been a long time since I made those marquise and tear drop shapes. Can be a little nostalgic! Just thinking back on how many of those shapes I made way back when I first started quilling. I must have made thousands of them!

For all the quilling shapes in this mandala, I only used 5mm quilling strips. And they are all hand cut with razor and metal ruler. I'm beginning to enjoy using the 5mm quilling strips. All these years of quilling, 8 years in total, not once I tried the 5mm quilling strips. I've only been using the 3mm ones. And they are mostly shredded papers. But now, anything goes! It's all about experimenting and going to the next level. ;)

Rainbow shell shape quilling petals

Just the other day, I thought that I could only use maximum four colours using the shell shape quilling method  But yesterday I realised that I could use more than that! I was just playing with the thought of using rainbow colours and tried it out first with my shredded papers to see if it could work. To my surprise, it did work although it was very time consuming and difficult to handle.

The shredded papers were a lot more difficult to handle because they are very small. They are 3mm wide and it seems that it's easier to use the 5mm quilling papers than the 3mm ones because when you've finished combing all the coloured papers, it's difficult to push the 3mm papers with the tweezers. So, I used the 5mm quilling papers instead. 

I really love how the petals turned out looking like heart shapes instead of shell shape. Especially the red and orange papers inside each petal. They really stand out. 

At first I did want to make flowers arrangement with the petals but I decided to make a mandala instead. I've never made one before. This is my first time trying so please excuse me if I am not doing it right. I'm just having fun with it. I've seen a lot of samples out there where people use quilling to make them. It's seems so much fun arranging the quilling shapes in a circle like that. 

As you can see from the photo above, I am in the process to make the mandala to decorate on my handmade cards. Just a small one. Nothing too complicated. Hope to make a few of them soon! ;)

Four colours shell shape quilling flower

I made this flower a few days ago. Uploaded photos of them and a short video of it on Instagram first because I just couldn't wait to share them with everyone, as usual, hahaha. I need to learn to be more patient I guess and blog about it here first before sharing it anywhere else.

I was kinda obsessed with making those shell shapes petals over and over again. Then it occurred to me that I should try using more than 2 colours per petal and see how it would turn out. To be honest I think 4 colours is the limit for me! More than that, it would be so difficult for me to hold on to the petals without messing with it's shape.

The plastic lice comb is the most suitable comb to be used for me to make this 4 colours shell shape quilling flower. This is because the tooth of the comb is very small and thin. Thus giving more room to comb more layers of quilling paper. The bigger the tooth and larger gaps in between would make it harder to add a lot of layers. It's hard to explain, I guess you have to try it yourself to understand what I'm trying to say.

So far, I've only tried using these colours like soft pink, cyber pink, fluorescent pink and red. The combination is great! I would love to try more other colour combinations in future and show them to everyone here. Till then! ;)

My version of the Shell Shape quilling flower - Tutorial

Well hello again! 

Another quilling tutorial post today for you guys. I guess I've been doing a lot quilling tutorials lately. It's all because I've been getting so many requests from my followers on Instagram to make them, I just can't say no. I'm in the mood for it anyways. I just feel like quilling and quilling and quilling. Looks like my absence from quilling for so many months has led to this! 

Ok! Back to the subject! The Shell Shape quilling flower! It's a quilling flower made using a quilling comb. I learned how to make it from a quilling tutorial made by Toshi M last July. You can view her quilling tutorial on her YouTube channel at the link HERE. I wasn't really sure about how to make it in the beginning because I didn't know the length of the quilling paper that she used to make each petal of the flower. So I experimented a lot in order to make it exactly like she did it. In the end, I still couldn't make it look exactly like hers because I think our quilling papers are different. So it turned differently. Similar, but not exactly the same.

Once I figured out how to make her Shell Shape quilling flower, I wanted to give it a try with a different type of quilling comb. So I used a lice comb! I got it many years ago back in 2012 when I first learned how to do the quilling comb technique. You could see my blog post about it at the link HERE. I experimented a lot with different types of combs back then. It was kinda like an obsession. The more combs, the merrier. Haha!

Anyways, when I tried to make the Shell Shape quilling flower with the lice comb, I was shocked to see how it turned out. It looked like the shape of a heart instead of a shell. Well, that's my personal opinion la! Haha! It seems that, the smaller the pins of the comb and the smaller the gap in between it, makes all the difference. So that's the trick! That's what makes them different. I figured, the best way to make people understand how it's done is by making a tutorial. Because just showing what type of comb I used is not enough. You have to see how it's done in order to understand. A lot of people have been bugging me to do this tutorial, so I hope you guys find it helpful and share it with those who love quilling too.

I used a 80gsm colour printing paper for this flower which I cut myself by hand with razor and ruler. The size of each strip is 5mm x 297mm. So for one petal, I combined two different colour quilling papers. I used the same amount of paper to make Toshi M's quilling flower. So in other words, you can use the same measurements and yet different results all because of the quilling comb. The quilling comb is the reason why they look different.

So do check out the quilling tutorial below and give it a try yourself. Hope you will enjoy trying it out. Have fun quilling! :)

Multicolour quilling flower tutorial!

Hello again!

We are closely coming to the end of August and September is just around the corner. Today I had the opportunity again to make my second quilling tutorial for this month. This particular quilling flower seems to be a favourite among my followers on Instagram and many had requested me to make a tutorial for it. I've been trying to find some free time to do it the past few days and only today I had the chance, alhamdulillah.

Although I'm not that great at making video tutorials, I do what I can with what I have and make it happen. I really hope in future I'll be better at it. 

Well, this multicolour quilling flower is a little different from other quilling flowers I've made before. One thing for sure is that the quilling papers are not like the ones I've been using for my other tutorials. This particular quilling paper is longer than the usual A4 printing paper's length. I really like it a lot. 

The width of each quilling strip is 5mm and the length is 390mm. So, if you are using the A4 printing papers as your quilling paper, you may need to join 2 quilling strips together to make each petal of the flower, because 1 quilling strip is not enough.

Yellow and orange combination

Purple and pink combination

There are many colour combinations you can try out to make this flower. I tried making it with the blue and purple combination and that really was nice. But of course the pink and green combo is always a favourite with me! You can try yellow and orange or purple and pink! That will be lovely too!

Do check out the video below and give it a try! Have fun quilling! ;)

Husking leaves design with quilling comb

It's Friday! Believe it or not, this week I've been really busy quilling. I started quilling again after taking a break from it for months. I share a lot of what I've been making lately at my Instagram @azlinaabdul almost every other day. What can I say, it is easier to share photos there hahaha :D.

Come to think of it, it's not like I have stopped quilling completely, because I did do some minor quilling for my one of my Raya card designs this year. Well....just a little, hahaha!! I think the last time I did any quilling video tutorial was way back in February. So long ago! I guess it's high time I make new ones!

I've been working on some ideas for quilling video tutorials this month and I'm starting off with this simple husking leaves tutorial. It's really easy to make and looks really fancy. They are great for quilling beginners. 

Once you understand the method, you can make them in any size that you want. You can even make flowers with this leaf design. I'm having fun making leaves with this method instead. I have plans to use them a lot on my handmade card designs soon.

First time ever, I am doing a quilling tutorial using quilling papers that I cut myself using razor blades. They are a bit wider compared to the shredded quilling papers that I've used before. The width is 5mm and 297mm in length. But it doesn't matter because I'm still learning how to cut them without the use of any machines. Using the razor blade is a pain but I'm getting the hang of it. Someday I'll try and cut them smaller in size, maybe 2mm or 3mm.

So guys, do check out my latest video down here and try out yourself and have some fun making leaves! ;)

How to make cute paper bows!

Hello everyone!

I can't believe that's it's almost the end of July! We are left with just a few more months to be filled with lots of crafting joy! What have you all been doing lately? Well, I have been playing with these paper bows. I can't seem to stop making them ever since I figured out how to make them! Aren't they just so cute?! I love them! I started making them early this month. Once I figured out how to make them, I just had to share with everyone how it's made.

These bows looks just like the bows made with the We R Memory Keeper punch board, but they are NOT!! I cut them up by hand. No special boards were used in the making of these paper bows. Believe or not! Yes, all that was needed was just a pencil, a ruler, a pair of scissors, some white glue and a circle template or a 180 degree round ruler.

The measurements for the paper bows are as below:

1st piece is 6 inches x 1 inch.

2nd piece is 3 1/2 inches x 1 inch.

3rd piece is 1/4 inch x 1 inch.

Once you know how to make this paper bows, you can use them to decorate on paper bags, handmade cards, gift boxes and more! It's all up to your imagination. It's a great way to use up all your pattern paper scraps you have in your collection. I know I'm gonna use them all up. I have lots of them in my craft room just waiting to be turned into paper bows!

Do watch the video tutorial below if you want to give it a try! Thanks so much for watching! Enjoy!

My first twist circle pop up card

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Hello everyone!

In continuation from yesterday's post, today I want to share another Eidul Fitri card that I made this year. This one is a little bigger in size compared to the other design that I blogged about yesterday that is only half the size of this card. I only made two Eidul Fitri card designs this year and as I said in yesterday's post, this year's card designs are all about flowers and I chose the Rose flower as the subject matter for this one.

I also made a pop up for this card and the thing is, the mechanism for this one is similar to the one I made for the other Eidul Fitri card. When I was learning how to make the pop up twist from the various YouTube tutorials, I found out that the base for the pop up twist is the same as the base for the pop up twist circle. The only difference is how the position of the circle is glued to the base of the pop up. They both twist as they pop up but in a different direction and I find that to be so interesting!! That's why even though I don't have the die cut for this pop up, I still challenged myself to do it manually. The pop up twist is definitely easier to do compared to the pop up twist circle. I almost gave up doing it in the beginning but my many experiments finally became successful in the end. So NEVER give up trying!! :D

I just love these Rose flower die cuts from Die-namics. I have two different types of Rose flower die-cut patterns, but this one is my favourite. Once the patterns are cut, they need to be embossed in order to get that look similar to of a Rose flower.

Another thing I love doing whenever I make my handmade cards is sewing beads on the card. I think this is the first time I'm sewing these beads this way. Usually I would sew them on a square or rectangular shaped paper, so it's a first for me to sew them along the lines of this oblong shaped paper. 

Although I didn't make any quilling flowers, I did however made some quilling sprigs to use as part of the decoration for the flower arrangement. Not too many of them though, as I don't like seeing them too overcrowded. They seem to blend well with the Roses ;). 

You could see that I used a Rose pattern corner punch to punch out the corners for the pop up insert inside the card and also for the front layer of the card. I really like this puncher because not only I can use it to punch out Rose pattern on the corners but I can also cut out pieces of Roses with it. And I used them to decorate on the twist circle pop up. I love playing with the Rose puncher and see what else I can do with it for future projects. It's nice to buy a puncher and to find out that it can be used for multiple of things, not just one. :)

Do check out the video of the card below. Thank you so much for watching!

Salam Aidilfitri pop up twist card

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Salam Ramadhan everyone and hello again!

It's already June! That means I missed out blogging in April and May. Sigh! To think that I wanted to blog everyday this year and end up not even blogging every month. The guilt is always there, ok!!.HAHA! Oh well, hope to do better next time!! So today I want to share about what I've been up to the past couple of months. 

This year's Raya card design is all about having fun! Fun means that I just don't think too much about the Raya theme and just focus on how to make it look pretty. Previously my Raya cards had to have Ketupat or Mosque as the subject matter. But this year, I decided to do something that has nothing to do with Raya at all. So it was all about flowers! Lots of them! 

I was thinking of doing quilling flowers, but they are a bit time consuming and I didn't have enough time to do it this time. Maybe next year, I'll be more prepared, if I start really early. As you all know, I was a bit distracted early this year with the knitting, weaving and crocheting, which took my mind off from paper craft for quite some time. When I got the order to make the Raya cards, I had to shift the mode from playing with yarns and focus on paper craft. Somehow it didn't turn out as well as I thought it would in the beginning. I had a hard time deciding what kind of design I wanted to do versus what I can do.

What is certain is that the Raya card has to have a pop up inside no matter what. I've always made sure that my Raya cards have pop up inside. For my Raya cards this year, I wanted to use a pop up mechanism that I learned from various YouTube tutorials. It's the Pop Up Twist mechanism that really interest me this time. I watched a few tutorials before deciding on how I would to do it. Because watching different tutorials means that different teachers will give me different tips on it, so it's always wise to watch more than one tutorial so that I will have a better understanding of how to do the pop up. 

I also thought of my craft punches. I have lots of them. But not enough for a showcase though! LOL! So, the idea is to figure out how to incorporate all these craft punches in one card design. That of course took me a lot of time to figure out, hahahahaa! I wanted to make a simple design, nothing too complicated because I need to make a lot of the cards. So if it is too time consuming, I have to think of something else to do. 

To be honest, decorating the card with the punched out flowers and leaves are not that hard to do and not time consuming at all. The only reason why it was time consuming was because I embossed them. The embossing took so much of my time. I embossed hundreds of the flowers and leaves. I had to do that because the embossed look was so much better than if it was not. So, for the sake of beauty, I sacrificed my time and energy. HAHA! It was worth it though! :D

OK, the butterflies, need not be embossed....so I just stick them on the pop up spirals I made. The pop up spirals were cut by hand by the way. No die cuts for that. 

I think I used about 11 punches for this card alone! That's the most I've used for any of my handmade cards before. I really made used of them this time, HAHA! As you can see, I had to make the pop up twist from scratch. No die cuts. I've seen on YouTube how they use die cuts for this pop up and it's so easy when you have that at hand. But it's also good to learn how to do it yourself. It's more challenging and interesting. Keeps the brain working you know.

Last but not least.....my love for writing my own sentiments for my handmade cards. In a way, it's my way of forcing myself to write with the brush. It gives me the practice I needed. You know how it is if you don't get the practice every now and then, you tend to lose the skill. 

All in all, making this card was a good lesson for me. I learned a lot in the progress. It's always good to try new things and work the brain a bit. Do check out the video of the card below. You can see how the pop up twist works inside the card. Thanks for watching! ;)