Quilled Poppy in Progress (3) & Gluing Tips

In my previous post I showed an example of a partly glued strip. It either didn't get enough glue or wasn't pressed down to the surface, and as a result is floating loosely in the air.

I have a simple solution that I've never expressed before because I just did it without thinking. After comments came in about my yogurt lid method, I thought I would show it in case it may help others as well. I just take a spare strip and spread a thin thread of glue.

Using tweezers, lift the loose strip and slide the glued strip below. Lower the strip into the glue, dab, and move along until the loose area is coated. Remove the glue-coated strip and glue the floating edge in place.

For those who are curious, here's my cut yogurt lid. I round the corner to make it easier to handle. The rim makes a great handle.

Besides using a yogurt lid, I quite like using this plastic division separator. It came with my $6 fishing tackle box which I use for quilling paper storage. If you look closely between this surface and the yogurt lid, you'll see the glue does not pull together and bead on the blue divider, as it does with the yogurt lid. Not sure why it does this – I guess it's the type of plastic?

I prefer the divider because I like dipping my glue in as flat a glue puddle as possible because I can still see dry glue that has ridden up the sides if I were to inspect closely. When I dip into the yogurt lid, the height is just slightly more noticeable, even though I am squiggling back and forth the same way and releasing the same amount of glue. Can you see how thin I can make it on the blue divider? You can practically see how I've drawn with the glue. The yogurt lid has the benefit of being flatter to slide under items. Both are great for re-using by peeling off dried glue "skin".

If you're looking for other storage ideas, here's my binder method of storing left over bits of quilling strips.

I'm so grateful to comments on my "Quilling Glue" post, because I that's how I discovered Aleene's Tacky Glue. It is super thick and dries fast. I have some quilling friends who kept being polite and denying my offers of using my glue. I finally took matters into my own hands, dumped out their glue, and poured mine into their bottle. Next thing I know, they are sending me photos fast and furious because their quilling time was sped up - you simply don't need to hold down the end to the coil as long. I still enjoy using Lineco glue for gluing larger pieces at one time. I smear it thinly first before dipping, and since it's not as thick, gives me more time for dipping and less surface tension, which means less tornadoes as you pull your piece from the glue puddle.

Here is where my poppy is today. I'm using the darkest strip to make this petal part more dense. Somehow I can show it better from an angle though.

Does anyone else have other gluing tips to add? For my next post, I'll go into more details about the paper I'm using for this and why. If there's more info you'd like to know about, please let me know in the comments!