My First Full-Sized Quilling Project

Drawing inspiration from Yulia Brodskaya, I wanted to create my own framed piece of quilling to give as a gift. I would've loved to have the eye and talent that she has to be able to imitate her work, but I can only do so much. The only hope that I have is that the pieces improve in quality over time. But for now...

She (Colleen) hasn't gotten it yet because I only finished it last night and so I haven't met up with her. I hope she doesn't stumble across my blog randomly. If you do, act surprised when I give it to you anyway! lol

The above is my version of a gerbera. She told me that it was one of her favorite flowers and I created this on my 2nd attempt. I have to admit that creating it was very time consuming and it was probably the most difficult part of the entire process. I would have loved to make it more realistic, but I am a little embarrassed to say that I did get a bit bored of trying and gave up.

This is a bluebell piece that I made over a year ago and finally found a nice home for. :)

It took me about 2 weeks here and there to complete. Some days I worked on it for hours and other days I didn't touch it at all. I think the hardest part was sketching it out to look the way I wanted it to, but what was most surprising was that it didn't come out to look the way I had sketched it out to look at all!--well I can't say everything...only the heart shape and the name stuck around. The lesson that I learned was to have a vague idea of what you're doing and just let it flow through you when the time comes to actually get your hands dirty.

The 8"x8" shadow box frame was purchased for $8 from Walmart and the background paper comes from DCWV Luxury Paper Stack--a really gorgeous set of papers (you might see the glimmering from the paper that the flash helps to bring out in the picture).