DT Jan/13 - Quill Weed Love

Happy New Year everyone. May 2013 be the best and most creative one...

Anyone following my blog knows I love quilling... So thought I'd make a card with the most basic quill shapes that anyone can do - BIG GRIN. You do need some limber fingers though... but no special tools.

You don't even need to buy quilling strips - just use some text weight copy paper or something similar like Canson Ingres, Light weight scrapbook paper etc. Cut 8" strips 1/8"wide with a ruler and x-acto blade or a rotary cutter. Each of the white & cream toned floret pieces are 4"long (I used 33 pcs white & 14 cream) & some cream and mid toned green for the stems. Die cut Leaves made from Sizzix Tim's Tattered Poinsettia die, colored and then cut apart.

This card is side folded 4.25"w x 5.5"h made from dark blue cardstock.

side view

Moisten the tip of the white quill strip (not wet, just dampened between your lips), start a wrap around the point of your awl, or pin tip, then with your left hand fingers - thumb & pointer - press against the needle tip and twist/slide fingers to roll the paper. Continue rolling till your 4" piece of paper is tightly coiled and relatively even edges (they can be tamped down after removing from your tool). With a toothpick put a miniscule dab of white glue on the end of the paper strip and glue to coil. Hold the end for a couple seconds to ensure adhesion. Remove from tool using your fingernail to push up against the coil and tool - otherwise the coil may come apart from the center... Continue with other 32 pieces of paper... Tap the coil with your finger or press down with a small flat object to get the coils even.

For the cream toned oval coils, same procedure as above, but wrapping around a bamboo skewer instead - so you get a larger hole in the center when coiled. After gluing the end, pinch the coil at the glue end to create the oval shape.

Glue some strips to your card front for the stems by using your thumbnail to curl the paper a bit - similar to putting a curl on curling ribbon. Apply a thin bead of glue to the edge of the paper strip with a toothpick and then shaping on card front. HINT: You can put a piece of waxed paper on your card to protect it from excessive glue as you press down one part of the stem at a time, pulling the waxed paper out as you progress.  I used cream paper for the Queen Anne's lace flower and the pale green for the weed flowers. See side view image of card.

Long thin leaves are just a piece of green strip folded in half (ranging from a 2" strip to about a 5" piece), pinched at the top and adhered with a bead of glue along the edges and to the stem.

Die cut the smallest poinsettia, color with Distress Stain "Mowed lawn", dried, then cut points toward the center, scored to create a center vein on each leaf, then adhered to flower.

Sentiment stamped with Perfect Medium and embossed with white embossing powder.

Inside - stamped the flower (Magenta "Botanicals" #CS-043) and quote with the Perfect Medium and the white embossing powder.