Tuesday 27 February 2018

Challenge no 44 - IQC 2018

Hello Everyone ,
Happy and delighted to give my first participation work of IQC's Quilling contests of 2018 after working as a DT for two consequetive years with our beloved host and other lovely DT members.
Excitement overflowing actually to re - enter as a contestant.:)):))

Here is my small and simple kickstart for the current february challenge no 44 on colour theme with shades of pink.

A quilled card with pleasant shades of graduating 5 mm pink strips both for the work and background.
the techniques used are beehive,tight coiling and loose coiling for the flower and leaves and finally a circle punch for flower center.



Linking this work to IQC challenge no 44


Please leave your comments and feedback on my work.
Cheers,
Aparna Balakrishnan.

Monday 4 December 2017

DT work - "Flowers and stitching" - Challenge No:43

Hello Fans of IQC ,
Today I am here to present my DT work for the challenge theme "Flowers and stitching". I have tried to create a simple quilled card with stiched border.

Please find the challenge theme image and the link below
Challenge link : http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.in/2017/12/iqcg43-flowers-stitching.html

here is my DT work:
I have created a quilled card with flowers and leaves and stitched borders in three colours .
To add a bling , used some stone laces in white and red on both sides of the flowers quilled.

Hope you all like my work. Looking forward to see your works too.
Cheers,
Aparna Balakrishnan(DT)



Monday 6 November 2017

DT work - Chevrons - Challenge #42

Dear IQCG fans,

Today I am here to present my DT work on this month's challenge #42 "CHEVRONS"
Please find the challenge image and the link to the challenge blog post below.
http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.in/2017/11/iqcg42-chevrons.html

My work :

A paper lantern in chevron pattern using 7 mm quilling strips is what I have created as my DT work.
The chevron patterns are created using 4 strips in each. The strips are placed perpendicular to each other and braided /weaved in a way to form the chevrons. They are then placed against each other and glued to a ball shape and a quilled dome is placed at the top to which a thread is tied for hanging the lantern anywhere needed. A small battery light can also be added in the center part inside , as a pleasant evening decoration, for parties and events too, if you wish.

Hope you all like this work of mine for the current challenge of IQCG.
Looking forward to see all your entries.
Cheers,
Aparna Balakrishnan(DT)


Thursday 5 October 2017

DT work - Challenge no 41 - Festive/Holiday

Hello IQCG fans ,

Here comes my most favourite challenge of IQC "Festive / Holiday" as it fills our places with joy , fun and lot of enjoyment with our loved and dear ones of our life.

As my part , Here goes my DT work for the challenge for which I have created two beautiful pairs of Quilled Jhumkas one in antique bronze and another in antique gold with golden rhinestones and ball chains enhancing their beauty and richness , to welcome the most awaited festival "Diwali". Also to give a festive mood, i have created a small quilled diya in copper shade.

I have used 5mm quilling strips for the jhumkas and 3mm strips for the diya , 3mm golden rhinestones and tiny size antique golden ball chains for the jhumkas with all other jewellery findings you see in the pic to make them as jewellery. Its been long time since I tried some hoop ring jhumkas and hence created them for now.

Here is the challenge image and the challenge link for you.
http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.in/2017/10/iqcg41-festiveholiday.html

Hope you all like my piece of work and waiting to see your too. Good luck and play well.

Before I say a Bye, Wishing you all a very happy and a safe diwali:)):)):))

Cheers,
Aparna Balakrishnan(DT)

Wednesday 20 September 2017

DT work - Challenge no 40 "FALL"

Hello IQCG fans,
I am here today to present you all my DT work for this month's challenge "FALL" theme
Hope you would have visited the inspirational works of our Team A DT members and as an extention to it , today's DT members are here to give our work too.

Find the challenge image and the link to the challenge post below

http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.in/2017/09/iqcg40-fall.html

My work :
I have created the above flying/ falling stick man card to fit the theme by creating a sky line background using white and blue poster colours. Then created a rough outline of the falling man and the parachute with a pencil. The parachute was then filled using maroon and red 5mm quilling strips using beehive technique to show it more dense and grass and flowers were then drawn to bring the landing effect.

Hope you like this piece of work and looking forward to see your beautiful and innovative work for this month.
Good luck,
DT (Aparna Balakrishnan)

Thursday 3 August 2017

DT work for august theme - "India"

Hello Everyone,
Happy to see you all again with my new work for this month's challenge - "INDIA"

This month is so special to every Indian in this world ,as we celebrate our independence and freedom that we got through the struggles of many many patriotic leaders and citizens.

As a dedication to them , I have designed a quilled card using tri colour strips of 5mm .
Here it is:)):))

I have used Orange and Green brush pens for creating a tri colour background in a 300 gsm watercolour paper/sheet and placed quilled white flowers with tri colour center with quilled leaves surrounding them . I have used loose coiling for the entire flowers and leaves.

Please find the link below to view the challenge details in IQC blog.
http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.in/
Submit your projects using the link tool that you can find in the challenge post of IQC and win some exciting stuffs from me and other sponsors of IQC.
Hoping to see your work
Aparna (DT)




Monday 3 July 2017

DT work - Challenge no 38 - Mixed media textures and shine

Hello Everyone ,
Here I am presenting my DT work for IQC challenge no 38 "Mixed media textures and shine"
This is my very first attempt of mixed media work and I had lot of fun exploring some techniques and seeing the results.

Here is my work


find below the challenge image and the link to the bog to view the challenge details

About my work:
I chose paper-to-paper colour transferring technique for the background by punching some rose , pink and orange card stocks. Placed all the punches dipped in water ,over a 300 gsm watercolur paper. kept them for a while allowing some time for the colours of the cardstock to transfer on the watercolour paper and peeled them off. thus it gave a beautiful and mild shaded doted/ circled patterned background.

(A closer look of the work)

A thick rectangular cardboard was rolled using a thick thread and wrapped using crushed aluminium foil for the texture. glass colours of red , blue and green are then used for giving a shiny finish. It was then pasted over which a flower was quilled using 5mm strips of different colours and green leaves and swirls were pasted around them. for extra shines , i cut some golden embellishments and placed them at the top and bottom corners .

I never finish without trying a jhumka and so tried this time too.
Here it is:

Hope you all like this piece of work. Looking forward for your work too. Please visit the IQC blog for complete challenge details and link your projects here

Cheers and good luck,
Aparna balakrishnan(shequills)

Tuesday 2 May 2017

DT work - Rainbow colours

Hello Everyone,
Today I am here to show my DT work for this month's challenge -  "Rainbow colours"

Please find the theme image and the link to view the challenge details
http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.in/2017/05/iqcg36-rainbow-colours.html

Rainbows are a treat to one's eyes as they are admired for their colours and the beauty they hold . Specially kids love to see them a lot.

Who doesn't love to see right?
Here I have done a pair of beautiful Quilled Square Jhumkas in rainbow colours and this piece will go as a gift for the winner of this challenge from me at the end .





Its so long time since I quilled square jhumkas and so wanted to quill in that shape.. I have used 5mm quilling strips to prepare the base dome. The dome was then shaped to a square piece and has been sealed. Zero size Silver,Red and Green balls chains are used to decorate the Quilled Jhumkas along with some silver jewellery findings like bead caps , pins and studs. Finally the piece is washproofed using asian paints synthetic clear varnish for durablity.

This piece goes well with plain white outfits particularly.
Hope you like this piece of work and lets see who wins this pair. If you like to win this, do take part in the challenge abiding the rules properly to avoid elimination. Please visit IQC blog for details on the challenges and how to link your projects.
Looking forward to see all your colourful projects
DT - Aparna Balakrishnan(shequills)

Thursday 6 April 2017

IQC - 3rd Birthday hop

Hello everyone,

Happy to celebrate the third birth anniversary of Indian Quilling Challenge with our beloved host Shylaa and other talented DT members for this year.

This month there will be no quilling contest!!!!
Our team will showcase birthday inspiration throughout the month on the below scheduled dates.
Starts from IQCG - 1st April
5th April - Aparna
9th April - Daniela
12th April - Gouri
15th April - Priya
19th April - Priyanka
22nd April - Shweta
26th April - Sriranjini
28th April - shylaashree
Exciting prizes from our sponsors will be given to one winner selected from the comments across all the blogs in the hop.
One random winner will be chosen by our DTs and they will get a special goodie bag from us.
All you have to do is
- Follow IQCG blog if you are not a follower
- Copy & paste the following birthday hop picture on your blog and spread the news on social media
- Join our Indian quilling Challenge Facebook group
- Visit all our DTs blog and leave some love
- Anyone with Indian Postal address can join 
Winners will be announced on 30th April

So here is the birthday hop image

And here is my birthday card for the celebration. A very happy third anniversary IQC. Special mention for our host who is the backbone of its growth, progress and reach. Not to miss, DT members play a vital role too.. I am sure this 4th year will bring lot more success in bringing out the quilling talents of participants all over the world which IQC aims at.



Hope you all can relate this work with IQC.. Please pour your comments on this and grab your chance to win some exciting stuffs from our sponsors. Do not forget to visit other DT member's posts too which will come in the following days as scheduled.

Cheers,
Aparna (DT)




Sunday 26 March 2017

DT work - Challenge No 35 - Celebrate Women

Hello Everyone,

Happy to see you all back here with my DT work for this month's theme "Celebrate Women".
I have done a beautiful looking woman with paper quilliing art.
Here she is:)):))


Please find the challenge theme pic and the link to the challenge post below.
http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.in/2017/03/iqcg35-celebrate-women.html

I have used Velum strips of different colours in 10 mm for her skirt and yellow 5mm strips for her neck and 1mm strips for her face. Fine quality thick papers have been used for her legs and arms. 
The brown jacket is done using an old paper card stock that was lying at home.
I decide to give curly hair just as same as mine but she is quite tall unlike me:)):))

The handbag that she carries on her hand was contributed by my mom through a video tutorial that she had seen in Youtube. Finally I have inspired my mom too to start crafting ...:)):))

Here are some more pics of hers



Hope you all like my work.

Please do give your participation by following the rules properly to avoid dis qualification.
Looking forward to see your work.

Cheers ,
Aparna Balakrishnan




Wednesday 1 February 2017

DT work - Feb Challenge No 34 -- "Love is"

Hello IQCG fans,

First of all a big Thanks to our beloved host and my dear friend Shylaa for hosting this wonderful group and the efforts she takes in organizing the monthly challenges and extending my DT period.

Yes:)):))
I feel extremely happy to share that I am working as a DT member for another year in IQCG to share my Quilling work with you all. I assure you that I will put my maximum efforts in delivering a quality work as an inspirational part to the paritcipants of our challenges

/*Today I am here to share my DT work on the feb challenge - Love is*/
Please find the challenge picture below
Please find the challenge details in the following link : 
http://indianquillingchallenge.blogspot.com/2017/01/iqcg34-love-is.html

Find below my DT work for the challenge theme




To me Love is gifting and giving and if its flowers ,it is really a pleasant , fresh and joyful feeling isnt??

So I have made colourful and bright flower bunch for giving and gifting to our beloved ones as a sign of showing our love and affection towards them.
Here it is:)):))


The whole Flower bunch is done using crimping technique and mostly using 5 mm Quilling strips.
Each strip has been crimped one by one the crimped florals are done first. The leaves are then crimped and shaped using three variants of green starting from lighter shade inside to darker shade coming outside. The crimped pieces are then arranged to get a flower bunch look..

Hope you all like my work for the challenge and please leave a comment below this post to boost my creativity in return:)):))
Please visit the IQCG blog to view the challenge details and please do give your active participation and win some exciting stuffs from our sponsors.

Cheers ,
Aparna Balakrishnan - DT ( shequills )






Friday 16 December 2016

DT work - challenge no 33 - Your favourite quilling technique

Hello Everyone,
I am DT Aparna Balakrishnan of shequills and today i am here to present you my DT post on IQC challenge #33 - Your favourite quilling technique.

Though I have many favourite quilling techniques which I love to do, my all time and most fav techniques are Beehive quilling and tight coil quilling.

So here is my DT work which has a beehive quilled butterfly and some tight coiled flowers and leaves surrounding the colourful beehived creature.

Here is the challenge image and the challenge link for your view


Also please find the closer view of my work

I started the project with a printed copy of the butterfly I chose, and quilled the outline of it with black 5mm strips. The beehives are then added and filled throughout, in colours of blue , pink , green , red and orange. I used the primary shape/technique of quilling (tight coil rolling) to make flowers in few colours and the leaves were quilled simultaneously placing the flowers over them.
Finally the work was completed with branches here and there using crimping and spiral techniques.

Hope you all like my DT work for this month's challenge. Please do participate with your wonderful quilled projects made with your fav quilling techniques and win some exciting stuffs from our beloved sponsors.

Cheers , 
Aparna Balakrishnan(DT)







Wednesday 6 July 2016

Challenge no 28 - Stencil it - DT post

Dear Quillers ,
A warm welcome to fans of  IQCG. I am here today to present my DT work on Challenge no 28 (Stencil it)...

Before getting into my work,let me tell everyone that I am completely new to stencil work and this is my very first stencil piece I have done. So I chose a very basic stencil design that I found in the net and drew it in a paper to start working on it.

Here is my work


and the stencil design I used


Find the challenge image below and the link of the challenge blog post in this group.


I started drawing the stencil design in a piece of paper measuring 15cm x 12cm and using a basic paper cutter tool, I started cutting along the stencil design and kept aside. Taking another paper of the same measurement , I coloured it using a light orange and dark orange acrylic colours using a sponge to give a monochromatic effect for background. You can observe that in my work. Once the paper is coloured and background is created , I chose magenta pink and brought the stencil design on the orange background paper. Once it was stenciled , I bordered the corners using crimped green strips and placed a quilled flower made using light yellow and light green quilling strips, with triangular petals over the stencil design, with leaves and branches surrounding it. I this pasted the completed piece on a magenta handmade paper, and stuck green and silver rhinestones on the corners. Finally added some stones here and there around the flowers too. 

The piece has been hanged on the wall by inserting a golden lace in the holes punched.

Hope everyone liked this small start for stencils from me and wishing everyone all the very best and eagerly waiting to see your work. I am sure we are going to receive fabulous stencils craft works for many of you all. Please link your project here in the IQCG blog abiding the rules properly ,to avoid disqualification.

Cheers,
DT - Aparna Balakrishnan(shequills)

Wednesday 1 June 2016

DT post ----- Childhood - IQCG Challenge no 27

Hello everyone,
A warm welcome to my blog once again. Today I am here to inspire you with my work on the #27 IQCG challenge theme 'childhood'..

I have tried my level best to create a kids park as my inspirational work, with the little time I had in my hands after my llllloooonnnnggg vacation.


Most of us or each of us would have those sweet cherishing memories in our minds, of our childhood days, that we spent in a park nearby, during evening hours isnt it??:)):)) 
So just gave it a try to visually bring back those wonderful and joyful moments for your eyes for few moments.

Here is the challenge image and the link of the challenge details that you can find in the IQCG blog.


Link of the challenge blog post:

Thanking Shivani Goyal from whom I borrowed the idea of using the base of the cake, for some craft, and hence it was reserved. This time I made use of it in creating the full set up over that base and handmade papers in orange and green were used to create the three indoor entertainment stuffs ;
a slide, a seesaw and a swing.

Quilling strips of 5mm in shades of  blue, pink, red and green were used to create the figures of kids playing those equipments , flower pots and flowers placed around the entrance and in the centre of the park, benches to sit here and there and fences and grasses surrounding the area. 

Some more views of it





I started with creating the grasses by cutting the green quilling strips into tiny pieces, trimmed them off to a grass look, and pasted around the cake base, leaving some space for the entrance. Then the handmade papers are cut accordingly to create the play equipments and entrance of the park. once I finished them , the quilling figures were created and placed on the play stuffs . Flowers , pots and benches were then added one by one and finally the runny glue(glue+water)was applied all around the flat surface to complete the sand filling.

Its so cute to see and I like it very much as this is my first craft module. So this piece will be seen in my navratri kolu this year:)):))for sure

Please leave you comments and feedbacks if my work inspires you and participate in our challenge to show the world who you are what you are. Also visit my page shequills to view my other craft works and quilling stuffs.

-Looking forward to see your work 
-Aparna Balakrishnan(shequills)


Sunday 1 May 2016

DT post for May month challenge - Summer

Hello Readers ,
Here is my DT work for the may month challenge  - Summer...
I have done a frame work with some bright and colourful flowers and a cute little butterfly enjoying its essence on the sunny summer days.


Please visit the IQCG blog to know the challenge details.

All the flowers are quilled using 3mm and 5mm papers with plenty of tight coils in all possible colours, I had with me, and the leaves are quilled using 5mm green strips, with blue handmade paper with rough texture, as background. For an extra kick, I stuck some ready to use foam flowers here and there too.

Once I finished, I felt it has got the shape of our india too;));)) anyone feel it???:)):))

Hope you all like my work and giving you some inspiration to start working on the theme. Please give your active participation and submit your entries in the link provided below the challenge post in our IQCG blog. Good luck everyone and looking forward to see all your wonderful works..

Happy Quilling ,
Aparna Balakrishnan(shequills)