Lilacs, quilled - from all over the world!

Собирала коллекцию для себя, поделилась и с читателями Хомячка заодно
Сирень - это прекрасно! И ее хочется воплотить в квиллинге. Когда я задумалась об этом, в интернете не было ни одного примера. И я думала, что была пионером, накрутив свою кисточку в 10 (кажется?.. или 9?) году. Сейчас сирени - ух!!!
Lilacs are amazing! Love them! When I made my first panicle I couldn't find a single example in the web, now we've got lots and lots...

Мои сиреньки: тут, тут и тут. My quilled lilacs: here, here и there.

Lizard card

Made a simple card.Простая открытка

Close-up of a lizard. Ящерка поближе

100% handmade: cold hand embossing of scales texture and rocks, origami lizard (pattern by famous Mr. Kawasaki), hand drawn vine and fussy cut ivy leaves (also no pattern used, just cut by hand). Sentiment is debossed using the same texture plate (Fiskars), it says "Dodge and adapt" and is meant to encourage someone :-)
Ручная работа, как впрочем, и все у меня. Ручное тиснение - чешуя и камни, ящерица Кавасаки оригами, плющ нарисован от руки, листики вырезаны тоже руками без дыроколов, шаблонов и рисунков, на глаз :-) Надпись "Увернись и приспособься" - вогнутая текстура, т.е. дебоссинг :-) отражает основные качества ящериц - проворность и маскировку, и призвано ободрять одариваемого.
Хочу поучаствовать в задании от Дивных штучек: 100% ручная работа.

Хомячок challenge - оригами

And I'm going to try to join Lawnscaping challenge 58 - Clean and simple

Syringa vulgaris - quilling

New challenge on Homyachok challenge blog: fragrant flowers. Quill a cluster of flowers. I'm not much into flowers in quilling, you know, and that was a hard time for me. But... CLUSTER!!! Or panicle... Could I think of anything other than my beloved LILAC?!
Новое задание у Хомячка - Гроздья душистые. Я не фанатка цветов, так что думала было и пропустить задание... Но... как же я да без сирени?!?!

That's my lilac brooch.

Вот моя сиреневая брошка.

Chocolate white raccoon

Day of the Hamster offers to create something using edible stuff. That's one of my favorite topics! Once upon a time I even wrote an article and hosted a challenge "using food in your scrap projects": check it here - Russian only, but the pics speak for themselves. It's a pity that people are pretty.. hum.. somewhat cowardly for things like that, most prefer talking about bugs and mold and other "it's not archival quality" blahblah rather than think, invent, try and experience. Well, this time we made it easier: general challenge - all kinds of crafts, including carving, baking and cooking too! :-)
I showed my chocolate Raccoon to the DT, just for fun, not intending to have him posted on the blog! But they said he's a funny guy and posted him :-)


Why I didn't want to show him?.. He is almost 10 years old!!!!! It's my creation that I made for my husband-to-be on a Valentine's day in 2004!!! But I've never shown him before, so the creature qualifies :-) photos are scanned :-)
I was, omg, 18 years old then! Young, unskilled, and we had nothing for chocolate sculptures sold. No special molds, no special foundant, icing or choco-mixes. And no marzipan as well! I made everything myself. I ground almonds and made powder from sugar, I mixed the marzipan dough. I melted the chocolate and placed it in a handmade heart shape, layered it with strawberry jam (cooked it myself too!). The hardest thing was the white chocolate - it was very hard to melt it so that it won't transform into foam, won't burn and won't crumble. That's why this little guy looks a little untidy, a little messy and a little... childish :-)
But he's history now, the moment that I really loved. So i do realize he's not perfect, but I do love him!
Thanks for looking :-) Have a sweet day and be loved!

Pomelo lantern

For the Day of the Hamster I made an easy lantern from the pomelo (large citrus) skin:

Cut through some parts. scratched it here and there, and placed it on a saucer with a tea-candle on it. Light up and enjoy. Very easy, made it for my baby to show her flames and the dancing shadows. She loved it =)

Speaking of the SMELL. Most of you might think it smells yummy! Citrus, freshness, blahblah - nope =) The candle heats the inner thick white skin, once we had it even burnt, and it smells... uhm... kinda funny =) nothing close to pleasant =) And the outer peel with oils it not heated anyhow, so it doesn't smell too good.

But what really surprised me - it dried up, saved the shape and was purely useable until we threw it away (baby was not interested any more) 3 weeks later!

Thanks for looking!

Have a good week!

New technique - quilled rose tutorial

Hi! I had this tutorial published in RUSSIAN - HERE (ПО-РУССКИ - у Хомячка), now I have it here in English.
Another idea of a quilled rose. I've shared an alternative rose tutorial HERE, and that's one more flower I've used in my Elena project. That's a part of the project:

Yellow rose in the middle - a new one, yellow rose to the right - a traditional one.

Недавние публикации / Recent publications

My recent publications:
http://homyachok-scrap-challenge.blogspot.com/2013/04/blog-post_6.html - tutorial on a quilled ROSE, new style.
http://homyachok-scrap-challenge.blogspot.com/2013/03/blog-post_13.html - tutorial on "pricking".
http://rus-scrap.ru/notes/kak-opublikovatsya-v-skrap-zhurnale.html - article with ideas on how to get published. Статья о том, как постараться, чтобы Вашу работу опубликовали.
И новый номер, 9й, "Скрапбукинг. Творческий стиль жизни" Там три моих статьи =)

Protozoa card / Простейшая открытка

Homyachok challenge has already announced a new quilling challenge, and I'm pretty late with explaining and showing off my creation as a designer.
Challenge: White quilling strips on colored background.
First of all I thought about some creative lettering  (like that white on white  tried years ago), then I thought of some interesting evolution, like showing the way of turning a brick into a butterfly... I tried this and that, but nothing seemed satisfactory.
And then I saw our wonderful team member's creation, Svetlana Belova made a STUNNING work: look here. Absolutely unbelievable, it totally blew my mind off... and my inspiration too. I undrestood that I'm unable, I can't make anything better or at least as nice as that... So I wanted to quit... but settled up creating something "different", NOT beautiful, but funny or amusing.

Новое задание квиллинг у Хомячка: 
Белое на цветном фоне.
Сначала хотелось фразу выложить, абстракцию, потом придумала эволюцию - трансформацию цветка в гвоздик и кирпича в бабочку... Но что-то не поперло. А потом Света Белова выложила свою работу к конкурсу: СМОТРЕТЬ ЗДЕСЬ. Совершенно обалденную. Сумасшедшую и красивущую. Сразила наповал и полностью убило мое вдохновение, т.к. я поняла, что я ничего подобного, красивого или даже близко симпатичного сделать не смогу. Сначала думала сдаться, но пошла другим путем. Сделаю НЕ красивое. Но хотя бы смешное или забавное.

The sentiment says "Take it easy!" or literally "be simple!", showing the over-pathetic Plankton in a crown in comparison to simple, easy, nice and NATURAL beings. Being teeeny tiny the protozoa hardly have any color, so they were ideal for all-white-quilling.
Открытка "Будь проще", сравнивает напыщенного Планктона Шелдона с простыми, обычными, естественными и милыми существами. У планктона цвета почти нет, так что исполнение в белом им вполне к лиц... эээ... к вакуолям! =)


Another version of placing the "items" / Это другой вариант миграции планктона:

And close-ups of the characters: Отдельные портреты:

 Бокоплав и инфузория туфелька / Amphipoda and Paramecium caudatum

Хламидомонада и Эвглена зеленая / Chlamidomona and Euglena viridis (added green microbeads for green color)

Диатом и дафния / Diatom algae and Daphnia

I also have amoeba and some shell. Там еще есть амеба и раковина какого-то простейшего, отдельно не фоткала.

And the main char, Sheldon the Plankton from the SpongeBob cartoon. Had absolutely no idea of him until Goggle showed me his portrait in image results when I was looking the the pictures of real beings to use them as quilling patterns.

И герой: Планктон из Губки Боба. Мультик не смотрю, а о существовании этого персонажа узнала исключительно в Гугле при поиске фоток всяких инфузорий =) Ну раз нашелся, решила его для контраста сюда и прилепить!

I also made a watercolored background, doddled the "rich" background for the guy (that's a hand made DEbossed pattern, tinted with pencils after the debossing process), the sentiment is cut with my CraftRobo, and I glued the quilled rolls underneath using Sandra White's technique. Sheldon is printed, fussy cut, has his imperial mantle, brad-crown.

 Фон под козявочками - акварельный, "богатая" часть тиснена руками, продавленный узор, сверху покрашен карандашом для выделения орнамента. Надпись прорезана КрафтРобо, под ней - роллы, по технике Сандры Уайт. У Шелдона, который распечатан и вырезан руками, есть тканая мантия с ватной опушкой "из горностая", корона-брадс и глосси-акцентный глаз.  

And that's how it all began: the   Paramecium caudatum was the first element! ;)A sneak peek on my Evolution project:

А идея пришла вот так: началось все с инфузории, которая выросла из... глаза кирпича! 

Thanks for looking! Join us!

Спасибо всем! Присоединяйтесь!

Framing matter / О рамках

Although I've got a plenty of quilled, embroidered, painted and other way crafted thingies, none of them are framed nor hung on the walls. It's not my habbit. Now I've got two projects i want to display, so i need frames. I thought it would be a good idea to get a frame that looks like a part of the furniture in the room: same style and color. But that's the only idea of frame choosing i ever had.
Question to everyone: how do YOU choose frames? And what if you get an order for a framed project or want to make a gift? You hardly ever know what furniture exactly is placed in the room the recipient chooses for placing/hanging your masterpiece. Are there any framing rules? Or advice? Please, share! =)

Может, это странно, но на моих стенах дома обилия картин, фотографий и прочих рамочек не наблюдается. Как-то с детства не принято было, так ничего и не вешаю. Есть только один портрет мой, мама в багетной мастерской заказывала оформление. Поэтому вопрос рамок для меня всегда загадочен и не понятен. Сейчас вот захотелось повесить. Рамку подбираю под мебель. Мне кажется, так будет органичнее в интерьере смотреться.
Но вот ещё вопрос есть: а когда делать работу на заказ или в подарок?.. я как-то спрашивала, мол, как выглядит комната, чтоб туда хорошо вписалось мое творение, но всегда получала расплывчатые и неоднозначные ответы. Вот и не знаю...
Есть какие-то принципы подбора рамок? К чему и как их подбирать? Как это делаете вы?

Negative name - Elena

Hi all.

New quilling challenge on Homyachok blog: Spring-in-a-circle!Create a quilled project in a round shape, and for the spring feeling add yellows and greens.

Новое задание у Хомячка, квиллинг: В круге. Любая квиллинг работа в круге с весенним ощущением и обязательным присутствием желтого и зеленого.

That's my work as a part of a DT:

This work was done by order. One lady saw my Ann-card, and decided that she wanted something alike, but in frame and with different name. The name can be read among flowers in the unfilled spaces. It reads Elena. That's my first quilling project in a real wooden frame with glass and all the stuff. I have no experince in taking pics of the framed works, all those shadows and such, so the framed pic is pretty ugly, sorry. But I can't help showing it in a frame.

It was a usual photo frame with glass, and I made a wooden back box, two pics for those who may wonder what the back looks like. The photos are made during the process, that's not the final look, but for those who may wonder it's enough to understand =)

And some close-ups:

Thanks for looking!