Mazel Tov

My mother-in-law is a Cantor and has a very special event coming up. She is celebrating her Bat Mitzvah anniversary at her Temple in Connecticut. There will be a big service in her honor. While we can't be there, I wanted to make something special as a way to let her know that we are celebrating with her. That is the inspiration for this celebration tree.

The main part of my design is a tree to represent life, growth, and family. 

I love to incorporate writing in my quilling designs. Seeing my handwriting take shape and grow out of the paper is fascinating to me each time it happens. 

I start with the writing because it can be difficult to bend the paper where I want it to go if I already have a lot glued down in the space.

Getting the letters shaped correctly and adhered to the background is the key to the whole design.

I saw the term "micro quilling" on a blog a few weeks ago and I think that the writing on this project would definitely qualify under that title. 

The leaves for the tree will be micro, as well.

Since I had already gotten the words on the page, the tree outline was next. I used a gold metallic paper for most of it, although I did add in a few pieces of bronze as accents.

Once the tree outline was done, it was time for more micro quilling... this time in the form of leaves and a few flowers. I wanted to keep the overall picture pretty simple, rather than cluttering it with too much.

Before framing the picture, I added some blue and green to the background with chalk and colored pencils.