Quilled lion nursery decor

My friends recently adopted a sweet boy from India and named him Aslan after the character in Chronicles of Narnia, one of my favorite book and movie series that I grew up reading and watching. As they patiently went through the long process of paperwork and logistics, I had some time to make a quilled lion for his nursery art. It took me awhile to find a lion that didn't look too fierce! I didn't want his wall art to give him nightmares overnight.


Click below for more of the step-by-step photos!

Quilled nursery decor and watercolor greeting cards

I co-hosted a baby shower this weekend and it was so delightful to celebrate a dear friend Bekah from my church! She is naming her daughter Elsa after her grandmother (and also happens to be a Disney princess now ;)  ). I've been loving the combination of watercolor and calligraphy and also made a birthday card for my bff. Read on to see the framed quilled nursery decor that I made for Bekah!

First wedding anniversary --paper gift

A few months ago my friend asked me to make a quilled Golden Gate bridge for her first wedding anniversary. They had their honeymoon in SF last year and they loved it so much that they are going back to California again this summer! Since it was their first wedding anniversary, they decided to follow the wedding anniversary tradition of gifting something made of paper. I made a similar quilled project last year for my sister and decided to make one for them too.

Read on for more details! 

Calligraphy with Quilling and a weekend St. Louis visit

We visited old friends in Saint Louis this weekend and visited all our favorite places of nostalgia--Forest Park, St. Louis Zoo, our old church, Tortillaria. We also stopped by a couple of new additions to St. Louis that arrived after we left: IKEA, Jeni's Ice Cream, and Lonas Lil Eats. It was the best way to spend 3 short days in St. Louis!

B & T were our amazing hosts and fed us/cooked for us/drove us and let us play with their adorable kids! B ordered a custom quote of Joshua 24:15 embellished with quilling, inspired by a previous project. I hand-carried the framed print onto the plane and was quite relieved when I was able to deliver it safely to St. Louis. This was another collaboration between Karmomo (the brushlettering) and me (quilling).

Since I'd made gifts for B&T's 2 boys in the past, I decided to be fair to their 3rd child and make her a personalized gift---another log branch slice ornament! B&T plan to use it as a door sign for her room.

Thank you card for B&T's generous hospitality during our lovely St. Louis weekend visit!

Framed quilling and brushlettering: Jeremiah 29:11

One of my best friends happens to create stunning brushlettering calligraphy, and now that we live in the same city, we finally pulled together some collaborations. For instance, this framed Bible verse with quilling that we recently gifted to a bride-to-be at her bridal shower. Here's the 7-day storyline of this project!

Framed quilling: Golden Gate Bridge

Quilling: a type of ornamental craftwork involving the shaping of paper, fabric, or glass into delicate pleats or folds.

I started quilling in college when a friend introduced me to it to embellish handmade greeting cards. The first thing I ever quilled was a tiny heart for a Valentine's Day card for my now-husband. Since then, I've borrowed books from the library and perused many a blog on how to quill different shapes and grown to love it! I previously used a thumbtack (yes. a thumbtack. ) to roll the strips of paper, but have now progressed to using a professional quilling tool that speeds things up. 

I love quilling because it's calming. I have to sit and think about my next move between each strip of paper I roll, because I do not usually draw out the final design. I also love that quilling paper is relatively inexpensive and I often make my own quilling paper by cutting strips of 8x11 sheets, even though it means that the height of each strip is sometimes inconsistent. And finally, I love quilling because it transforms paper into 3-dimensional, tangible designs with depth and shadows. 

Here is one of my most recent framed quilling pieces that I gifted to my sister for her birthday! I found the shadowbox frame on the Michaels clearance rack (now out of stock) for $6.