Thursday, July 1, 2010

Another completed project

My sister Tanyia of Surviving motherhood barely sent me an email a week or so ago. She gave me a link to a tutorial for a quilled monogram and said that she thought I should try it. Of course I can't pass up a challenge but the thing is I also can't help publicly throwing it back at her. I think that she should also try this. I mean, come on, have you ever been to her blog and seen just how stinking talented she is?
Duke says that before you can see what I did he wants to say hello to all his bloggy pals.
He wasn't taking any chances that I would forget to include him. Now really, how could I. Any way, here's what I did.
I had the letter A done about a week ago but I fussed over the background part forever. I used plain cardboard and the process went something like this
  • paint cardboard white, hate it
  • try to be artsy and throw in some brush strokes of orange and red to match the scrapbook paper I used. Hate it still.
  • paint on a layer of crackle
  • paint over crackle layer with white paint. still not liking it much.
  • AHA! scrounge around in basement for a can of wood stain and rub on a layer. 
  • VOILA! I like it finally.
Here's a close up of the corner so you can get a better look at the background.
Don't ask me to explain what the little green thing is in the corner. I really have no idea. I just glued a few pieces together and decided it looked like it belonged in a corner of something so there it is.

On a side note. I'm sure you've noticed that the pictures are much larger than what I was posting. I was wondering if it's causing any problems with making my page load slower at all. And also do you prefer the larger pictures or the size that I was posting before?


35 comments:

Sandee said...

Your site loads just fine.

I love the little green thing in the corner and I am going to say it's a butterfly.

I like this very much. You are very talented.

Have a terrific day. :)

Sandee said...

Oops...My very best to Duke. :)

Audrey said...

That's beautiful!! Looks like quite a bit of work though!
Hope your holiday on Sunday isn't as hot and humid as ours was today :(

GratefulPrayerThankfulHeart said...

Very nice, Ann! All of your fussing and adjustments resulted in a beautiful piece! The stained crackle finish is perfect!

GratefulPrayerThankfulHeart said...

Oh... I love that your photos are large. How did you make them bigger?

Unknown said...

First off....Hello Dukester!

Now...your project turned out great. The pics before showed such detail. The bigger ones make them look even better.

I like!

Tanyia said...

Ok ... first off. pfffft! lol

I will try one eventually, first I need to learn to quill lol. I had to order something from Etsy as none of the stores in my area have any tools, or whatever.

Yours is Beeeeeyooootiful! I love how it turned out, I lol'ed at your creative process for the background hehe. I showed it to me and of course I had to hear all about how damn talented you are, but I already knew that! lol.

I definitely think the green "thing" belongs right where it is, it is totally a purdy little leaf arrangement.

Hugs to Duke, he is just so handsome, I would let ginger say hi, but she is in heat! :O

Tanyia said...

oh, and I LOVE the big photos, they loaded fine for me. Good job on figuring that one out!

BeadedTail said...

I think that turned out beautiful! It was fun hearing about your creative process too.

Hugs to Duke!

Beebeebabs said...

Beautiful tfs

booahboo said...

The border and the pic is simply lovely.. i love the borders as its very artsy :) and Duke.. how can we forget Duke.

You page loads fine on my side too... and the big pictures are great.. :)

VanillaSeven said...

Simply love the curvy alphabet. Looks delicate and artsy. You put your talent in a good use ann.

jeanlivingsimple said...

The site loaded just fine for me also. I love the larger pictures. It does give us more detail.

You really went though a process but the end results are beautiful. I would say it worth it!

Hi Duke!:)

Donna said...

Your site loaded like normal for me too!
Love the project!!
hughugs

tahtimbo said...

That looks fantastic!! You did a great job! I would like to try something like that, but I'm afraid it would not be fit to print.
I like the larger pictures. You probably already do this, but to speed up the loading of the page, you can set the width and height attributes of each picture.
Howdy, Duke!

The Urban Cowboy said...

Site is loading fine here, and I like the larger pictures. Hey ya Duke!

Very crafty...don't think I'll be doing it, but my GF maybe.

Duni said...

Wow, Ann - that is just GORGEOUS. I love it! And I much prefer the large photos - wish I could get them this large on mine, but my layout won't allow it.

Jen said...

I would call the green thingy a decorative flourish (and it's fabboo). Your page does load a bit slower, but it's not that big of a deal. Can't believe Duke was actually concerned you'd forget him...As if :o)

Russ said...

Wonderful as usual. Love the way you displayed it and explained the process. The pictures look great and your site loads fine.
And of course Duke is looking good.
Now you have to put the pressure on Tanyia to get one done. We need a little sibling rivalry here.
Have a wonderful safe weekend and holiday.

Sheri said...

Look at all that detail! So pretty! I think Duke likes it too.

Philippa said...

Lovely project, Ann - your monogram looks great, and I love the border with 'green thing'! I find with quilling that it almost has a life of its own, and you can just make it up as you go along, which makes it such fun.

I also like the new site design and bigger pictures. It does now load a bit slower for me, but I'm getting a broadband upgrade soon so that should fix it.

Unknown said...

It was really troubling me why Duke looked so down, but then it was brought to my attention that it is probably due to you whacking his nose off in that pic. Well, at least getting something whacked off always gets me down.

Out on the prairie said...

Really nice Ann, was this pattern online?Love the background.

Connie Girl said...

All I can say is WOW! Now I have to try it. Very cool.

Reeni said...

This turned out beautiful! I love it. And the background looks really good. And I like the big pictures - no problem loading.

DSS said...

Adore the big photos, and the page loaded just fine!

Joanne Olivieri said...

Oh Ann, what a charming monogram. It is so intricate and just simply lovely. I always admire what you do.

Marg said...

The pictures loaded just fine. Duke I am so glad you are getting the prime spot first on the blog. It shouldn't be any other way. I like the whatever it is. I was going to say also that the green thing in the corner looks like a butterfly. I do like those colors. Well done.
Have a great week end.

J. M. P. said...

I love it, Ann, and you found the perfect template for your site. Great job!!

Anonymous said...

That is just freaking amazing. Where do you get the patience? I like the bigger pictures myself. Page loads fine for me...You go girl!

Oooh, ooh - (Mr. Kotter) - You should make those to order. I would buy one of my initial. Honest to goodness I would.

Ann Martin said...

Look at you go with your quilling - gorgeous! So much fun, right? Add a tendril here, a scroll there... people always love it (and then they say they wouldn't be able to do it. But yes, they could!) Enjoyed hearing about how you arrived at the nifty background. Your site loaded right away btw.

Ann said...

Sandee Ok, a butterfly it is

Audrey Actually it really wasn't that difficult to do. I just fuss over things too much and take forever

LDH thank you very much. I wasn't sure how the stain was going to work since it was on cardboard but it seemed to do just fine. I'll drop you a line to explain the big pictures.

Roschelle thank you, and I'm glad the bigger pics are a hit. I prefer them but I didn't know what everyone else thought

Tanyia LOL UM I think you should try it : ) There really isn't much to learning. Don't feel bad I always have to hear how damn talented you are...lol

Beaded tail. My creative process seems to be more of a trial and error kind of thing...lol

BeeBeebabs thank you very much

Anny thank you. I wished I would have taken pictures of each step but since I didn't like them I didn't think about the pictures.

Vanilla seven thanks, and to think it's all paper.

Jean I've always liked the larger pictures on other sites. You just don't get to see enough with the smaller ones

Donna oh good glad it's not slowing things too much and thanks

tahtimbo oh you never know until you try. I always resize all my pics before I upload them. I had to go with a different size than what I was using before. When I tried the old size in the xlarge for the post they looked horrible.

urban cowboy somehow I couldn't see you doing the artsy crafty kind of thing. probably best to let the GF give it a try...lol

Duni thank you very much. You should be able to do the larger size. Would take some messing with the html though to do it without changing your whole template

Jen oh decorative flourish sounds so fancy. I like that. Surprised me that Duke would think I would forget him.

Russ thank you very much. Tanyia doesn't seem to be accepting my challenge I think you should throw some hints at her...lol Safe weekend to you also

Sheri Duke said it was ok but if ya can't chew on it he's not real impressed

Philippa thanks. I also love how you can just sort of wing it as you go with quilling.

Fishhawk how many things have you had whacked off? And by the way, I put Dukes nose back right after the photo was taken.

out on the prairie yes and no. There was a tutorial but I can't remember where. As for the letter I found a website that has all kinds of fancy letters I just used one as my outline.

Connie Girl Thanks so much. If you try it I would love to see it. Hope you post.

Cinnamon girl thanks, I was pretty pleased with the background. I love that sort of weathered look

DSS oh good. I prefer the larger pictures myself

Poetic shutterbug thanks, it really was much easier to do than it may look

Marg Duke's pleased with top billing also.

Grace, thank you very much. I seemed to develop more patience after my kids grew up and moved out...lol The Mr. Kotter thing cracked me up and I may just make you a G for giving me such a big laugh

Ann I'm loving it. It is a lot of fun. I tend to do things the way I did the background, often. It takes me forever to decide what I like.

Ann said...

I had a reply to each of your comments and when I hit publish your comment it gave me an error saying it was too large. What's up with that? Rather than type it all over again I will just say thank you everyone for your wonderful comments.

Anonymous said...

I loved Horshack...

Ann said...

Grace the show would not have been the same without Horshack.

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