Quilling Techniques & Tips - How to Standardise Size of Hand Quilled Petals

This Tutorial and tips as promised in my Orange Blossom post are on how to make same size petals when quilling manually or without tools. This is for all of you, who like me, find it difficult to get the sizes of all the petals equal and end up getting annoyed with yourself!!

I have been wracking my brains when the answer was right in front of my face.... Stencil!! That's right!! Stencil   !!. The age old concept of making one and using it to make the others!!

I am going to take my multilevel looped petal which I used in Flower Shower as an example. You can find the tutorial here.

Step 1

Take the strip of your choice and fold the petal to the required size as shown above, but do not glue anything.

Step 2

Now make sure you pinch all the areas that get folded and glued, hard, so that the impression remains even after you unwind it.As you can see above the folded areas have a sharp edge.

Step 3

Now straighten the curved or looped bends ( the loop areas will be blunt) by scoring with your thumb nail to straighten it so that it looks zig zag like above instead of a step like the previous pic.

Step 4

This strip is your stencil or guide strip. Use it to help you measure the length and fold the rest of your petals. Make note of the direction of the fold, up then down. Now glue the petals at the fold making the identical petals. 

Tips

This method can be used for any hand made petal. Simply straighten the curved areas and emphasize the folds on the stencil/ guide strip.

You can take several strips and fold at one go but if accuracy is required do it one by one as the thickness of the strip will cause a margin of error on the strip above it.

Blunt the curved area if you desire a more rounded petal that is wider on top.

Apply very little glue and hold till dry before continuing. This will take longer but will prevent the bottom from becoming soggy with glue.

When encircling, make sure it is not too tight and you can glue the loops very lightly to the encircling strip to make the petals more stable.

You can measure and use same length strips to ensure that the petals are of the same size. 

When handling the petals try and use forceps and avoid handling the looped end.

When assembling, arrange the shape to your satisfaction first and then take the petal one by one and glue them to have better control over the shape of the flower.

If you need to apply glue to the same area repeatedly, allow to dry before you apply glue again to prevent the strip from tearing.

If you are using shapes that unwind, glue them after they unwind to the required limit and direction to prevent them unwinding further and creating large gaps over time.

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O primavara minunata tuturor!!

     Va doresc o primavara minunata! Pace in familie, caldura in suflet, minte luminata , bani in buzunare si multa dragoste!

     Cristina

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Martisoare inaripate :)

               Am primit o comanda de la o clienta care printre altele dorea un martisor sub forma de barza. Nu exagerez, cred ca am stat 1 ora sa fac unul si orice faceam , tot lebada iesea si nu intelegeam de ce. Am inteles abia dupa ce am cautat imagini cu berze. Berzele sunt albe, dar au aripile negre!!
             Si sa vedeti minunea, cum am schimbat culoarea penelor , a iesit BARZA!!!
             Va las mai jos poze cu pasarile mele, spun pasari caci in afara de barza , am o groaza de lebede:)))
              Sper sa va placa!
              Pentru comenzi, ma puteti contacta la nr de tel: 0721709171 sau la e-mail : cristina.pdg@gmail.com

Pret :  3 lei / buc

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Quilled Picture Graphic Quilling- Blue Bird in A Bower

I quilled this scene or picture of a Bluebird sitting among plum blossoms as long  back as in Oct 2012, but did not get down to blogging it till today.This was my first attempt at quilling a bird using folded basic shapes that resembled feathers, unlike the parrot and humming bird which I quilled using loose coils.

 I have used a photograph of the sky as a background. The Bluebird is quilled with folded 3mm strips to match the feathers. I quilled  Little Robin Red Breast after practicing on this one which came out quite well for a first attempt. I have inserted a white strip to get the shine on the beak. My objective was to get it to look as lifelike as possible.

I have done the leaves slightly differently as I have crushed the strip to get a wrinkled effect. Here's a closer look at the elements.

Would love to know what you think.

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Brose pentru Martisor

       Pot sa spun ca abia astazi ma simt in stare sa lucrez, dupa 2 saptamani de gripa. Se pare ca m-a ocolit ea mai bine de 10 ani , dar cand m-a lovit a dat cu forta :) . In fine, a trecut!
       Am facut aseara cateva brose pentru fiul meu, caci mai e putin pana la 1 martie si oricum vroiam ceva mai special pentru profesoare. Pentru forma broselor m-am inspirat din creatiile  Lucianei Chiabotto -  Lu Paper   . Centrul broselor este facut prin tehnica beehave , o tehnica pe care o apreciez enorm si o folosesc foarte des in lucrarile mele. Trandafirii si frunzele sunt confectionate  din carton de 200 gr. O brosa are dimensiunea de 5,5cm  x 4 cm .  Sper sa va placa.
      Cine doreste pentru 8 Martie,  poate face comenzi la tel 0721709171 sau pe adresa de e-mail cristina.pdg @gmail.com   Pretul unei brose este de 6 lei .

Pret: 6 Ron / buc

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New Quilling Technique For Assembling 3d Flowers

This is a new technique for assembling quilled flowers, that I adopted when I made Orange Blossoms  and the red quilled flowers in Flower Shower. This method makes it easier to incorporate the stems into the flower and is suitable for flowers with very small centers , for tubular flowers and for flowers you want to stand in vases.

Step 1.
Make the petals like the leafy grass in the tutorial here. Make sure all the loops are of the same size and make a maximum of 5 loops per petal for the above flowers.

Step 2
Make 4 such petals.

Step 3

 Now take a 3mm strip and tear it to make 4, 1' length strips.

Step 4
Score a line in the middle of each strip with an empty ball point pen or similar instrument.

 

 
Step 5
Now fold the 4 strips using the score marks. Use the valley side of the score mark  to form the valley of the fold.

Step 6

Now glue each strip to the petal so that the bottom tip of the petal is aligned to the valley of the fold as shown below. At this point you could get a few yellow strip pieces and glue it to the sides of the petals to form part of the center coloration. Alternatively, you could  glue the petal diagonally on the strip, aligned in the same way, to get a deep slant or cup.

Step 7
Now apply glue to the stems as shown and glue to another petal and make 2 half flowers. Now flatten the stems so that that stems of the two halves can be glued, and glue them together to make the flower.

Step 8
Apply a tad of glue to the center of the flower and make your hand into a fist and place the flower into the hole made by your index finger and thumb so the head of the flower with the glue faces up and sits on your fist. Take the blunt end of your quilling tool or a stylus and apply pressure downwards so that the head of the flower shapes into a cup and allow the glue to dry or you can shape it with your fingers as shown.The important thing is to allow the center glue to dry in a cupped position. Once this is done you can glue a center on top and a few pieces of yellow strips in between the petals to form the center.

 Step 9
Now apply some clear drying glue to the stem and twist it tight and allow to dry. Once dry you can make the green stem starting at any point. As shown coil it around a few times and glue it then start twisting it down with the strip diagonally to make the stem as in my tutorial here.

That's It !! you can use this method for flowers using quilled petals as well as it is very firm and these flowers can be placed in quilled vases.

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Quilled 3d Flowers - Orange Blossom Flower Frame

This time its a quilled 3d flowering plant. All parts including the stems are made from 3mm strips. Both the flowers and leaves are made using the looping technique that I employed  for the grass in my quilled landscape which I called Waterfall Landscape.  You can see it more clearly in my Lion Share of Love cartoon. The tutorial is available here under leafy grass. It is rounder than the grass in my Quilled Tree Landscape , hence, I was able to use it as a petal.

I have used 5 to 6 petals for each flower in order to get the circular shape. In order to make the flowers firm, I have assembled the flower slightly differently and have not attached it to 3d cups and then to stems. Instead I have merged the stems onto the flowers.  I used this same method to assemble the red flower in Flower Shower even though I used a 3d curved cone to attach the petals on to. It made it so much firmer and easier to shape the flower like a cup. I think the most important part of creating 3d flower is to shape them into cups rather than making them like discs.

For the leaves too I have adopted a method similar to the one I used in making the veins in my poinsettia tutorial. I love the natural look of these compound leaves.

For the stems too, the tutorial is available here, but I have used 3 strips to make the thicker stems.The edging strips are hand folded and are pretty easy to make.

I am planning to do 3  tutorial from this frame so, those of you who are not already following, click on " Get Updates". It is a very simple process to follow the blogs you love and you can learn anything for free thru these blogs.

The tutorials will be on

1. New Technique for Assembling Flowers.
2. New Compound Leaf - Free Hand.
3. How to Make Freehand Petals to the Same Size

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