Quilled in Michigan

Hello!!! Y'all remember that post about the quilled portrait I did as a graduation gift?  Yeah, this one: Well, that actually was my THIRD one. The first one I made for a different cousin, K., and her fiancé. Before we go forward, I feel like I should tell you some things. This is something NEW. No one has EVER made this kind of art before. Not with paper strips like this! I invented it myself. That's right, all by myself. You're witnessing history right here! Anyway, I had this vision for what I thought this art style would look like, and...my mom thought I was nuts. I could tell she wasn't picturing the same thing as me. So, I decided to give up... Just kidding! Just because she didn't see the vision doesn't mean it isn't possible. I dove right in and started working. If you want to see how I make these, you'll have to check out my post on it: Graduation Gift Here is the final result! I would show some of the process, but I literally didn't take a ...

Hello again. It's me, Amanda! Today we're talking about a project that's roughly 3 years old. Which reminds me that I should probably frame this project and do a photo shoot with it sometime. But that's for another day. Here it is!  You may have seen it before, but now I'm explaining how it came to life... I saw these cool projects on Pinterest, where they quill a piece shaped like a state, and I decided that I just HAD to make one too! So, I made my indentation outline, (I believe one of the first times I'd ever tried that!)  and got to work. First, I shaped and glued down the outline: Honestly, I'm fairly impressed with myself. For someone trying something new, I did pretty well! Next, I started adding details! I decided that I wanted a lighthouse, with water, sun, clouds and tulips. Here, you can see it starting to come to life! And boom , I pulled my usual, and didn't take any photos between that and the finished result.  ...whoops... TA-DA! My finis...

  Welcome back! I've finally stopped procrastinating and I'm able to post something new.  See this? This is my cousin, A.  She just graduated, and last minute, the night before her open house celebration, I decided that I DEFINITELY had time to make her a gift.  Sooooo, I texted her and asked if she had any graduation photos she could send me. She sent me about 10, and I studied them VERY closely, to determine if any were a worthy option to turn into art. I had to consider the lines of the art, and what would look odd and what wouldn't. I finally decided on the photo up above, and got to work.  And two hours later....HERE IT IS! See! Isn't it CUTE?!? I do like how it came out, even if I had TONS of trouble with the pant legs,  but it worked out in the end! (please don't look too closely, I COULDN'T fix it, and now I know how to, but I already gave it away...)   Now, allow me to explain the steps a bit... just  enough for you to understand how much...

  What exactly is quilling? Well, according to Wikipedia it is an art form that involves the use of strips of paper that are rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs. Which I agree with, I guess... But it's really SOOO much more than that! It was invented in 105 AD in China, but it's quite different today than it was back then. They even made it with WIRE back then, which would disagree with what Wikipedia states is the literal meaning of Quilling (rolled paper ), so I feel fairly justified with calling my art quilling, even if sometimes it doesn't involve so much rolling of paper as it does the manipulating of paper.  Why is it called quilling? Because you used to use a quill to roll the paper!  Now a-days you use something like this:  Which I own most (if not all) of, although I have broken a few. 😶 Here's an example of the style of quilling done several hundred years ago: Where-as modern quilling is much more colorful, open and playful. Her...

  Hello, again! It's time for the next part of my quilled dollhouse! For the record, although I almost completed this part, I didn't actually finish it, and I got busy...so maybe don't expect too many updates in the near future. 😂 Here is version #3 of the stairs! I didn't take photos of version #1 and #2... They were awful. And I suffered through making them for HOURS. No kidding! This part of the project literally took me THREE DAYS to complete! 😭 I stopped adding a backside the third time around, and that saved SO MUCH TIME. Moral of the stories is: If they ain't gonna see it from the front, then it don't need to look good in the back. So yeah, I decided to only worry about the part people would see and not the rest: Aaaaand here is the making of the bookshelf for under the stairs: If you look closely, you can see the remains of the original shelf that I tore apart in rage...or at least wanted to tear apart in rage. And here...(drumroll please!) is the al...

 Welcome back, Y'all! This is part two of my journey creating a 3d quilled dollhouse, which has never existed before. This is where we left off last time, with the bedroom completed: Here is my inspo for the fixtures in my bathroom: And here they are in progress: And here they are complete! I added a ceiling light, wall art galore, a mirror over the sink, towels (both bath and hand towels) and toilet paper. Some of which you can't see from this angle, but it is what it is, haha. This is a better angle to see them: And here is where those rooms are in relevance to each other. And yes, you're receiving a sneak peek of next week's project: The Stairway (Ugh, the stairway was AWFUL...)

 Welcome to my journey through creating a quilled dollhouse! I decided to start this project without any real inspiration, since quilled dollhouses aren't exactly a thing. It has been quite the undertaking, but a lot of fun too! I started off with this cute wire doll bed that I found a photo of on Pinterest, and decided that I thought I could recreate it with paper: This is what I ended up with!  It wasn't bad, but I could definitely see ways to improve it. And most importantly, it ended up WAY to big to use in the frame I had picked out.  And yes, it took me 1 1/2 hours, but it was definitely worth it in the end. 😁 I then got to work on re-creating it in a smaller version! This is the either the headboard or footboard, (I can't remember which) and it was almost exactly one square inch! To give you a better idea of how big it is, here it is next to the original one I made: This one also took me 1 1/2 hours, but that's because I had to do a lot of the work with tweezers...