May 15 2010
Fabric “Paper” Makes Fun Background for Quilling
Back in the 1980s, it was all the rage to stiffen strips of large-print floral fabrics (usually mauve) into bows to dress up wicker baskets. While that decorating look has come and gone, it’s still fun to stiffen fabric, especially if you are a crafter who likes to get her hands a little messy once in a while. Stiffened fabric has a wonderful paper-like quality making it an interesting textured background for your quilling projects. The key is to keep it flat as it dries. The stiffened fabric can be easily trimmed to size using your paper cutter and simple folds are possible.To create stiffened fabric you will need:
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fabric (I have found that thin cottons or cotton blends work best)
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fabric stiffener (I used Stiffy by Plaid Enterprises, but there are several on the market)
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foam brush
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throw-away plate or container to hold the fabric stiffener
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heavy plastic to protect your work surface (I used a transparency sheet and it worked like a charm. If the plastic is too light weight, like plastic wrap, it will wrinkle under the fabric as you apply the stiffener)
Now that you have assembled your supplies, let’s get started. 1. Cut a piece of fabric (smaller than the plastic) and place it right-side up on your work surface. 2. Pour some of the stiffener into your container. 3. Using the foam brush, apply the stiffener to the fabric starting in the center and working your way to the edges, being sure to keep the fabric flat. You want to make sure that the fabric is totally saturated with the stiffener, but not gloppy. 4. Pour the excess stiffener back into the bottle, discard the brush and container (or wash them for the next time).
That’s it. Now just kick back while the stiffener dries. Depending on how much stiffener you used and how large your piece of fabric is, it might take 30 minutes or longer. This process can be hurried along with a hairdryer.If your new fabric paper is a bit wrinkled, I found that it can be ironed flat. Use an iron setting appropriate for the fabric used (cotton or cotton blend) and do not use steam. Be sure to protect your ironing board surface and iron by using a dry pressing cloth over and under the dry stiffened fabric (a piece of the cloth you haven’t applied stiffener to works well).
One word of warning — do not get the stiffened fabric wet. It will turn limp like, well, fabric.
The fabric “paper” I made accents this colorful birthday card. I used a dry adhesive to attach the stiffened fabric to the paper surface of the card. The small amount of regular glue I used to attach the quilled coils directly onto the stiffened fabric caused no problems at all. I repeated the circle theme with a silver paper clip bought in a set from the Dollar store. Small silver half-pearls embellish the upper left-hand corner of the card.Quilling Tip: The fun swirly doodle designed fabric was some that I had in my stash, but this would be a great way to recycle fabric from old clothing too worn to give to charity.
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I was browsing through the bargain bins of ribbon and found a funky retro paisley design in yellow, green, and orange that simply screamed mini skirt and go-go boots. 
I used the ribbon as my inspiration for a fun retro birthday card featuring a quilled go-go boot. The boot was created using an “outline & fill-in” quilling technique. You can use this technique to create any design you wish by following these simple steps:
Tear several strips of paper (I find 6″ to be a good length) and quill them into loose coils. Starting at either the top or bottom of your design, pinch the coils into shapes that fit within the outline of your design. Glue the quills together where they touch and pin into place. 
There is still time to embellish your Christmas crafts with quilling. This sweet little angle works up quickly and would add a heavenly touch to your Christmas projects.
To make the halo, fold the 2″ strip of metallic gold paper in half and glue the two sides together. You now have a 1″ strip with gold on both sides. Overlap the two ends and glue together to form an oval loop. Glue the halo flat (with the glued ends down) onto the background, slightly at an angle above the angel’s head.
Last year, I used this little angel on Christmas cards. I used the same blue scrapbook paper that reminds me of a winter’s night that I used on the snowflake cards in the previous post and added a homespun feel with the golden gingham held in place with mini brads.
Try a Google search for images or you can visit 
I want to thank all of the ladies who attended the Christmas quilling class at the Marietta Community School. I hope you had a great time because I know I sure did!
When creating the card, I punched a 1/16″ hole in the card at the top of the circle background. This allowed me to thread the snowflake’s hanging loop through to the inside where I secured it with a piece of tape.
Many of us are on a tight budget, but you don’t have to trim your gift giving list this year. These cards are perfect when you need a little something this holiday season for co-workers, as a hostess gift, or for members of your book club. You can whip up a batch quite inexpensively, but I guarantee they’ll be appreciated and make a lasting impression. 
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I experimented with puffy markers in an earlier post and thought that they might work well with spiders. Since Halloween is right around the corner (where did the year go?), I thought I would give it a try. I used a dark gray quilling paper for the spider hoping that the black marker would show up a bit more than straight black on black, but the contrast isn’t there. However, the texture the marker created is good. It doesn’t show up very well in the photo, but it does look cool in person. 
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I was having lunch one day with a good friend of mine, Marsha (hi, Marsha!) right after the launch of my blog and she was kind enough to listen to me as I told her about a tea-stained tag I saw on the ‘net and that I thought it would make good vintage background for a piece of quilling. Marsha made the comment, “I guess you couldn’t stain the actual quilling because it would fall apart because of the glue.” 
My curiosity was piqued and I had to find out.
I started by creating a quilled rose card (Fig 1) to use as the control for this experiment (remember your high-school science class?) to see what difference the staining made. The card consists of a quilled pink rose with mint green leaves on a white tag which is then layered on a rose stem printed paper and plain pink card stock. This was adhered to an ivory card (note: the actual folded card was never stained).
I then made a duplicate card, except I did not mount the pink card stock background to the actual folded card. I placed the piece on a plastic plate and dabbed it with the used coffee grounds (Fig 2). 
The staining changed the look of papers giving them a more antique feel (Fig 6). 
The final photo (Fig 9) shows the comparison of each card. (9A is the original control card, 9B is the card stained as a whole piece, and 9C is the card made from pre-stained pieces). 
Staining the pieces individually gave me a lot more control. It was much easier to wipe away some of the stain if needed. The quilling papers crinkled up, but were easy enough to smooth out with my fingernail before rolling. You’ll note that I left the crinkle in the paper used for the tassel in this card since I thought it gave it more of a “fiber” effect. 
Overall, I like the looks of the card made with this technique. I think it looks like it was aged with time and gives a very romantic feel to the quilling.
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