Quilling Paper Sunflowers

If you’re on my email list, you’ve may have seen my recent mailing about my latest failed project.

I had been working on a tutorial for a while, but it just couldn’t come together the way I was seeing it in my mind. So, I pushed up something that I had been planning for a while but hadn’t gotten to yet. 

And that is a sunflower!

Quilled sunflowers are nothing new. They are extremely popular!

But I tried to make a unique version by making two-toned petals and building it on a quilling comb.

Let’s get right to it!

As always, first gather your supplies.

I used 2 colors of yellow for the petals: Pale Yellow and Deep Yellow, both from the Quilled Creations line.

The center of the sunflowers will also have 2 shades. For this, I chose Chocolate Brown from Craft Harbor (formerly Lake City Crafts) and Quilled Creations’ Light Brown.

You’ll also need a quilling needle tool, quilling comb, a small pair of scissors, and glue.

First, the petals.

Even though they’re going to be built on the quilling comb, you’ll need to start with your needle tool.

Choose one of your yellow strips and roll the end around your tool a few times. This will make an anchor to keep your paper in place on your quilling comb.

Keep in mind, it does not matter which yellow shade you use for this first step. You’re going to repeat this many times with both colors.

Carefully remove the roll from your needle tool and slide it onto one of the middle prongs of your quilling comb.

Now, start weaving!

The idea is to pull the tail of your paper strip under the prong below your anchor. Then pull it up and over the prong above your anchor.

Next, bring it back down and below the next prong on the bottom.

You’re really just looping the paper around and around, adding one prong on each end as you go.

Continue over and under until you’ve wrapped your strip around 4 prongs on either side of the center anchor.

Carefully tear away the excess paper and add a thin line of glue to secure.

Make sure you leave enough paper to be able to adhere it along the entire back, just like in the photo below.

After gluing, you can remove the entire piece from your quilling comb.

Now, you’ll have to make quite a few of these.

But, once you get the hang of it, they happen really quickly.

Each petal will be made of 3 of these quilling comb loops. You’ll want to make 2 of one shade of yellow paper and 1 of the other for every petal.

To finish the petals, apply a very thin line of glue along one edge.

Add another of the light yellow loops, then a dark yellow one.

Be sure to apply some glue between every section.

Pinch the ends fully to finish the petal shape.

Continue in the same way to make 14 sunflower petals.

I tried to vary the color a bit by making some petals with 2 deep yellow sections and 1 light yellow, and some with the opposite combination.

I thought the variation would give these quilling paper sunflowers more life!

You’ll also need to make 14 smaller petals.

The only difference for these is you’ll be weaving around 3 prongs from the center on the quilling comb.

If you like building your flower petals on a quilling comb, check out my previous tutorials for quilled coneflowers or poinsettia. They’re really similar!

After your petals are all made, you can move on to the center of your sunflower.

Again, I decided to experiment with using 2 different colors of brown quilling paper.

To begin, roll two 22″ strips of the darker Chocolate Brown in a tight coil on your quilling tool.

I apologize for the glue dots on the top of my coil here. Even though I used clear glue for this step, I didn’t notice those little buggers had popped up until I was editing the photos for this post!

Next, add a strip of the Light Brown quilling paper to the coil.

Wrap it around tightly and glue the end to secure.

Keep alternating with different lengths of the dark and light brown paper until your coil has grown to about an inch and a half in diameter.

I didn’t keep exact measurements for these strips as I added them. I liked how every flower center was a little different as I was making them. The most important part is just to vary the brown colors so they make rings.

Then, push the center of the coil up gently from the bottom to form a slight dome. Apply a thin layer of glue to the underside to keep the shape and set aside to dry completely.

The last step for these sunflowers is to make the fringe that will go along the edge of the center.

Because I wanted the fringe to sit a little taller, I had to build a wider paper strip.

To do this, spread a very thin line of glue along the long end of a 12″ strip of the darker brown paper.

Then, sit another strip on top to that it barely overlaps the edge of the first.

I recommend just applying the glue to an inch or so at a time when you first start combining quilling strips because it’s very easy for the glue to make a mess or the strips to dry crookedly.

Of course, if you already have wider quilling strips in the dark brown color, you could save yourself these steps.

Either way, once you have your wider strips made, cut some fringe on the entire length, taking care to only snip about halfway down.

Glue the end of your fringe to the brown dome.

Then, wrap the entire length around and glue the other end to keep it in place.

It’s finally time to put your sunflower together!

Start with the larger of the flower petals.

Arrange them in a circle, adding a dot of glue wherever they petals touch.

Dot some glue around the outside of the dome.

Set the dome on top of the flower petals.

For the last step, add the smaller flower petals.

You’ll want to place them on top of the first layer of petals, but try to avoid laying them right on top. I aimed to get them right between the bigger petals.

I found they stayed the most secure when I applied some glue right on the end, and also on the underside.

The finished quilling paper sunflowers are a really nice size when they’re done.

It only makes sense, since sunflowers can grow up to about 10 feet tall!

I also played with making one that was slightly smaller by weaving my petal pieces through less prongs on my quilling comb.

You can always add some greenery, too!

With just a few moss green swirls, these quilling paper sunflowers really come to life!

I’m so happy with how these turned out!

And I hope you are too!

Leave me your thoughts in the comments below!