Penguin on Skates

Happy Holidays! I went for my first acupuncture treatment last week-no miracles yet, but maybe a little improvement. I’m still not quilling, but I thought I would share this little guy. I put him on my Christmas cards last year, he is surprisingly simple to make. Here are the directions:

Penguin on skates

1 White tight coil (48”) wrapped in black for body
4 Black crescents (3”) for back of penguin
1 White tight coil (24”) wrapped in black for head
2 Yellow crescents (2”) for feet
2 Green (.5”) curled at one end for skates
1 Red bunny ear (3”) for hat
1 Green strip (1”) fringed for pom on hat
1 Yellow tiny strip folded for beak

Arrange as shown

Flower Pot

I haven’t been doing much quilling lately. I’ve been having “issues” with my neck, shoulder, and arm; partially due to an accident I was involved in over the summer and I think the hand is starting to wear out. Next week I am going to try acupuncture; I’m keeping my fingers (on the other hand) crossed. But when I got some new papers in I decided to play a little. We finally got a terracotta color in which made me decide to do a little flower pot treasure box. The flowers on the top are all done with our new translucent vellum strips. I found them easy to work with and love the colors. I did have a little trouble fringing them; I think they are probably too smooth for the fringer to grab them and feed them through. What I did to solve that challenge was put a regular strip of quilling paper on top of the vellum strip and feed them both through at the same time . . . perfect!

For those of you who might want to try this, I used 15 strips of terracotta to make the flower pot. It measures about 1 1/2" across the top so it is big enough to old a small treaure. It did take several tries before I got the shape I wanted, but since I fed the strips in (rather than gluing them to one another), it was easy to start over. I coated the inside with glue and put it aside. Since I wanted the flowers to look like they were “in” the flower pot, I made the top a little smaller than the bottom so it would fit into the flower pot. I was a little surprised that it took 20 strips of the kiwi vellum to make a smaller top. I mounded the top slightly and coated the inside with glue. Then I just played and made some flowers using 3” translucent strips, I really like the colors!

Graduated & Dark Center Strips

Last week a quiller emailed me and suggested that I post some examples of uses for the graduated and dark center quilling strips. Hence this post. Today, I am talking about graduated and dark center papers. These papers are actually printed, allowing for the gradual color change of color. These strips are only 12” long and come in a variety of colors. The English graduated and dark center strips as well as Quilled Creations come in fairly bright colors. The Paplin strips are geared to match their regular colors, they call their strips graduated but they are actually dark center strips. Which strips you use, depends on your style of quilling and how long a strip you  usually use.

In example #1, I cut a 12” dark center strip in half and made 6” teardrops. In one flower, I started rolling from the light end of the strip and I started from the dark end of the strip for the second. Two different looks, and certainly easier than “wrapping” the teardrop in a lighter or darker color.

In example #2, I crimped and then rolled a full 12” strip for the center. I alternated 6” strips cut from a yellow dark center strip for a different look.

In example #3, I cut a dark center strip in half and made a four loop wheat ear for each petal. I rolled a 6” strip for the center.

In example #4, I started at the light end of a strip and made a 1” loose coil, then a 2”, 3” and 4” s scroll. I strated at the light end of a green strip and made 3 loop wheat ears for leaves.

In example #5, I used the whole 12” strip of graduated (light to dark) and made eccentric teardrops for petals. I used one of the template boards to keep the shapes uniform. The leaf was a 12” strip of dark center green which I made into a eccentric shaped teardrop.

In example #6, I made one of my favorite shapes for graduated strips. Staring at the light end of the strip, I combined a wheat ear with alternate side looping. Each petal took the whole 12” strip. The leaves are a smaller version using 6”.

Example # 7; these are two fringed flowers using the whole 12” strip. One is done starting with the light end of graduated paper, the second is done using dark center paper. I used ¼” wide strips for these.

These are just a few thought starters for those of you who may not have tried these papers yet. If you are not familiar with the wheatears and alternate side looping techniques, just click the link.



Little Fall pumpkin

I don’t usually do much 3-D quilling, but here is a fun little pumpkin that would make a cute seasonal party favor or table decoration. It is about 11/2” wide and tall and is really easy to make. I used 15 full strips of orange paper for each half of the pumpkin. Start by making a tight roll and then as you roll add one strip at a time until all 15 are rolled. Gently push the center out until you get the shape you want. You can do this with your fingers or you can use one of the molds available for this purpose. Repeat to make the second half of the pumpkin. Coat the inside of both halves with glue to make them firm. Measure a strip of 1/4” paper to fit inside the top half of the pumpkin. Glue the strip as shown so the top will “fit” the bottom and not slide off. Make a tight roll of 1/8” paper for stem (I used 1 ½”) You can add a couple of tendrils using 1/16” strips. You can leave the pumpkin as is or add some eyes, nose, & mouth for Halloween.

Valentine Card

I apologize for my absence the last couple of months. The business and family obligations have taken up much of my time; hopefully we will be able to spend more time together now.

Hearts seem to be very popular, the K364 Nothing but Hearts kit I designed for Paplin is one of their best selling kits. Since we are already half way through January, I thought a Valentine card would be timely. Because I planned to use a corner border punch, I trimmed the white base greeting card down to 4”x 5”. (The corner/border combo punches are designed to line up with whole inches rather than fractions.) I cut a 4” x 5”pink rectangle and used the  Framed in Love corner border combo punch to create the border and attached it to the card. I use the Dotto removable adhesive because it is dry as well as repositional and doesn’t leave any “wet” glue marks on the paper. I then cut 3 full strips in half, creating six 12” strips/. I folded all six strips in half using the fold as the point of my heart. I then shaped the six strips into a heart shape (I held the heart with a tweezer while I put a tiny bead of glue on the back and then placed it on the card.)

I made the basic flowers on a work board first so I would be able to place them where I wanted them in the heart. I made two red 1” tight rolls for the centers and then made 12 white 6” marquises for petals. I then wrapped each white petal in red paper and glued them around the center. Once the flowers were dry I lifted them off the work board and glued them onto the card. I made 12 white 6” open hearts which I glued between the flower petals.

I cut two green short lengths (about ¾”) which I shaped into the stems. I made four green 6” marquises for leaves, two 3” open coils and two 1 ½” open coils which I glued to the stems.