Craftsy Class - Sneak Peak of Lesson 1 and a Giveaway!

True to my blog and passion, Craftsy chose topics that have always been my readers’ favorite features. I teach 7 classes and show techniques in quilling as well as making flat sheets of paper pop off a page. 

Let me show you a sneak peak of Lesson 1, a Christmas Tree Card. All DIY crafters know Christmas surprises are planned in advance and need a few elves to complete before the special day. In my class, I show how to assemble the tree, dust it with snow, and top it with a 3-D star. Besides the 1/8-inch hole punch for snow, the cutting files are all included in the Class Materials.

If you look closely, you'll also see a little Hershey's kiss tucked inside the tree, just a sweet prezzie for someone special. It's hard to see in this photo, but the falling snow is not simply flat dots - they're textured paper that really look like fluffy snow.

I don't like wasting paper so I used up the space within the tree too. The Class Materials includes a bonus shape to make a place card holder - in case there are any Christmas weddings or large parties being planned this year. It really made my sister-in-law-who-is-a-Christmas-fanatic, start salivating. 

What I learned as a Craftsy instructor, is their high standards for ensuring students receive skills to apply what they've learned in class to other projects. To show how this can be done in Lesson 1, I made a birthday card using the fanned 3D symmetrical shape technique. 

First, I made an oval and elongated it, tapering one end to make the balloons. I assembled the balloons in varying colors to make them more festive. I put two 3D stars back-to-back and glued all three elements to cloth covered floral wire. To make the streamers out of quilling paper, I used the technique I show in my book, Pretty Quilled Cards (Easter Basket, page 88). I chose a font I liked and cut it out several times to create my own chipboard (I show how that's done in this post). Then I assembled them all on my 3D Cake Collection (available in my Etsy shop).

If you'd like to make your own 3D balloons, I'm offering the free SVG or PDF files here. The shapes are simple enough to cut by hand as well.

To thank you for all your wonderful words of support, I'd like to offer a giveaway of my 3D Cake Collection to one commenter of this post. The details are very intricate, so I do suggest using a digital die cutter that can handle SVG files. To enter, please leave a comment and a way for me to contact you. This giveaway will end Friday, September 18th. I'll announce the winner once they've been notified.

*** UPDATE ***

Congratulations to Honey Moser of Honey's Quilling, who won my digital die cut file for a 3D cake. I pulled the number 2 out of a deck of cards and she was the 2nd person to comment. Thanks everyone!