Spiral Rose Valentine Tutorial

Perhaps you've seen spiral paper roses... start with a circle, cut a swirl, roll it up, done!

Wait... was that the tutorial?

Honestly there isn't much to add, except for this little twist... try cutting the circle with a pair of scallop scissors instead of your usual straight edge variety. The roses will look like these... which are practically too dark to see, darn winter light.

Scallops make it more rose-like, yes?

So, the actual how-to...

1. Lightly draw a circle with a pencil. (I used burgundy metallic paper and traced around a bottle which was about 1.5 inches in diameter.)

2. Cut out the circle with scallop-edge scissors, using the pencil mark as a baseline.

Step 3. Cut into the circle in a spiral motion, going around as far as the scallop scissors will let you. Oops, I snipped off the inside of the circle. It's okay... the cut doesn't have to be perfect.

Step 4. Insert the inner end of the spiral into the slot of a quilling tool and roll the paper until you reach the opposite end. Slide it off the tool. If you prefer to finger-roll, that works fine also.

Step 5. Compress the spiral gently between your thumb and index finger... it looks more rose-like now. Put a little dab of glue on the tail and hold it in place on the side of the rose while the glue dries. A quick-dry glue is ideal for metallic paper.

My recent Flower Power card tutorial featured a fringed leaf that works well with roses. Here's how to make one... it's a cinch: fold, make a curved cut, and snip along the open edge of the still-folded leaf.

But with Valentine's Day coming up, we need to discuss something. To whom does one send such a flowery card? Let's face it, a guy might tell you it's nice, but I bet such a fancy one wouldn't really make a big impression.

Not to worry, I've found just the thing - make that two things - to get your point across.

Show him exactly where your heart lies...

Or maybe you'd like to suggest he'll have to wrestle with a fierce opponent to win yours.

These popular lovelies aren't your run of the mill Valentines. They're available from Etsy shop, xlessthan3 (not currently active), that is owned by Nathan and Matthew Crislip, two New York City designers.

Nathan told me the 3D figures are cut using a small digital cutter, then finished by hand - fine details like cutting of the mandibles and eyes, and attaching the heart and antennae. Pretty cool!