Create unique and decorative designs out of paper! Paper quilling involves nothing more than rolling strips of paper and utilizing these rolls by forming different shapes, designs, and patterns. It’s a simple process that can create, what looks like, complex pieces of art! Here, we’ll make a finished design with the paper quilling process that can be turned into a greeting card or decorative piece of art, however, paper quilling can also be used to decorate boxes, make jewelry, ornaments, and embellish other works of art with!
What you need:
- Paper for quilling – I suggest a thinner card stock, typically copy paper is too thin, experiment with what you have and see what works best! I’ll be using papers in shades of blues and greens for this example, however, feel free to change up your design!
- Card stock – cut to 5″x5″ (or desired size) or folded into a card
- Glue – A glue stick and craft glue (I used Tacky glue – Elmer’s would work too).
- Tweezers – these may come in handy to help hold your glued areas and place your paper rolls!
- A needle or toothpick – these are to help roll your paper strips, try both and see which works best for you! I prefer the toothpick!
Step one: First take your paper for quilling and cut one piece that’s 1/4″ wide and 11\
” long. Then cut several other pieces it into strips 1/8″ wide and about 6″ long – A paper cutter is the easiest way to do this but you can also use a ruler and xacto knife! Take your 1/4″ x 11″ strip of paper and glue the ends together, overlapping about 1/2″, to create a circle. Glue your circle to a piece of card stock (cut to your desired size or folded into a card) with craft glue. This circle will be what we fill with your quilled paper!
Step two: Now we will be quilling your other strips of paper (1/8″ x 6″), first, take a strip of your paper and using either your needle or toothpick tightly roll the paper around it. You can either roll the entire piece of paper upon itself, while still on the toothpick/needle, or just use it to help get the roll going an roll the rest by hand (this is the method I find easiest).
Step three: Carefully remove your paper roll from your toothpick or needle (if your roll is still on it) – it’s okay if it unwinds and loosens up slightly. Use the glue stick to glue down the end of your roll. If needed, you can tighten back up your roll by gently pinching the roll between your thumb and index finger and pulling your end piece and then glue. You can use your tweezers to help pinch the glued area until it’s stuck!
Step four: Now we can take your roll and use it as it is, or pinch the ends to form different shapes to use in your project! The next few photos we’ll go over some additional ways to create different rolls with your paper!
Create a half roll – by only rolling a portion of your strip.
Create an ‘S’ roll – by rolling half of your strip and then roll your other end in the opposite directions.
Create a triangle – Start with a rolled circle and pinch into a triangle.
Create a heart – Roll half a strip, then roll the other half in the same direction, pinch the strip in the center of the rolls to form the heart.
Create a square – Start with a circle roll and pinch corners to create a square.
Create an eye – Start with a circle and pinch ends to create an eye shape.
Step five: Create several quilled pieces of paper – for my example I mostly used the, half roll and S roll methods. I wanted it to look like my circle was filled with wavy water – these methods allowed me to create that effect using line!
Step six: Arrange your quilled pieces in your circle as desired. If you have gaps you can use single strips of your paper to fill in more spaces or create more quilled pieces to fill gaps. Glue all your pieces down with craft glue (I found it easiest to apply a thin layer of glue inside my whole circle) use your tweezers to help hold your pieces in place – you can even use your toothpick or needle to help move pieces around, if you have some tricky pieces to get to!
Step seven: Complete your project by adding a small cut-out on top! I made my quilling to look like water so I added a shark on top! If you made yours to look like water some other ideas for your cut out could be: a turtle, jellyfish, fish, sail boat, sea shell, octopus, etc. Instead of creating your own cut out you could also use stickers or 3D elements such as pom-poms, shells, silk flowers, etc. The same method could also look like wind or clouds – cut outs could be birds, kites, tree branches, rainbows, etc.!
Some other ideas would be to start off with a different shape to fill – you could do another simple shape or create a more complicated outline, like a letter, to fill with your quilling! You also can just create quilling that’s not inside a shape – like the flower in the video. Get creative and have fun with the possibilities of this art form! Send me pictures of your paper quilling masterpieces to add to our followers gallery!
