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Have fun making fringed flowers... they'll help tide us over until we see real flowers this spring!



There's a new type of paper in the U.S. quilling world... graduated color strips called Exotic that are imported from Australia. Denise Cameron, owner of Custom Quilling , sent me a package to try. I've enjoyed quilling with graduated color strips in the past, but this is the first time the color change appears as a stripe that runs horizontally along the length of the strip, giving a unique effect.The 5/8 inch x 10 inch strips I received were all two-toned except for one that had a third band of color which added a nice bit of interest (upper right flower). The festive color combinations were mostly bold, but there were a few pastels too - light green, pink, and blue.After fringing several strips by hand (I don't have a mechanical fringer, but I've read that a reliable one has just come on the market), I realized it's best to cut toward the widest color stripe so the variation will be more noticeable when the paper is rolled. Fringing aficionados will enjoy mixing colors and combining strips of different widths. By the way, the color is printed on one side of the paper; the reverse and core are white. I made folded leaves to go with my flowers from little rectangles cut from green strips - the color shading gives them a nice look.Exotic strips are available in three widths (3/8", 1/2", 5/8") and come in multi-color packages as well as separate colors. You'll find them at CustomQuilling via the search term: exotic.If you've never made fringed flowers, here are a few examples of ways they can be used for card making.The flowers above are created with two colors rolled together using a slotted quilling tool. After fringing the stacked strips, glue together at one end and add a 1/8 inch x 3 inch strip which will form the center. When the strips are rolled, glue ends in place and fluff the fringe. Sometimes I curve the fringe using a scissors blade as if curling ribbon. See more of my tips on making fringed flowers The scattered fringed flowers below is the result of cutting a pennant-shaped strip - tutorial at the link. I used a variety of scrolls instead of leaves plus metallic wrapping paper for the background to liven things up.You'll also find two fringed flower projects in the All Things Paper book by talented card maker Agnieszka Malyszek. Here's one of the designs - a showstopper frameable flower.