Quilling a Bridal Shower Card and Gift Wrapping Ideas

When I received a bridal shower invitation in the mail, an idea was sparked. I often like to make a quilled card to give with a gift and because I'm a fan of watercolors, one look at the painted wedding cake design and knew I would use it as the background paper. How about adding a small grouping of quilled flowers on each cake layer? Game on!

Another reason for making a card like this was because then the bride will have a memento of the invitation that was sent to guests. I also included a layer of silver-gray card stock that was part of her wedding invitation on the card, and used wood grain card stock to make the base (first featured in this wedding project that I made for my son and daughter-in-law).

I searched my quilling paper stash and pulled out this little tangle, very happy to find a couple of Australian two-tone strips in just the right colors to match the cake flowers. No kidding, these papers are called Exotic... originally featured in this post where you'll find more ideas on using fringed flowers in card making. Exotic strips by Jonathan Mayne may still be available from Quilling Supply [edit: no longer open] here in the U.S.

Because an envelope needs to be a bit oversized to accommodate quilling, I made one by referring to this handy YouTube video. Rather than gluing the envelope closed, I made a little fringed flower with ASL leaves (quill-speak for alternate side looping) and positioned it on pink and silver-gray squares cut from the wedding invitation along with a watercolor floral square cut from the other side of the shower invitation. A bit of double-stick tape held it in place to seal the envelope.

In case you're curious, the idea I came up with for the gift was a hand bound wedding/anniversary journal from Rag & Bone Bindery (also on Etsy). I've admired their books for years, have featured both the company and its owner's paper craft book and even won a photo album in a giveaway once upon a time, so I knew the quality was excellent. It's fun to give a personalized gift and even more so when it's made of paper (to my way of thinking, haha).

Package wrapping is something else I love to do, and for this one I used silvery silk-screened kraft paper from Bonnie Kaye Studio (you might remember it from this past Christmas). For a present topper, I painted a silk leaf with silver acrylic paint and lettered the bride's name with a calligraphy marker. Best part was that her eyes lit up when she saw the quilled card underneath... her smile made my day.

Come back next week as I'll be showing a project I made using the other half of the shower invitation AND I'll be celebrating my Ten Year Blogiversary with a very nice giveaway and a free tutorial. See? YOU will get presents too! 🤗