Sunflower Quilled Card

Ever since Philippa Reid presented several articles on  Quilling in the September 2011 Papers and Pixels Magazine (no longer available), I have wanted to try my hand at this beautiful art form.   Recently Philippa received even  more international awards for her amazing work.  Don't miss her Blog if you want to see how incredibly beautiful quilling can be!  
This card was created specifically for the Joan's Touch Challenge this week where we were to use a fall theme an embossed bkg and something we have altered that we have already cut or used.  I had already cut the romantic rectangles (Spellbinders S5-161) from sandable core-dinations paper that I got a couple of years ago.  That particular die includes both cutwork and embossing.  The sentiment "Wishing you Happiness Around Every Corner" is a   TLC Creations Circular sentiment, altered, colored and resized for this card.  The background for the sentiment has been sponged with  Cappuccino Delight, Kaleidacolor Ink. And finally the very center of my "sunflower" has a tight quilled roll surrounded with a splash of brown glitter glue and a teeny bit of Distress ink sponging. The quilled Sunflower is my own "creation" working somewhat with a combination of tutorials and tutorial videos I found online:  This one is from E-How.  Basic Idea came from a site like this and here's a good  Basic Quilling page to help get you started on the seven basic shapes.  The best tutorials I found were in Dutch or German, but just viewing them and stopping and studying each step worked for this first time quiller. 

I bought a Quilling Board from Terri at Joan's Gardens.  It was manufactured by Marianne Designs and was great for learning how to pin and work a flower, and to practice sizing the scrolls as I made them and then glued them together.  This Quilling board does NOT come with any instructions at all, but available for purchase with it is a Marianne Designs Catalog.  This catalog was SO helpful, and links to the Marianne site with project ideas was great.  It is tricky to get the quilling to stick to the cardstock, but I liked the way Glue N  Seal (also available at Joan's Gardens) and  Zip Dry worked.  I also tried 3d Glaze, but it didn't seem to dry fast enough.  I held the base of each quilled piece until dry with tiny clothespins that I had seen in one of the online demos for quilling.   
   Spend some time and search pinterest and the online quiller's sites for information on how to do this.  It is time-consuming, fun, pretty, unusual, and totally unique!  Originally I had a tied grosgrain ribbon under the corner quilling because the ribbon had fall leaves on it, but it overpowered the quilling, so I settled for fall theme colors and a sunflower for the challenge.

Priss tip:  Do loops like y ou see on the flower on a Quilling Comb instead of pin-board.  Faster, easier and glues much more easily.  (A Quilling Comb is also an "onion holder" in your kitchen store and is also on Amazon)