Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Take A Leap Into The Unkown

Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and that you're ready for a new challenge for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. This week we're asking you to "Take A Leap Into The Unknown". Doesn't that sound fun? It was really fun for me because I always wanted to learn quilling, where you roll or incurve a thin piece of paper to create a flower or some other shape. I've seen some beautiful creations using this technique but always wondered what it would look like on a mixed media project. There are so many things you can create with quilling, but I stuck to the basics of making flowers and leaves. I'm pleased with how it turned out and the look it gave to my piece and have to admit, I had no idea how the thin layers of paper would hold up to paint and sprays so I was really taking a leap on this one. I hope you take a leap into the unknown and learn something new, maybe something that you've been afraid to try or something you just didn't think you could do well. C'mon, give it a try, you'll never know unless you do. I can't wait to see what you all create!

Remember to submit an entry and you could win in a $50 gift voucher to Simon Says Stamp's beautiful online store. Who could pass that up?

Here is my mixed media piece using quilled flowers:

I chose my surface, using chipboard, and painted it with gesso and allowed it to completely dry.

While the gesso was drying, I started quilling to create my flowers. You will need a quilling tool for this, you can find one here.  If you have Tim Holtz Tiny Tattered Florals, you already have one because a quilling tool comes with the die set. I used white cardstock because I wanted to paint and spray the the flowers once they were adhered to my mixed media piece. Cut the strips 1/8" wide and the length will depend on how large you want your flowers. Thread the end of the strip through the quilling tool making sure you go to the very end of the strip.

Now roll the strip on the quilling tool between your fingers, as shown, until you are at the end of the strip.

Carefully remove the quilled strip from the quilling tool making sure it doesn't unravel. It's helpful to have a quilling template for the next step such as the one below. This will allow you to make the same size petals for each of your flowers so they will be uniform. Place the quilled strip in the size hole for the size of flower you want to create. This will become one of your petals.

So far, your petal will look like this.

Put a tiny dot of glue at the tip of the strip and pinch together on the quilled part to form the flower petal. The inside of the quilled paper will shape on its own as you pinch the petal and the glue will keep it in this shape. Don't worry, it won't unravel.

Continue this process until you have enough petals to form a flower.

Here is another shape for petals that you can use for one of your flowers. Instead of pinching one end of the quilled strip as you glue it together, pinch both ends of the quilled strip to create a point on both ends of your flower petal.

After all your flower petals are complete, glue them together to form a flower. I used a Hero Arts pearls for the center of my flowers. Of course, you'll want to use the appropriate size pearl for the center of your flower depending on its size.

If it's more helpful, there are many videos on YouTube that can help you with the process of quilling. You can find a wonderful video here. It's for beginners, and it's one I referenced when creating my flowers.

Now that all my flowers are glued together and ready for my project, I set them aside while I stenciled and distressed the edges of my chipboard. Here, I used the Prima Flowers Sunrise Sunset Stencil and Prima's Distressing Tool. 

Next I adhered all my embellishments onto the chipboard piece.

I painted the entire piece with Paper Artsy Nougat Fresco Finish Paint. You can use gesso also.  Allow the paint or gesso to completely dry before moving on to the next step.

Now that the paint is dry, it's time to spray my piece. I first covered the outer edges with a cutout piece of regular paper and sprayed the piece with the Fossilized Amber Distress Spray. Then I covered the inside area and sprayed the rest of the piece with Mermaid Lagoon Distress Spray.

I let that completely dry and then added some stamping, Prima Copper Micro Beads and some distress edging with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I also did some highlighting with a Nougat Faber- Castell Big Brush Pen for the finishing touches.

Here again is my finished project:

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I took a leap into the unknown and added quilled flowers to my mixed media project. I can't wait to see what you create!

For more inspiration, tips and tricks for all types of papercraft creations, follow Simon Says Stamp on:

          

You can find all the following supplies I used to create this project at Simon Says Stamp:

Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE GESSO Media	Prima Flowers FLOWER Sunrise Sunset 6 x 6 Stencil	Spellbinders QUILLING Tool	Ranger 4 Oz. MULTI MEDIUM MATTE Paint Glue	Hero Arts 24 Count 7mm LARGE ANTIQUE PEARLS
Tim Holtz Idea-ology TIMEPIECES Metal Watch Clock Face	Tim Holtz Idea-ology LONG FASTENERS Brad Hardware	Prima Flowers SPECIAL SCREWS Tiny Junkyard Findings Vintage Trinkets	Prima Flowers HOME ARTICLES Junkyard Findings	Prima Flowers METAL DOOR SIGNS Junkyard Findings
Paper Artsy Fresco Finish NOUGAT Chalk Acrylic Paint	Prima Flowers COPPER Art Ingredients Micro Beads	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Spray Stain FOSSILIZED AMBER Ranger	Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain MERMAID LAGOON Ranger	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad WALNUT STAIN Ranger
Ranger MINI ROUND INK BLENDING TOOLS	Faber-Castell STAMPER'S BIG BRUSH GIFT SET 15 Piece Pitt Artist Pens	Prima Flowers DISTRESSING TOOL	Dina Wakley Ranger PALETTE KNIFE Media	Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER Ranger

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