Crafter’s Companion Subscription Box 5 – October 2018

This month’s subscription box brought me back to my early card making days.  When I first started out using dies, I had a few quilling dies in my stash and I used to embellish many of my cards with flowers.  As time went on, I learned new techniques and I didn’t really used many handmade flowers on my cards.  I am very glad this kit was all about quilling because it reminded me how relaxing and satisfying it is to create your own flowers.

Sara Davies, the owner of Crafter’s Companion, has put together a really great kit all about quilling.  It includes 3 metal dies, a quilling tool, pre-printed quilled flowers in varying shapes and sizes, cardstock, beautiful floral paper, lots of cards with gusseted envelopes and many embellishments.  This was delivered with auto-ship through HSN so I am receiving kits monthly.  I am sure you can check out Crafter’s Companion website for more information too.  This kit is truly a wonderful bargain. Each kit will offer different items and will show you new techniques.

I’m sure if you have never tried quilling this may seem daunting, but believe me, it isn’t.  There is a Facebook group that you can join once you subscribe which provides lots of community support and loads of examples; plus Sara also has a monthly card kit site that you can refer to for demos/project pages.  

In addition to the kit, I did use a paper shaping tool kit that I had from many years ago.  I highly recommend this kit or something like it.  By rolling the petals and adding creases, it makes the petals come to life.  On some, I also sprayed them with sheer shimmer spritz from Imagine Crafts.  The slight shine and bit of sparkle helps the petals look more realistic as well because they look like sunlight is glistening down on them.  I use this spray on a lot of my projects because it adds just the right amount of sparkle.  One tip – shake well before using because the shimmer settles at the bottom.

For this first card, I took some inspiration from one of Sara’s demo’s on the card kit site.  I loved the way the rolled papers looked so added similar elements to this card. The large rose is made from a few of the pink pre-printed petals in the kit.  For the rose buds, I simply took strips of cardstock and rolled them with the quilling tool and added some folds to the paper as I was rolling it.  It really helps to look like petals of a bud.  I added some spectrum noir clear sparkle over all of the leaves and petals.

This next card was so fun to make. I used brown for all of the centers, and then I die cut 2 yellow strips for each daisy.  I used the petal die that came with this kit to make them.  I really, really love how this turned out!

For this last card, I experimented a bit more – I used a few of the smaller quilling dies from my stash to make 2 different sizes of mini roses and I also used a fringe quilling die to make the red flowers.  For the bouquet, I rolled a piece of cardstock to look like it is covering stems (which aren’t there). The dimension on this card is wonderful.

I  hope you give paper quilling a try.  I think you will be really pleased with the results.  As always, if you have questions feel free to reach out to me.  I love to hear feedback and to see your works of art too so please do share!  Until next time – happy crafting!