Finally finished!

I finally finished my first Pinterest project! I started this while I was still out on maternity leave and just finally got it all complete. It was very time consuming, but I really like it...I just have no idea where I'm going to hang it :) This technique is called quilling...you can purchase the stuff to do it at craft stores but I made my own...

Supplies:
Mod Podge
Small paint brush
Scissors
Toothpicks
Hand sanitizer (trust me)
Small cup of water
Various colors of card stock

First, you will need to print off your letter you are doing in a light gray, you will cover over it and not be able to see it once you are done. I printed mine on just regular paper but now looking back I should have done it on card stock, the Mod Podge made regular paper kinda thin. Take your various colors of card stock and cut them into 1/4 inch pieces, if you can cut them smaller then you might like 1/8 inch pieces, and that's how they come in the store if you actually buy the "quilling paper" but I was cheap :) And you only need one sheet of each color...I only used about 2 or 3 strips of each color, so not even an inch of each color.

Choose the color you want to outline the letter, take it and figure out the folds of the letter. Do this before you glue it down. It's a little frustrating to get the folds just right but here's where a toothpick might come in handy. I used the toothpicks at corners for folds, it helped me out a lot, or try to work it out where the end of a strip is in a crease...and I would suggest not using a letter with curves...I said many a bad word around those curves. Take your brush and Mod Podge and glue the strips down along the outline of the letter. The Mod Podge is very sticky, I traced a little bit (a few inches) then put some on the strip and then put it in place and held it for a few seconds for it to set. Here's where the hand sanitizer came in...I kept washing my hands to keep them clean and free of excess Mod Podge. 

It should look something like this once you're done. So gather all your strips and then start designing. Most of the colors I picked rolled fairly easy, but some I needed a toothpick to get them started. 

You curl them and place them pretty much however you like. Setting them all in place with the Mod Podge, I would put a big blob of it under the thickest part of the curl. After each strip was set I would go back around the edges and paint some more Mod Podge on just as extra. I kept dipping my brush in water from time to time to make sure it wasn't getting clogged with all the Mod Podge...like I said, it was super sticky!

Once you are all done then find a matte and frame of your choice and there you have it! 

Here's a close-up of the detail...it took a lot of patience...

Now I just need to figure out where to put it, cuz Hudson's room is completely full!