For the three cards below I used the Flutterby digital kit:
For first card with the big poppy I used a quilling technique called husking. This technique is about creating figures by threading paperstrips around pins. Lots more about this technique will follow in this blogpost so keep reading!! I printed the flower-frame element again, now in full color, cut it out, inked the edges and glued it with some foamtape on my card. I attached the quilled poppy on top of it and finished my card with a black line around it.
For the second card I used the paperstrips in a different way, now by tying a sort of knot in them while wrapping them around my card. I cut two circles out of my card first. Then I used 14 paperstrips and attached them on the inside of the card in between the two circles. The 14 strips are split in two bundles of 7 strips when they come out of the upper circle and ‘tied’ in a graceful knot. I printed some of the butterflies from the Flutterby kit, cut them out and attached them on the card.
For the third card with the flourish and the flowers, I used the ’side flourish’-element from the Flutterby kit, digitally erased some parts to make room for my own flowers and printed this on a white Kaisercraft card. I quilled some flowers in different sizes and glued these on the card. I also printed a brush with the text ‘For You’ on the card”. This quilling technique is probably the one that is the most well known: rolling paperstrips and pinching the rolls in all sorts of shapes.
I liked the results of the card with the husking technique so much that I made another two cards with it.
And even better...I made a step-by-step instruction about how I did it! (Keep reading...this is going to be a mammoth sized blogpost!)
First I will show you my card:
The background of the card is a paper from the Candyshop kit. The text circle is a brush also, from the Circles brush kit. I erased the edges and the inner part (so the only thing left was the text itself ) and printed this together with the background paper.
Do you want to know how I made the butterfly? Here it comes...step by step!
What do you need to get started?
-Metal pins
-A cork board
-1/8 inch (3mm) wide paperstrips
-Adhesive (I use Tacky Glue and this works fine)
-Scissors
- paper piercer
First, something about which paper to use. There are special quilling paper strips for sale, in different sizes and colors. You can try at your LSS or google on the internet. You can also cut colored construction paper from the children’s craft department or even use printer paper . The paper has to be a little bit thicker than copy paper, but not too thick because it will not be flexible enough and the strip will possibly crumple.
About the cork board: I use the backside of a special quilling board. If you don’t have a board like that you can use a piece of cork or thick foam. Anything that is flat and where you can stick the pins in without the pins falling down. (You might want to cover the board with some plastic wrap or something to prevent your work from sticking to the board after wards.)
Next thing you need is a pattern of a butterfly. I used a brush from the Flutterby digital kit for this one. I printed it on white copy paper in the size I want my final butterfly to be.
Place the print on your cork board and start piercing pins on the outlines of the upper part of the wing (marked with the red dots).
Make a tiny loop at the end of a paperstrip and stick a pin through it.
This will be your starting point: pin 1.
Wrap the strip around pin 2, put a little drop of adhesive where it touches the loop around pin 1 and glue the strip down.
Next, you wrap the strip around pin 3, marked with a green arrow on the picture. Glue it down again where it touches pin 1 and go on to pin 4, etc.
Continue making these loops and switch sides after each pin. Don’t forget to put a little drop of adhesive each time your strip touches pin 1.
After you wrapped the strip around the last pin, glue the end down at pin 1 and cut off the rest of the strip.
Take another paper strip..if you wish in another color…and repeat the previous steps to create the lower part of the wing. See also the green dots, marked in the first picture!
To fill the open space between the two parts you need to create a teardrop.
Roll up a piece of a (black) paper strip.( I rolled it around the point of my paper piercer. You can also use a toothpick.) Carefully, pull the roll off , put it on your workspace and release it to unroll a little bit. Glue the end of the strip and let it dry for a moment.
To create the teardrop, simply pinch it on one side.
The next step will be to put together the two parts of the wing and the teardrop.
Take another paper strip and glue it to pin 1. Wrap the strip around all the pins. Make sure you put a drop of adhesive where the strip touches the pins.
You may have to hold it for a while to let it dry, before you can move on to the next pin. My paper piercer was very handy at that moment!
When you’re done your first wings should look like this:
Repeat these steps to create the other wing.
To create the body of the butterfly I cut two strips of about 1 cm wide, made a roll of each strip and glued the end of the strip to the roll. (Don’t release the rolls this time before adding the glue!) I pushed the inside of the roll carefully out to create a cone. Give the cones some time to dry and glue them together.
For the antennas of the butterfly I used a plastic stamen, which I colored with a black marker. Fold it in half and glue it on top of the body.
The last step to complete your butterfly is to glue the wings to the body..et voilà!
Your phantasy is the limit! How about this card with a quilled flower, using the Loire Valley kit:
Just like I did with the butterfly I printed a brush to use as a model. I quilled the six separate petals first. First, I attached three of these together, then made another layer with the other three and glued one layer on top of the other to make it more dimensional. The blue background is a paper from the kit, printed with a brush from the Love brush kit. The black frame came from the Elements set. There were already some drawn stitches on this frame. I handstitched these with real thread first (also for more dimension) before I glued the frame on the background with some foam tape. I also printed the red colored flower from the Elements set in the same size as my quilled flower. I attached my quilled flower on top of it and glued it on the frame on the card.
I used these quilled flower and butterfly on a card. Of course, you can create these also to finish your layouts. I would love to hear if I got you inspired and if you want to start quilling right a way! I would love it even more if you link your quilling project to the comment section of this blogpost!!
Have a nice day!!
Sandra
