Anabel Turns One - My First Attempt at Quilling

As I've said many times over, I go to Pinterest for inspirations. Within the many depths of this amazing platform I found the paper art of Quilling. For those of you who are unfamiliar, this is the art of taking thin strips of paper and standing the straight to form a design. When I first saw this, I was amazed. For me, that means I need to learn how to do it. It took countless hours, that I actually had at that time. Below you can see the phases of my work, from sketching the design to actually implementing it and finishing the job.




Some quick tips before I get into the process to make this work of art. You can see my other post Quilling Overload - A Start to Supplies. It goes into much further detail and explanation. It explains what tools come in handy, what alternatives are better and how to get off on the right foot.


1. My final sketch of my design. It took a little bit of time and a lot of inspiration to decide. I also bought a lot of stencils to make the letters perfect.

• Quick Tips: 
• Draw several different designs. It helps you perfect the final version. 
• Do not think you are stuck to the final design- it may not work practically. As you will see, my project needed to be changed in order to work. 

2. For the next step I created each individual letter and the flower as a whole. To make this happen, I created a cheat that you won't find anywhere else. I took the card-stock that I was going to use for the background, and using the stencils, I cut out the letters I wanted to use. I then used them to create the letters as a quilled piece. I was able to basically line the edges of the card-stock with the quilling paper, making the quilling paper stand straight and flat in the surface of my work space. This allowed me to hold the letter's shape. I used ball tipped pins which make it easy to place, move and work with. 

As for the flower, I wrapped my quilling paper around a ruler and glued in place. I then removed it and squeezed the edges together to make the shape of a petal. I then cut individual strips to line the insides of each petal. I used pins the entire time.  

• Quick Tips:
• When using the card-stock as a base to attach your quilling paper, be careful of the amount and type of glue you use. If you overdo it, it will ripple the card-stock. This would defeat the purpose. Your goal is to glue the finished letters to the backing of the same color to make it appear as it is not there at all. Your quilling paper will find the extra width of the cut letters. 
• Make sure to use saran wrap or plastic over you working space/cork. It makes it so much easier to remove your work.

3. My next step was putting them together. I first tried to follow my sketch. I placed the letters on top of the flower where I wanted it to go. I then cut the flower at the places I needed (Picture below). This turned out to be impractical. There were too many pieces to connect between all the letters. This is where my design changed. I remade the flower and tried again. This time I played with the placement and found a clean spot that didn't require a lot of pieces.

4. The spot I chose (picture below), was on the tops of the letters A and N. It was a good spot seeing as only 2 petals would need to be cut. Using the same method as the previous, I lined up the flower to where I wanted it. I then cut the flower petals in the right places. I then attached the cut flower petals to the letters themselves. I used the pins to hold it all in place while the glue dried. Make sure your letters are pinned down as well, that way they do not shift.

5. I then began to add the accents to the design. I starting making standard curls and swirls and attached them where I felt they should go. Once again, make sure your letters and pinned to the final spot so that the design doesn't shift as you go along.

6. After I was happy with the design on the work space, I gently removed it and place it on the card-stock that I was using as the background. It is also the color of the letters I used to make the design. I then glued everything into place. The design shifted in the transfer so after placing the glue, I just held it in place.

7. As a final step, I measured the frame and chose a scrapbook paper to go with it.