Masculine Cards and Doggie Frames

With Father's Day approaching I wanted to create a card for the occasion. Masculine cards are difficult for me, especially with quilling - the look of twirled paper is so pretty that I normally shy away from using it on masculine cards. Well I sat down and sketched out some icons I thought might work, for the first card I decided to use a tone on tone paper I've had for a year or so - tore the edges then layered it over a coordinating stripe pattern; then covered the front of the card. The round area that is die-cut out of the card was perfect for my quilled sailboat. Now, on the opposite side of the tone-on-tone "dad" paper is stars; I used that to represent the waves of the ocean.

I then started going through some quilling books and saw the shirt card with a quilled tie. I normally do not like to copy other's, I decided to use this concept but I added a collar to my shirt; and also picked patterned paper for one of the cards - tried to make it a little more me. I had two coworkers place orders for these cards.

The other project I worked on recently was a set of frames with a dog theme. I immediately fell in love with these patterned papers, purchased them weeks ago but didn't really get into the quilling part until this past weekend. I sketched out some doggie icons and got to work creating them. These frames were a little out of my comfort zone, I normally do bright, flowering, pretty things - so working on these were a bit of a challenge but I was pleased with how they turned out and the recipient absolutely loved them.

Other orders I still have in waiting consist of a fruit frame and lots of snowflakes - 32 to be exact, and it's only June....