Sunflowers

I was at a nursery the other day, and everywhere I looked there were sunflowers in every possible size. They reminded me of this little card. I put an anniversary sticker on it but you could use it for any occasion. The sunflowers are easy to make. For the larger sunflower I started by crimping an 8” brown strip and then rolling it into a tight (not too tight, you don’t want to “undo” the crimp) for the center. I used a 4” strip for the center of the smaller flower. I made 3” marquises for the petals of both sunflowers. I used 17 marquises on the larger flower and 14 on the smaller. These numbers may vary depending on the weight of the paper and how tightly you wind the center. The leaves are made using the alternate side looping technique. The best way I can describe this technique, is to call it husking without pins. Instead of using the board you actually hold the paper in your fingers . . . Make a loop, pass the paper under the starting point and make a loop to one side of the center loop, pass it past the starting point and make a loop on the opposite side . . . hence the name, ASL. For these leaves, I only used three loops and the wrapped the strip around the loops to finish the leaf. This is a little harder to describe without demonstrating, but there is an awesome book, “Quilling, Techniques and Inspiration” by Jane Jenkins, which has great picture tutorials of this technique as well as many others. (I also like to use the ASL technique using different color strips; instead of making the loop with one strip, I use two or three different colors, when you make the loops, pull the different color strips (just a little) so all of the colors show before gluing them. this makeds beautiful flowers and butterflies.)

I used the Sunburst border punch for the border and glued a strip of (½” wide) of yellow to the inside of the card to make the border stand out. The sunflower theme is a very popular one which I have used on other pieces as well. Enjoy!