Quilling Tutorial Topiary Gift for Mum

 

This quilled gift  stands about 15 inches tall by about 6 inches across,  the flower ball is roughly the size of a grapefruit and is made using around 350 quilled roses.Yes ladies you did read that correctly I did say 350 quilled roses so you better get quilling those roses , if you’ve never quilled a rose before or your quilling is a little rusty in that area then now’s the time to review how the folded rose quilling technique is achieved visit  Quilled  folded roses the easy way (an earlier Tutorial)

If you don’t feel up to the task of quilling 350 roses then any small pre made silk flowers  can be used instead for your particular version of this mothers day gift. Or you can even use fresh flowers ,this however I have done only once and believe me  it is much harder than quilling roses, the fresh flowers heads are all individually pinned into place, and in the end it doesn’t create a mothers day  gift that can be permanently kept as the quilling version does , not  worth the effort in my opinion but if you fancy the idea there is a quick how to in picture form below.This is the almost complete unembellished version of the  mothers day gift project using

Top right is made with silk flowers ,these in my opinion are a little too large and don’t produce quite the same effect as either quilling the roses does or employing small  silk flowers would . This silk flower topiary similar to ours  found on the net  was selling for  about $50.00 so imagine what price your mothers day gift creation will be worth using much smaller silk flowers and even more if your roses are quilled .

So when shopping for flowers for your mothers day gift project my advice is   look for small silk flowers or even a single flowers such as a silk hydrangea or lilac that could be pulled apart ,don’t go to department stores  shop at dollar stores most have a great selection of silk flowers some even carry dried rosebuds  usually ten in a packet, so for 350 this would be quite costly much cheaper to teach yourself quilling , a skill that you will be able to use on numerous gifts from then on . (Bottom row)  same idea but using candy and fresh strawberries  same problem as fresh flowers neither make a permanent mothers day gift but not as much effort as the flowers . If wanting to make a non flower none quilling version of this gift my choice would be the candy as it looks very pretty, if you choose a hard  wrapped candy you can stick them on with hot glue easily and the candies unlike the strawberries can be eaten when desired .

To reduce the amount of quilling you have to do or number of Silk flowers you have to buy here is another version of the mothers day gift.

This is a no quilling version I created some time ago literally took me twenty minutes and cost less than a dollar (I needed purple ornaments for a lilac bathroom) The plaque here was created using left over  wood from one of my husbands projects  just glued them together to  resemble a fence  but  large emery boards could  be used ,the pot was a plastic hand cream jar cut down the center and painted with a little textured paint. The flower ball was just a silk flower candle ring decoration (see upper pics) but I squeezed mine together with an elastic band so the central hole didn’t show.Not quite as nice as the quilling  version but is an easy to make mothers day gift  none the less.  You could always substitute the silk roses for quilling  ones that way your probably cutting back your quilling by at least 70%

First thing you have to decide is how big do YOU want to make your mothers day gift , just because I made one 15in tall does not mean you have to,your mothers day gift could be much bigger or much smaller its entirely up to you ,while I was quilling my 350 roses for my mothers day gift it crossed my mind that I would like to make both a much bigger version and a set of much smaller versions, but instead of quilling the flowers, as you cannot use your quilling tools to make large roses , believe me I have tried , I would make the roses as described in a guys guide to paper roses, (another tutorial) now if you have never tried quilling before and would like to make a large floor standing version of this mothers day gift you may as well just learn the other way of making paper roses now and come back to quilling later, but make sure you do take the time to learn quilling , if you never bother to learn any other quilling technique besides the folded rose quilling technique ,it is well worth the effort involved to master it, as you will be able to use little quilled roses in a 1000 different ways. If you have ever visited Pages from the Heart Gallery or viewed the youtube video (top right) you can see how the quilled roses  can be employed to decorate almost any kind of design. Of course if you want to create a set of miniature versions of this quilling project to sit dotted about your book shelves as was my intention ,you must of course use the rose quilling technique utilizing the narrowest quilling strips your quilling skill level will allow.

Ok So what do we actually need to make Pages from the Heart’s quilled and none quilling version of the topiary tree, first don’t let mum or your wife see her gift at this stage as she definitely won’t be impressed as we need very little most unless you decide on silk flowers you will have around the house or retrieve from the recycling

Supply List

Several sheets of newspaper or flyers

Container for base of topiary

Stem of topiary I used an old wooden spoon , you could use four or five wooden skewers bundled together or a nice dry straight stick or twig from the garden

Flowers if using artificial flowers then any smallish ones will do

For quilling the roses

you will need the slotted quilling tool and quilling strips either purchased or home made quilling strips (see how 2 here)

In addition you will also need

White glue ,hot glue and gun,craft paint in complementary shade to flowers ,a few bits and bobs to decorate the finished mothers day gift eg. gift tags ,narrow ribbons raffia sphagnum moss …..what ever takes your fancy

Here’s mine, quilling all finished, a couple of mushroom birds and gift tags added for a little decoration I also employed another quilling technique known as fringing to make the grass, this very simple quilling technique is explained in another quilling tutorial on third page of st pats day brooch tutorial

The quilling tutorial referred to earlier that recaps the quilled rose technique or introduces you to quilling roses the easy way can be found here.

As usual the free tutorial walk through (in its entirety can be viewed here) Tutorials page or click Quilling:-3D Topiary Gift for Mum

 

 

 

Related Posts:

• St Patricks Day Brooch and Easy Quilled Card Tutorial part One
• Quilling Roses the Easy Way
• St Patricks Day Quilled Gift box Tutorial(made with blue bin items)
• Handmade Gifts Advance Orders are Suggested
• From Cereal Box to Gift Box Tutorial (a Blue Bin Craft)

Tagged as: handmade gift, Mothers Day Gift, paper quilling, Trash to Treasure, tutorial