theartofquilling.com

For those of you wanting to add quilling to your scrapbook pages, this sample layout featuring my handsome grandson, Jeffrey, makes the grade.  Made for an 8″x8″ album, the primary colors, quilled pencil, and A-B-C charms definitely give it an elementary school feel.

 

The quilled pencil is 6-3/4 inches long from eraser to tip.  4-inch strips of 1/8″ paper were used for the coils, but this pattern could easily be resized to work with your own layout.

 

Square coils made from a deep pink quilling paper create the eraser.  A strip of the same pink is wrapped around the square coils to give it a more solid appearance.  The pencil body is made from golden yellow marquise coils.  Strips of matching yellow paper are glued to both the top and bottom sides of the pencil to outline the pencil body.  Light beige marquise coils are used for the sharpened tip of the pencil while a black pinched heart is used for the lead.  A strip of shiny aluminum tape is adhered on the top and sides of the pencil between the pink eraser and pencil body.

 

To incorporate the quilled pencil into the page title, I printed “First Day of School” on some matching golden yellow card stock, cut it out, and glued it on top of the quilling.

 

I created my own A-B-C charms from 22 gauge wire, accenting each letter with quilled beads made from tight coils.

 

Apples, an old fashioned school house, a student desk, scissors, and crayons, are but a few of the many quilled embellishments you could create to dress up your back-to-school scrapbook pages.

Like most crafters these days, I am saving bottles, wrappers, and other packaging pieces for use in future craft projects.   I was looking through my stash for Valentine’s Day inspiration and found a wonderful glass bottle that used to contain a marinade.  I decided to dress it up and fill it with M&M’s (my husband’s favorite candy) for a great Valentine’s gift.

 

I didn’t want the gift to look too frilly or girly, and was pleased when I found heart scrapbook paper in shades of beige, pink, and brown (American Craft’s Romance collection, In Love, #34582).  I cut a band of the scrapbook paper to fit the bottle like a wrapper and grunged it up with brown blending chalk.  I kept the quilling embellishment to a minimum, using simple light pink, red, and brown, quilled hearts, inspired by the scrapbook paper, glued down the center.

 

For me, summer means the beach.  I love to hear the sound of the ocean waves crashing upon the shore as I lounge contentedly under the shade of a big umbrella.  But, since I can’t go to the beach, I thought I would do the next best thing and craft something tropical instead.  Today’s quilling pattern is a fun one because it introduces a new quilling coil, technique, and tool. 

 

The trunk of the palm tree is made from a coil called a “rectangle” because it is, well, a rectangle.  To make this quill, roll a loose coil and pinch it into a marquise.  Next, move the marquise slightly between your thumbs and index fingers and pinch again, forming two more points near the original ones.  You should now have a rectangle quill that has two long sides and two short sides. 

 

We’ll also be playing with a new tool — a paper crimper.  I bought mine at the North American Quilling Guild Conference this past May.  The one I have is made by Paplin, but there are several good ones on the market.  It isn’t a “must have” quilling tool, but it is so much fun. To use the crimper, simply feed your paper strip through the gears and it comes out crimped.  If you don’t have a paper crimper you can still make the palm tree.  Just make the palm fronds with straight quilling paper instead. 

 

Finally, I want to show you a bit about wheatears.  This isn’t a coil or a scroll because you don’t curl the paper, you loop it instead.  To make a wheatear, create a small loop.  Now, while holding the original loop, make a larger loop around it.  Keep looping the paper until your wheatear is as long as desired, then glue the paper down at the starting point and either tear or cut off the excess paper.  Wheatears can be left rounded, or shaped like a coil.  For the palm frond, you’ll pinch the ends like a marquise and bend the ends in opposite directions to give the frond a little curve.

 

 

Using the photo as a guide, glue the rectangle coils on top of each other to form the palm tree trunk.  Give the top rectangle coil a little pinch to form the top of the trunk.  Glue the base of each wheatear to the tip of the palm tree trunk, mixing up the sizes.  Glue the tip of the gold pressed heart to the tip of the gold teardrop to create a fun little fish swimming in the surf.

 

The palm tree and fish make perfect additions to a beach-themed tag  — a great embellishment for a vacation scrapbook page.

 

(1) Tag, 4-1/2″ x 2-1/8″, blue (DMD Industries)

Card stock scraps, turquoise, white, beige, gold

Blending chalk, brown (optional)

Jute twine, 6″

 

Using the photo as a guide, tear a strip of tan card stock, chalk the edge a darker brown (optional), and glue it to the tag for the sand.  Tear a strip of white card stock and glue it over the bottom edge of the tan strip for the crashing waves.  Tear a strip of turquoise and glue it along the bottom of the tag for the deep water, leaving a strip of the original blue tag showing for the shallow water.  Tear a curved piece of gold card stock and glue it in the corner for the sun.  Trim off any card stock edges even with the tag.  Glue the palm tree and goldfish in place.  Tie the jute on with a simple overhand knot and fringe the edges.  Be sure to sign your work!

 

I hope you decide to join me at the beach and give this project a try.  If so, I’d love to hear from you.  Send me a comment and let me know how it turned out. 

 

Quilling Tip:  Don’t pinch the crimped paper too hard or you will flatten out the paper folds and lessen the effect.

My earlier posts have explained the basic techniques and tools used in the art of quilling.  Now it’s time to quill!  For a perfect first project, we will make a twinchie.

 

What in the world is a “twinchie?”  Those of you familiar with cardmaking, scrapbooking, or stamping have probably heard of twinchies already, but if you haven’t, twinchies are wonderful pieces of art that are two inches by two inches, hence the name, twinchies.  This format for art grew from the original and still popular “inchies,” which, not surprisingly, is art that is one inch by one inch square.  This is a very satisfying form of art since it does not take long to create delightful results that are amazingly versatile.  It is a very common format chosen for group swaps since they are quick to produce and easy to mail which encourages more members to participate.

 

NOTE:  My quilling pattern instructions tell you the number, size, type, and color of the quills (coils or scrolls) needed to complete the design.  For example, (5) 3″ Marquise coil, blue, means that you will need a quantity of five marquise coils, each made from a 3″ strip of blue quilling paper.

 

Basic quilling tools (discussed earlier)

Quilling paper, 1/8″:  blue, white, green (multi-colored pack recommended for more variety)

Card stock, 2″ squares:  cream, blue

Blending chalk: mustard yellow

Dry tape runner (optional)

 

(5) 6″ marquise coil, blue

(1) 6″ teardrop coil, blue

(1) 1″ tight coil, white

(1) 7″ V-scroll, green

(1) 4″ V-scroll, green

 

Glue one point of each blue marquise to the white tight coil to form a flower.  Glue the folded end of the 4″ green V-scroll between two of the blue marquise coils to form tendrils.  Glue the blue teardrop to the top of the 3″ V-scroll to form a flower bud and glue the folded end between two marquise coils on the opposite side of the tendrils. 

 

Tear all four sides of the cream card stock and apply chalk to the torn edges.  Attach the cream card stock to the center of the blue square   Glue the finished quillwork to the 2″ square of card stock.

 

Congratulations!  You now have a beautiful twinchie. 

 

I made mine into a greeting card for a friend.  If you would like to, also, follow these easy steps.