More Quilling... or what to do during a football game?

My husband laughs at me and gets a wee bit frustrated sometimes when he has to 'rewind' back to an awesome play or a touchdown for me. :)

You see, I don't watch football. At best, I listen to it and occasionally glance up to give my eyes a break from close-up work. I can sew, cross-stitch, knit, crochet, spin, and write my novels while the Panthers game is on. This past Sunday, I worked on perfecting my quilling. :)

I'd started a snowflake the day before, sitting at a picnic table in Cherokee, with the sun shining in on me and Sal was fighting rapier with one of our friends. :) I finished the snowflake Sunday during the game, then made a 'scene' to practice designs on a background.

Here's the snowflake:

This was my second attempt at this particular design/pattern. The first is below, on the right. The first attempt was made with parchment paper (all I had at the time), rolled on a toothpick, and used 1/4" wide strips.

The second attempt was made using lighter paper, a smaller roller, and 1/8" wide strips. The second attempt looks much better, in my opinion, and looks a lot more like the pattern I was trying to duplicate. :)

The 'scene' I made was to practice a few things: 

* Holly leaves

* single-strip scrollwork (not sure what this technique is called, but it's really frustrating at first! LOL  Or is that just me??)
* layering

The snowflake on this one is just a tad bigger than a quarter, if you want some scale. :)

This was mostly fun to work on. The only issue I had, really, was trying to get the glue to stick without messing up the lovely curves of the scroll-work. I need to practice that a bit, or use a different glue that dries more quickly, so I don't have to touch it more than absolutely necessary. The stuff I used was not helpful. :P

But the teeny snowflake was fun and quick.

What to do differently next time:
* less yellow, more green on the holly leaves
* thicker glue that will hold up the paper better in the position I want.
* make ALL the pieces before putting it together. :)


Here's a closer look at the 'layering' for the holly leaves. It's much more prominent in person, though.

All in all, this didn't take very long. I think I want to do it next time in a large circle, which I can then surround with a 'frame' of paper, seal the whole thing, and use it as an ornament. As is, the weight is off-center, so I'm thinking I'll just mount it to a card or another piece of paper, and use it as a stand-alone decoration.

I think I'll play a bit more, see what else I can come up with.