A 'beehive' birthday garland!

Well, here I am back again after a week of meetings, housework, markets and quilling demos! I don't know where the time goes, but at long last I have been able to get back to a little experimental quilling once again.

Today, I decided to make this card featuring a quilled 'garland' formed out of strips that have been twisted using the so-called 'beehive quilling' technique. I worked with 1.5mm strips for maximum delicacy (fiddly, but worth the effort!), and set about introducing some rows of swirls using a fine slotted tool.

For the stem of the garland, I kept the green twisted strip intact - but for the flowers, I snipped the twisted sections off my purple and white strips and glued the little curls at intervals along the stem. This resulted in a rather floppy garland which was obviously going to be difficult to glue, so I strengthened it by folding the stem back on itself in various places and applying glue in a few spots to hold the folded shape together.

I think the garland looks quite pretty as a complement to some elegant printed typography. This technique might also look good when used to decorate a box or picture frame. I can feel some more experiments coming on ...!