Why Rosie's Book?

While growing up, I had a dear friend, Renee, that lived next door and with whom I spent much of my childhood. We grew, in different directions, and went on our merry way. Many years later, I ran into her parents and they kindly reminded me of the laughs they still have over my book. “What book?” I wondered with a puzzled look. "I don't remember a book." Hardy laughter accompanied their response. At some time during our childhood, I tried to convince Renee about something that her parents didn’t agree with. I told her that proof of its truth could be found “in my book.” Naturally she went home and tried to convince her parents of the same thing but they weren’t falling for it. She needed an edge and told them emphatically, “It’s in Rosie’s book!” After they caught their breaths from reborn laughter, they let me know how “Rosie’s book” has been cited for many other things throughout the years. They’ve also mentioned that they’d like to see “Rosie’s book” one day. I can’t remember all of the things that I said were in “my book” but I’m sure my dear friend’s parents can recall much more than I ever knew about – LOL!!! So, here it is . . . my version of things you might find In Rosie’s Book . . .

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Quilled Insects and Other Creepy Things

What elementary school student wouldn't love to use one of these pencils to complete their school work?  Boys and girls alike would find their work a little more fun when sporting one of these insects on their writing tool.  For that matter, adults might too!

Quilling thin strips of paper into circles of different sizes is an easy, repetitive task.  Squeezing those circles into other shapes that are glued together, produces designs of nearly anything imaginable.  Wrap some thin strips around pins set in a cork board for a longer quilled shape.

It seems that this time of year, warm weather brings many annoying and creepy insects to the flower bed.  I quilled some more tolerable bugs and critters to keep indoors.  I adhered them to pencil tops for a useful and fun decoration.  I added some tiny google eyes and these little creepy crawlers came to life.  I also used my fingertip to spread some stickles all over the sides of these quilled bugs for some special shimmer.  (As always just click on a picture to enlarge it for a closer view.)

For the little guys, here's a creepy spider. . .
and praying mantis. . .



The gals might prefer this ladybug. . .

or this dragonfly. . .
How about reaching for a pencil with this little mouse running to the end?
This fuzzy caterpillar took a little longer to make and it was definitely worth the time and trouble.  A fringing tool cuts the edge of very thin paper strips.  When those cut strips are layered and fluffed, the most awesome caterpillar appears. . .
A basic quilling kit consists of a small slotted tool, thin paper strips, and a small bottle of all purpose glue.  It's very helpful to have a quilling board for sizing small circles.  There are other helpful tools like a cork board and pins, a fringer, a husker, etc., and if you find that you like quilling, then they're worth the investment.  All of those items will fit into a container smaller than a shoe box so it makes a great traveling companion for us papercrafters who like to keep our hands busy.

There are several great quilling artists who have authored picture books to inspire your quilling creations.  Quilling projects look fabulous on cards, scrapbook pages and other papercrafting projects.  These special handmade pieces add pizazz to projects that always seem to get a great big "Wow!" reaction. That's always a good thing "in my book."

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I can not get over that you posted about this, as this was going to be my next venture, I have been checking out on line where I am going to purchase my supplies for about 2 weeks now, cant wait to try my hand at this, have seen some amazing things done with this on you tube.

Great write up about it!!

Unknown said...

Well, got the tools and thanks to you have ordered some more, now all I need is free time to begin to play, will let you know when I get something done, hopefully next week some time, depends on how much babysitting I have to do!! Take care and thanks again for the website.
Donna

Andrea C said...

Im not really into quilled stuff but these are absolutely brilliant, the caterpillar is genius hehe x