Showing posts with label cat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cat. Show all posts

Monday, October 31, 2016

Halloween Sampler - Projects #8 and #9

This is the last post for the Halloween Sampler!  Finally ... I hope these instructions are of some use, and that you have fun making a few of these little projects, or the whole sampler!

I particularly hope you have fun with the projects that are a little more unusual - there are lots of patterns for pumpkins, but vampire fangs and skeleton keys are a little more hard to find.

This post covers projects #8 and #9 (out of nine).  I've already posted the general instructions, the mat board cutting instructions, as well as projects #1 - #7 and a bonus project!

First post -  Halloween Sampler
Second post - General Instructions and Mat board
Third post - Bonus Project and Project #1
Fourth post - Projects #2 and #3
Fifth post - Projects #4 and #5 
Sixth post - Projects #6 and #7 
Seventh (and last) post is this one! - Projects #8 and #9

And remember, if you want to download all the instructions right now in one go, then head over to Craftsy where I have them posted for $3.99.

Project #8:  Vampire Fangs

Materials:
Mouth
- bright red, 2 strips at 8” (upper lip)
- bright red, 1 strip at 12” (lower lip)
- bright white, 2 strips at 3” (fangs)
- dark red, 1 strip at 6” (blood drop)
Thorny Rose Vines
- bright red, 1 strip at 12” (rose) 1/4” wide strip
- olive green, 2 strips at 5” (vines)
- olive green, 4 strips at 2.5” (thorns)
- dark red, 1 strip at 3” (blood drop)

Start by using 2 of the 8" bright red strips.  Make two long teardrops.  Make a long, flat semi-circle with the 12" strip.  Glue these three pieces together as shown to form lips.  Form fangs by taking the 2, 3” strips of white and making long triangles.  Glue these on top of the lower lip.  Make a teardrop out of the 6” dark red strip, and glue it to the lower lip so it appears to be dripping off of one of the fangs.

Make a rose from the 12” strip of 1/4" wide paper.  Make two long “S” coil shapes from the 5” olive green strips.  On each of these “S” shapes, glue two thorns.  The thorns are long triangle shapes made from the 2.5” long strips of olive green.  For a final touch, create a small teardrop shape from the 3” dark red strip and position it so it drips from one of the thorns.

The fangs and thorny vines are found in the upper right square of the sampler.  Glue the pieces into place there, the square in the top, right column.

Project #9:  Witch’s Lair

Materials:
Hat
- bright purple, 2 strips at 10” (hat)
- orange, 1 strip at 1.5” (sash)
- yellow, 1 strip at 1” (buckle) ¼ wide paper
- black, 1 strip at 1/8” (buckle)
Cat
- black, 1 strip at 9” (body)
- black, 1 strip at 5” (head)
- black, 1 strip at 4” (tail)
- black, 1 strip at 2” (whiskers)
- black, 1 strip at 2” (nose) 1/8” narrow paper
- black, 2 strips at 2” (ears)
- neon green, 2 strips at 1.5” (eyes)
Caldron
- black, 1 strip at 25” (pot)
- black, 1 strip at 12” (lip of pot)
- black, 2 strips at 3” (feet of pot)
- green/yellow, 4 strips; 5”, 4”, 3”, 2” (poison fumes)

To make the witch’s hat, start with a 10” strip of bright purple and form it into a long triangle, with the tip slightly bent.  Make a circle out of the other 10” strip and squash it flat to form the brim of the hat.  Glue together.

Use the strip of orange and wrap it around the bottom of the hat just above the brim.  It should go across the front and down both sides of the hat (but not around the back).  Trim the strip to fit if necessary. 

To make the buckle use the bit of 1” yellow wide width paper, cut a small rectangle.  Use the black paper to cut an even smaller rectangle, as shown.  Glue the black rectangle onto the yellow one.  Now glue this onto the hat, on top of the strip of orange.  (You can also make a nice hat from other colors, such as black and dark green, and use strips of different colors as well for the sash.)

The cat’s body is made from a wide teardrop formed from the 9” long strip of black paper.  The 5” strip should be formed into an eye shape and glued on top of the teardrop.  Use the 4” length of black to form a tail, curving and trimming into whatever shape pleases you.  Make two ears by making long triangles from the 2” strips of black paper.  An image of the back of the finished cat is shown.

The face is more detailed, and getting a good picture was hard.  First, make two eye shapes from the neon green, and glue them to the upper part of the head, just under the ears.  Now take the 2” strip of black and use the scissors to cut it lengthwise into 4 very narrow strips.  Center these under the cat’s eyes, and fan them out a bit to look like whiskers.  Glue into place one at a time, right on top of one another.  Just use one tiny dab of glue at a time, and then put another whisker down, and glue that.  On top of the center of the whiskers, you will put the nose.  The nose is a triangle made from the 2” strip of narrow black (although regular width would work fine, using narrow width paper here helps to keep the nose from poking out, and hides the middle of the pile of whiskers where you glued them in place.)  Glue the nose.  Trim the whiskers to be the right length for your project.  (mine stick out about ½ to ¼ of an inch from the nose on either side).

The boiling caldron starts with the 25” strip of black, rolled into an offset-circle.  Put the center of the offset at the bottom, and flatten the top of the circle to be the top of the pot.  Use the 12” strip to form a circle, and squash it flat to make up the brim of the pot.  Glue in place.  The feet of the pot are made from the 2, 3” strips made into circles.  Glue to the pot.

The poisonous fumes are made from four pieces of yellow/green paper of various lengths.  Each is made into an “S” Shape and glued to the top of the pot, and to each other wherever they touch.  I used 5”, 4”, 3”, and 2” length strips.

Arrange the hat, cat, and caldron in the lower, middle square.  Glue into place in the middle column, bottom, as shown.

Image Credit:  All my own pictures of my own quilling, all my own original designs.

     
   
 

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Ideas For Quilling - Celtic Designs and Knots

As I mentioned in my post "Ideas and Inspiration for New Quilling" one of my sources for new ideas are books with designs and motifs around a given theme.  I'm going to post about a few of them here on the blog.  Today's theme is "Celtic."

This celtic cat is a purrrfect design
for expression with quilling.
Celtic designs seem perfectly matched for quilling, since they so often include spirals, knots, and other flowing forms.  I have picked up a selection of books over the years, and whenever I need some inspiration on this theme, I flip through them.

Design books might include CDs with images you can load right up on your computer for manipulation.  And the best part is that many of these sorts of resources are specifically created to be copyright-free.  (Always be sure to check the copyright - even Creative Commons licenses are usually not for commercial purposes.  But quilling them for your own personal use is often allowed.)

A piece I've copied and started
coloring in.  Making multiple
copies allows you to experiment
with colors without damaging
your book.
The designs will range from simple motifs, to stand-alone drawings, to complicated scenes.  Many of my Celtic motif books have smaller designs that seem ready to go for quilling, such as animals.  I've been known to take a nice line drawing, blow it up to the size I need using a copy machine, and then color it in with my colored pencils.  It's then easy to use as a pattern for quilling.

Instructions for how to
draw your own knots.
Some books will specifically have instructions for you to make designs yourself.  My book of Celtic spirals does not just have lot of examples, it shows you how to start with basic spiral elements and turn them into a chain of connected knots.  Something like this would be great inspiration for a picture border or the frame of a Celtic central piece, quilled or otherwise.  My only concern is getting all those spiral pieces of paper to intertwine so nicely ... I'll need to practice that :)

Have you done quilling along a Celtic theme?  Where did you get your ideas, and how did to go about making the complex curling forms?

Image Credit:  My pix of my own books.  They are: Celtic Spirals and Other Designs by Sheila Sturrock, Celtic Designs by Mallory Pearce, and Celtic Designs for Artists and Craftspeople by Dover Clip Art.