A Quilled Nature Scene Landscape Painting - Autumn Forest Waterfall

I love the colors of autumn. The hues of red and yellow are so vibrant and full of life. Autumn to me is the very lifeblood of the seasons. Winter somehow seems such a waste, sort of a season of waiting for a new beginning. A time to gather strength and rest before the whole cycle of life begins again. But autumn is when the flora goes out with a bang in all its glory and majesty!!

This quilled painting is in honor of my favorite season. 

I have used folding and beehive techniques in combination for this project.

I read somewhere that the grass in the foreground should be long and the farther grass short to show distance , so that is what I have done. I have added a dark shade to give depth to the foreground grass.

As for the water, I have added green and brown to make it dark and give it a hint of reflection to the left. The waterfall has more white and I did not use beehive for the froth as the shape does not blend well with the waves. So I used strips to create the contours.

I have used beehive quilling for almost all of the background work. And this time I have got 2 layers for the trees.The shading comes through better as I have used darker color for the first layer of trees.

I have been using textured board for my backing paper but this time I thought I'd try may hand at creating the sky myself. I didn't want to quill the clouds, like in Flowing  River,  as I wanted the viewer to focus on the scene . So I have used oil crayons and colored the sky.

I looked up a video on YouTube and then drew the sky. Since Oil pastels smudge, the layering of the sky had to be done in the proper order and I don't have a clue about painting. So as always, I did a bit of research and analysis!! ( Old habits die hard I guess!!) I am glad it went well with the whole scene.

Initially I thought of using an orange sky but then thought blue  would bring out the quilling better, so that is the color I used and  I am glad I did.

Some of my other scenes are
Palm Beach
Cherry Blossoms
Flower Fields
Forest Walk
Flowing River
Tree and Water
Waterfall 
Sunset & Silhouette
and One Tree Hill

As always I'd love for you to take time to comment. Don't think you are too new to quilling or to young to comment. We are always learning and are rookies at something which in time we master. All comment are appreciated.

Valentines Day Quilling - Valentine Moon Gazers

Valentines Day is upon us and I thought I'd chip in with this quilled landscape of kids gazing at the moon.
I have combined beehive quilling and silhouette paper cut for this quilled picture.

Somehow I find it more satisfying to relate kids to love as it brings out the innocence of true love in this materialistic world. I am sort of a spiritual dreamer and love everything that is pure and innocent. I had previously done a couple of Valentines day quilling with Kiddy Valentine and Butterfly Heart.

I have done this piece in 3 dimension as it has got depth through layering.

As you can see the background is quilled using beehive technique with color blending. And the grass is done using graphic quilling,  my style, as in the cases of Thumper and Bamby.  

Hope you like this one. I'd love to hear from you all.

Quilled Celtic Knot - Quilled Eternal Circle, Shamrock and Triquetra

This quilled Celtic knot is made using multi-strip quilling and beehive quilling. The combined symbolism is packed with  meaning.

The Eternal Circle- The interlacing lines of the Celtic Knot stands for "no beginning, no ending, the continuity of everlasting love and binding together or intertwining of two soul or spirits."

Trinity Knot, also known as a Triquetra. -  Christians believe that the three points represent the three elements of the trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost). To the ancient Celts it symbolised the  earth, air, and water. On a more spiritual level, it has also been known to symbolize life, death, and rebirth.

The Irish Shamrock is the traditional symbol of the Trinity.

Completing this was a study in patients and was rather difficult to do. The interlacing lines got me tied up in knots myself , but in the end I managed to complete it. The biggest hurdle was to get it to stick to the backing. Kept getting stuck to my fingers and everywhere else but!! I have managed to get the beehive in neatly though.

Tips for beehive quilling is available here.

Quilled Picture - Little Robin Red Breast

Quilled Bird Quilled robin Quilled Picture Quilled Art

A quilled picture (bird) of little Robin Redbreast is my first post for the year. I  have quilled birds before starting with a humming bird  with flowers very early into my journey into quilling. I soon followed this up with a  quilled parrot and a feathery discussion which became quite popular with many viewers. Then I quilled Fuchsia Honey Shower which had another humming bird. However All those were quilled with coiled shapes.

For Robin Redbreast, I wanted a lifelike appearance so I adopted a basic shape that looks more like feathers and glued it onto the backing, graphic quilling style. I have also used the proper colors of the actual bird by referring to a photo of the bird.

I quilled the legs using my stem technique for which I have posted a tutorial earlier on. The tree trunk is graphic quilled and the method is given in the tutorial link above.

For the background I have used the less emphasized beehive quilling that I adopted in my Nativity scene. The edging is  done with crimped red strips.

I am very happy with the results as it turned out better than I expected. I hope you like it too. I would love to have your feedback.

Beehive quilling Tips & Tricks are here.

Quilled Picture Papercut Nativity Scene

To complete my christmas quilling, I thought this quilled picture of the nativity of Christ was appropriate. As usual I have combined paper cutting with quilling.

The first silhouette I tried was a fully quilled sunset scene which I called "Sunset & Silhouette". For this one, I thought I'd not complicate it, so I did a paper cut. I have used beehive quilling for the background which is slightly different from the one used in  "Reindeer in the Snow".

 

Hope you like this one . Tutorial for advanced beehive quilling is here.

And Now..........

All my blessings and good wishes to you and your wonderful family.

 May Jesus' coming this year once again bring joy to your home.

 Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones.

Big Bear Hugggg,

Chris

Quilled Picture Papercut Silhouette - Reindeer in the Snow

I have combined paper cutting and quilling for this quilled picture, Reindeer in the Snow, for which I have used only beehive quilling as a background. Usually, the paper cut is mounted on a paper backing but I wanted to make it a bit different, so whats better than using beehive quilling to depict a snowy backdrop?

For tips on beehive quilling check out my tutorial, which is for those who already know the basic beehive technique.

This one was very simple, I got a couple of silhouettes of reindeer and Photoshopped the design and then cut it out with a craft knife. Then I covered the backing paper with beehive quilling. I have used two variations of the beehive. The border is made of the variation I introduced in filigree flower .  The beehive variation is given in the Filigree Poinsettia Tutorial.

The snow backdrop for the center is the usual beehive quilling pasted closely, taking care not to allow it to unwind too much. When glued close it looks really good and can be used for background filling.

Enjoy and be motivated.

Christmas Quilling- Quilled Stained Glass Window

Now for a change!! A quilled picture of the Nativity of Christ. A quilled mosaic stained glass window design using only beehive quilling, quilled like a mat.

If you hold it up, the light comes through just like a stained glass window; the reason for using beehive. Looks rather holy ( Just couldn't resist that pun!!).

Well it took me a lot of time to get the beehive quilling stuck one to the other!! Not an easy task at all!! Mother Mary's face had to be redone twice. Would have been much easier to glue it to the backing, but I wanted to try and use clear plastic for the final mounting so the light can come through.

I am happy with the results as it is something unique!! Probably the first time a mosaic design has been quilled!!

Hope you like it too. Should look great on a card too.

Sorry I forgot my how to!!

The steps involved are fairly simple but the task is laborious for someone like me who does not have too much patients!! I basically overlaid a printout with a plastic sheet and shaped the black outline with around 4 strips stuck together for a thick, visible outline and then filled it with beehive quilling ensuring that each sub-coil had glue on the sides. To do this, I basically filled the shape with beehive and then took a tad of glue on a toothpick and poked it between adjacent sub-coils to stick them together. Got them stuck to my fingers many a time, threw out a few in a temper and then managed to complete it somehow. It did get easier with practice though. Just made sure the proportions of the hands were as per the drawing.

I used a towel to hold the beehive coils down till dry after I had that "eureka" moment. Avoid getting the glue on top,but if you do, do not panic. Just wipe it off with a damp napkin before it dries. Keep your fingers clean at all times so keep a damp cloth handy.

For my beehive quilling tips follow this link.

New Quilling Technique Tutorial - Filigree Christmas Poinsettias

Here goes!! A new quilling technique tutorial on making filigree  flowers, Christmas Poinsettias, using the much loved beehive quilling technique. There is no encircling to spoil the lacey look.

 There  are 5 main steps to making this flower.

1. Make the veins for the petals. (The petal is really a red leaf in the poinsettia).
2. Make the beehive quills to paste onto the veins.
3. Paste the two halves to make the petals.
4. Assemble the petals and make the flower.
5. Make the stamen and glue it.

Beehive Quilling with a Difference

For this flower you need to be familiar with beehive quilling since you are going to do the beehive quilling slightly different, so it does not unwind too much.

Christmas Tree Fold

What I call christmas tree fold (green)is slightly different from the fan fold (red) which are both done by folding the strip up, then down then up again and so on till you reach the end of the strip in zig-zag fashion. In the fan fold, the length of the upward portion and the downward portion, that is both sides of the V are equal. In the chrismas tree fold, one side of the V is folded longer so the fan is elongated downwards.
 Take a strip and fold upwards at 1cm then fold downwards at 1.3cm then up again at 1cm and downwards at 1.3cm and continue to the end. You should end up with something that looks like the green one.

 Making the Veins

1. Take 2, dark red  strips ( length depends on how big you want the petal) and make a christmas tree folds using the whole strip.(pic 1)
2. Shape it to look like pic 2 to form the veins of one side of the petal and glue the 2 sides  of each V together to form veins.
3. Since one  side of the v is  a little longer than the other, this difference will form the vertical distance between 2 horizontal veins. (Pic 3)
4. Now fold the unglued portions so thay stand vertical to the veins (which run horizontal) as shown in pic 3 and shape it like a leaf as in pic 4.

(Please note that I have not pasted all the veins in pic 3  in order to highlight the glued part and the christmas tree like fold.)

Making the Beehive Quills - Variation

 You are going to quill the beehive with a slight variation to make it more stable  as shown in the pic above. You can see the difference in the pic. Please note that the pics below show regular beehive as I discovered the variation when I was making the second petal.
 

In a normal beehive you ( See tutorial) you quill the sub-coils, clockwise. Here, you alternate clockwise turns and anti-clockwise turns for consecutive coils,  ( that is quill one coil using clockwise turns and the next coil using anti-clockwise turns and so on) so that you get the above paired sub-coils which are more stable.

1. You will make the leaf bottom up by gluing coil sets on both sides of the vein.
2. Make a 3 sub-coils set for the outside of the bottom vein (see pic 1) and several 4 sub-coils sets for the mid veins and again 3 and 2 for the tapering, top portion.
3. Glue the starting and ending sub-coils shut, after quilling the beehive variation and letting it unwinds a bit.
4. Glue the 3 sub-coil set, as shown in the pic below, to the bottom and a 4 sub-coil set to the inside of the bottom most vein. (Note that your veins would have been stuck together unlike this pic). 
5. Then glue the next vein to the top of the 2nd set of sub-coils, that is the one with the 4 sub-coils.
6. Then glue another set of sub-coils  on the vein and keep alternately gluing till you reach the top of the petal, where you would have glued shorter sub-coil sets with 3 and 2 sub-coils to achieve the taper . If your veins are longer cut them off.

Once done, your half petal should look like the pic below. For those who are confused by the instructions, just try to get the shape below by gluing sub-coil sets of beehive quills to the veins. This method only requires you to make veins and shape it like a tapering leaf and then fleshing it out by gluing beehive coils between the veins.

Now paste a strip to form the vertical center vein and loop it and glue to form the petal tip at the top.

Complete another half petal, (  you will not need a center vein for this) and paste the two halves together. Shape the petal and pinch the sub- coils at the edge of the petal  if you want a sharper, lobed look. 

Viola! you got your lacey petal.
 

Assembling the Petals

Make 5 or 6 petals.
You will now arrange the petals as shown in the pic above. Half the petal should be on top of the adjoining petal on one side while the other half should be below the adjoining petal on the other side. Glue them fast. You may have a bit of space in the center if you wish.

 Making the Stamens

1. Take 5,  1inch  5 mm strips of yellow and 1 inch dark red 3mm strips. Cut the yellow as shown above to form fringed petals and glue them together red to yellow.
2. Starting with the red, make 5  tiny fringed flowers and open them out slightly to form the flower like stamens.
3.  Now glue each flower at the center, just where one petal goes below the other.

 

Phew!! That's it folks!! I hope I did not flummox you too much!!

 For more christmas decor check out my pine cones tutorials.

Christmas- Quilling-Felligree-Flower-Christmas Poinsettia

Quilled Christmas decorations and quilled table decor adds to the levity of Christmas, so in the spirit of the occassion, I thought I must post a tutorial with something unique and these are the results of my efforts. Filigree petaled Christmas poinsettias. I think they look rather nice.

I have used beehive technique, which I have fallen in love with and for which I never fail to mentally thank Susan of susanquilling.

I was a bit bored with the beehive being encircled , like the leaf above, all the time. I thought this did not allow the delicate lace like look to be enhanced, so I was determined to devise a method to retain the filigree outline and by gad, I did it. Of course it needs a bit of gluing to retain the shape.

Tutorial is posted here.

Quilled Flower Frame 3d Flowers - Clematis Trail

I quilled this 3d flower frame using comb husking, comb leaf quilling and beehive quilling. I wanted to make downward trailing flowers and I thought clematis was ideal.

I have quilled the stems too and everything is made of 3mm strips. Fringed flowers have been used for the center. The petals are comb husked and encircled by a comb leaf . The tutorial for the leaf technique is here . I have just used purple instead of green.

The leaves are beehive quilling encircled in a heart shape.I have used a combination of 3 shades of green at random.

Quilling Tutorial - Beyond Beehive Technique

Today's quilling technique tutorial is what I discovered when I was using the beehive technique while quilling River Tree quilled landscape.

You can find a video of the beehive technique here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2141r4G-WM .
Susan is the one who came up with this technique but I did not see a tutorial on her site so I have given the above one by Pritesh.

I found that the beehive unwinds easily and when used as a filler in large areas tends to detract from its beauty, however when quilling the above I managed to make it hold its shape. The following are the secrets to success.

1. Smaller sub-coils  look nicer than large sub-coils  as the outer coils start unwinding fast and loose shape making them look more like breaking waves.
2. I usually insert the quilling needle at a length that will allow me to make about 4 to 6 twists (full clockwise turns) for  filling large areas and 3 to 4 twists for filling smaller areas.
3. Equal spaced quilling makes better beehive strips. That is after the first sub-coil which I quill counting the turns, I insert the needle at a distance, slightly less than half the length of the first, as you will be quilling practically double strips for the rest of the way.
4. Stop turning the needle just before the subcoil you are quilling touches the previous one as this will reduce it curling into the other coils.
5. After you quill each sub coil, hold it on the quilling needle for about 3 seconds to reduce it unwinding. This helps it hold the shape better.
6. Arrange the coils in its natural shape. That is if it is coiling then coil it in a circle and insert it into the space to be filled.
7. Glue every sub coil to the backing.
8. Use forceps and arrange the coils and if some have unwound use forceps and wind it back when gluing.
9. When gluing push the coils close to each other. Do not leave too much space.
10. If there are empty spaces quill single sub coils and insert and glue to fill the gaps.
11. Hold each sub-coil down till it is stuck to the backing. If large area, hold it down with your palm till it is stuck. This will prevent further unwinding.
12. All these gluing tips are not required when you stabilize the beehive by encircling it like I did in quilled tree landscape.

Lanscape Quilling Graphic Quilled - Tree & Water

Quilling Landscapes and graphic quilling nature scenes have become a great favorite with me, since it gives me leeway to try out new techniques in order to create a painting like scene. I cannot paint and have never tried painting so this gives me a chance to practice my artistic skills.I usually quill flowers to break the monotony as I tend to get bored rather quickly!!

I have used beehive or what I call honeycomb quilling for the tree top whilst the branches and trunk are graphic quilled. I created two layers in parts of the canopy to get a 3d effect and the top layer is the lightest shade of green. There are three shades of green used in this whole piece.

This is a horizontal view of it

 I have used the grass I used in my previous quilled landscape, quilled tree , around the tree (dark green) and for the horizon trees, I used the foliage used in my waterfall landscape  and Lion share of love quilled cartoon.

The embankment grass is just like what I did in Bambi which is just folded paper pasted to depict grass.

Short blue and white strips  curled like waves went to create the water. You will be able to see it clearly if you click on the image as I have put a rather large image.

Tutorial for Graphic quilling is available here.

I enjoyed quilling this one and am happy with the way it turned out. Hope you like it too.

Floral Lotus Abstract - Quilled 3d Flower Frame

These quilled flowers are made from a combination of multi strip quilling, beehive quilling, fringed flower technique and quilled basic shapes. This design, which uses  3d quilled flowers, incorporates flowers within a flower.
The yellow spray is made from a technique I invented  using a comb. The tutorial is here. It is different from the rice swirl which I used for petals and swirls, but both were made using the comb.

Tinkerbell - Graphic Quilling Landscape Picture Art

So here is my favorite fairy which I have graphically quilled.. I have tried to get the hair and dress with strips just as in graphic quilling. For the wings, I have used beehive technique and for the pom-poms on the shoes I made two fringed flowers.  I think she turned out quite nice. I tried to quill the eyes with pegs but settled for strips.

My graphic quilling  tips can be found here.

Quilled Tree Landscape Picture Art - One Tree Hill

Finished my quilled tree landscape picture at last. I have used many techniques for this one. The tree top is made of honeycomb circles ( beehive technique). The grass is created from folding zig-zag. The yellow and pink hills are my own creations. I just folded the paper up & down and encircled it just like the grass but without pinching the the top and bottom so that I got a circle with something like a peace sign after encircling it.

The tree trunk is graphic quilling technique, using brown yellow and black. I have used a combination of orange, 3 shades of yellow and peach for the treetop. I cut the strips to 1.5' lengths and then pasted them randomly into one long strip and quilled the honeycomb circles ( beehive method- check my link section).

The dark green and yellow hills are made from crimped paper. Folded zigzag to the length required and encircled.

The flowers are a combination of roses quilled with 3mm strip and star flowers of yellow with tight coil centres. For the blue flowers I  used a scallop pinking scissor to cut 4mm length pieces blue 3mm strip and pasted it to a fringed flower made of 1.23" length 3mm strip. I fringed the 3mm strip slightly to get a velvety middle.

The tree is mounted at a slightly higher elevation as the root section is pasted on top of the grass and I pasted tight coils to the underside of the tree top in order to get the 3d effect, hence the shadow of the tree is visible.

All in all I am really thrilled with the outcome.  Tutorial for quilling landscape is available here.
For all tutorials click on "Tutorials" under "In This Blog"  on the side bar.