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Quilled poppies step-by-step, part 1

My last quilling work, two poppies and a dandelion; its size is about 7 x 7 1/2 inches (17.5 x 19.5 cm) framed. This time I'd like to share with you complete, step-by-step instructions for making it. When I say "complete", I mean that you will see how each and every part of this piece was made. Actually, this will be a series of three tutorials, due to the relatively large number of different elements:
1. Petals of poppy flowers; 2. Flower centers and assembling the poppies; 3. Foliage and dandelion flower.

For two poppies you will need eight red 24''(60cm)-long and 1/8''(3mm)-wide strips, adhesive (craft glue), scissors and a lot of pins. The petals are made using the husking technique, this particular method called also alternate side looping. For this method you will need also a corkboard (I bought mine in IKEA, it was a trivet in its previous life :). A foam-board or an old mouse pad would do as well. I recommend the following to make the assembling of petals easier: wrap the cork-board in wax paper or plastic food wrap, this prevents quilled elements from sticking to the board when you glue them.

I drew a different pattern for each petal to make the flowers look more natural, but you may use the template above. It can be printed and used right away to assemble the petals. Put it on the corkboard underneath the plastic wrap or wax paper, for the latter make sure you can see the pattern. Be aware that this template was intended for A5 paper, so you shouldn't resize it if printing on A4/Letter.

1. Make a small loop at one end of a quilling strip and push a pin through it to hold the end in place. Note, green arrows indicate spots where gluing is required.

2. Push another pin into the board at the top of the pattern and bring the strip around it, from the right-hand side to the left. Put a small amount of adhesive where the green arrow points.

3. Bring the strip around the pin at the bottom, glue it down where it touches the pin. Push another pin at the top of the pattern, some distance from the pin you already have there. Bring the strip around the new pin, this time it goes from left to right. Take the strip all the way to the bottom, apply a small amount of adhesive where the green arrow shows and glue the strip down.

4. Continue making loops by adding pins and alternating the sides (remember alternate side looping?). Try leaning the pins outwards so that the strip doesn't slip off. Don't forget to secure each loop at the bottom, in the point marked with the green arrow.

5. After you've reached the bottom of the pattern, apply a small amount of glue at the top of each loop (some of these points marked with arrows).

6. Bring the strip around the loops, gluing it down to the top of the inner loops as you go.

7. Secure the strip at the bottom by gluing it down at the point marked with the green arrow.

8. Cut off excess strip.

9. For two poppies, repeat steps 1-8 seven more times. If you're going to make only one flower, you will need just three more petals. Well, that wasn't easy at all! Looks like this is the first time I'm writing this much in English. Hope everything is clear, but if not, you're always welcome to ask me.

Quilled poppies step-by-step, part 2

What I like about paper filigree is that it presents almost endless challenges, and I like challenges :) In this project the poppy centers were a challenge, at least to me. Just to remind you, this is the second part of a three-part tutorial on making quilled poppies:
1. Instructions for making the petals;

2. How to make the centers and assemble the flowers; 3. Making the foliage and the dandelion.

Flower centers
To make each poppy center, you'll need a 12''-long (30cm) black strip.

1. Make a tight roll and then create a quilled hive or bell shape. This shape is often called a grape roll. Coat the inside of the shape with glue, spreading it on thick.

2. Cut a 1/16''-wide (1mm) strip of a very pale brown or pale yellow color. Glue three 1/2''-long (13mm) pieces of the strip criss-cross onto the grape roll.

3. Prepare two 3/8 x 2 inches (1 x 5 cm) black paper strips and glue a 1/16''-wide (1-1.5mm) yellow strip along the long edge of each. Let the glue dry, then cut a fringe starting from the yellow strip's side.

4. Wrap each bell in a fringe, so that the cuts point in a direction opposite to the bell's top (crisscrossed strips).

5. Bend the fringe all the way up. Now it surrounds the bell shape and forms a kind of a cup around it.

Poppy flowers
Now, let's put everything together and create a finished poppy flower.

1. Place two of your quilled petals at an angle to the surface, opposite each other. To keep the petals tilted, I just propped them against quilling elements that I haven't used in this project.

2. Apply a small amount of glue on the down side of another two petals and gently put them over the first pair. Let the glue dry.

3. Finally, attach a flower center to the flower. Repeat steps 1-3 for the other poppy.

The bud
For the bud (it can be seen in Part 1 of the series), use three eye shapes, one red and two green, made from 6''-long (15cm) strips.

Quilled poppies step-by-step, part 3

With this post I'm finishing the three-part tutorial on making quilled poppies. If you haven't seen the previous parts, here's the full list:
1. Instructions for making quilled petals using husking; 2. How to make the centers using the fringed flower technique and assemble the flowers;

3. How to make the foliage (husking) and the dandelion flower (fringed flower).

Quilled foliage

1. Take three 1.5-2'' long green strips the stems and glue them together at one end. Place them on a cork board so that they diverge, and secure in place with pins.

2. Now you'll need one green and one olive green strips, both 24'' (60cm) in length. Glue the ends of these strips down at the point where the diverging strips meet. Start zigzagging the two strips, fixing them with pins and gluing to the "stem" strips as you go.

Note: Glue the two strips wherever they touch the stems. In order to do this, first glue down the olive (inner), and then the green (outer) strip.

3. Cut off excess strips. You're done.

Quilled dandelion
For the dandelion flower you will need a 12''-long (30cm) yellow strip and a 2''-long (5cm) green strip, about 3/8''(1cm) in width both.

1. Glue the strips together to make a single strip. Cut jags into the green part from its end to the middle, and then a fringe all the way to the other end of the yellow part.

2. Roll the fringe onto a quilling tool starting from the yellow end.

3. Bend the jags, but not the fringe, down.

4. Open up the flower as you would normally do with a fringed flower. The leaf of the dandelion is paper-cut, I used embossing to add some dimension to it. Now you need only to choose a background, assemble the composition and mount it. So, add missing stems three for the poppies and one for the dandelion, arrange the elements as you like, glue everything down. Frame the finished piece. That's it, hope you've enjoyed this tutorial.

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