Diana Official Blog

I'm going to teach another class at Precious Memories on Thursday, Sept 25, from 6:30-9pm ! For this class, I plan to show several ways to quill flowers, from traditional teardrop shapes, to my open-petal style, and finally to 3D die cut fringed blossoms. This is my favorite party favor because it's so quick and simple to make. We will be adding 6 traditional teardrop shapes and some greenery on top. You can download the template here on my past post: DIY Party Favor . When it's made of vellum, it's fun to give that visual tease when they see a hint of what's inside.  This greeting card is made of simple squares, which frames the open-style flowers I show in my new book, Pretty Quilled Cards . I can imagine it being used for so many occasions! I don't own a Big Shot die cutter, so I'm grateful to have the chance to try it at Precious Memories. Since they also have all letters of the alphabet and a GrandeMark, I thought a monogram was a great way to use 3D ...

I received a message through FaceBook from Kirsten the other day, whose Aunt Berni passed away a few years ago. While cleaning out her belongings, Kirsten and her mom found a box of quilling supplies and wanted to find someone who would appreciate and use her supplies. I was the incredibly lucky person they found, and I wanted to express my gratitude by writing a tribute to her aunt by showcasing her work and tools. Berni (Bernice Spencer Wilmeth) enjoyed quilling flowers and created this lovely bouquet full of a variety of blossoms. There's something about ovals that frame a bouquet nicely. Kirsten tells me the quilling is on top of olive green raw silk - can you imagine using that in your craft room? I've never thought about quilling on top of fabric. My favorite is the blossom near the middle, shown from the side in a range of pinks. A similar, smaller bud is just to the left of it. Here is a basket of flowers she made. Can you see all the layering involved here in the ba...

This 2" thumbnail is from my sketch book. At first I had planned to make quilled teardrops surround a letter shape, then remove the letter and allow the negative space be the monogram. Then I realized the Cut-Coil technique could be something better to experiment with. I do enjoy the stately look of serifs, and placed my previously made cut-coil flower gift tags underneath a letter E to help imagine how it might turn out. I felt the serifs would cut into the flowers too much, so opted for a sans serif font instead. The one I chose to use is Amaranth , Bold, at 500 pt (a free font from Font Squirrel). After cutting it out of card stock, I turned it upside down to add "plinths" made of quilling strips I trimmed in half widths. This made it the perfect mid-way height to fence in my quilling – not too high or low.  After making solid coils and gluing them to all the corners, I dabbed the circles with Zig 2-way glue . When it's dry, it allows me to place my letter ont...

As you may know, I lived in Canada for a year, and this certainly influenced my creations. In Canada, you can see guard soldiers wearing a ceremonial red coat — a historic British military uniform, and a bearskin — a tall fur cap. That is because Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy at the same time, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. Traditionally, the bearskin was the headgear of grenadiers, and is still worn by grenadier and guards regiments in various armies. The outfit is really hard to miss, and I was inspired by Queen's Guard soldiers when I made this three-dimensional quilled miniature wearing a bearskin. Read more »

So I bought a birthday card. GASP! I know, I know. You have to cut me some slack though, as we've been ripping out carpet to install wood flooring. Besides, the card was about aliens and have glow in the dark sticker eyeballs for him to play with, a great compliment to our headlamp gift. Anyway, as I went to write our nephew our birthday wishes, ink came splooshing out of my Sharpie marker. Why? Because I read that if you have a dry marker, let it soak up rubbing alcohol and it'll be revitalized. Well it was so full of life it couldn't wait to leave it's mark. Silhouette to the rescue! I grabbed some metallic silver vinyl and cut out the first letter of his name. I then added some more vinyl stars around the card to make it look on purpose. Of course since my beloved cutter was already on, and I needed a bow to top off the wrapped present, I decided to make the star G much larger, in the form of a tent card. Adding rectangles to the bottom and overlapping the top and ...