Quilling is an art form that involved rolling and shaping paper strips and them gluing them together to create designs. It was a popular art form in 18th century Europe and was practiced most by the upper class women. It spread to colonial America and remains popular because the supplies are readily available and inexpensive. Today quillers (people who quill) exist on every continent.
You and your family can try your hand at quilling with just a few supplies.
You and your family can try your hand at quilling with just a few supplies.
- Construction paper (we used orange, green and black for a pumpkin. Substitute red for the orange to make an apple or any other color and try your hand at a flower!)
- Pencil or straw
- Glue
First, cut the construction paper into 1/4 inch strips. We cut our strips from the width of the construction paper and then cut those strips in half, so our final strips were approx. 4" long and 1/4 inch wide.
Roll the strips of paper into circles. Use a pencil or straw to help with the rolling. Rolling the paper around the pencil or straw helps to make more consistent and tighter rolls. The size of each circle depends on how tight the paper is rolled.
Arrange your paper rolls to create a picture or design. We created a pumpkin with ours. Notice from our picture how we "pinched" our green circles slightly to create more of a leaf shape. Your paper rolls are easily manipulated to accommodate your design.
Once your design is in place, use the glue to attach the paper rolls to each other. Just a drop of glue is all that is needed since the design space is so small.
We attached our finished design to a piece of black paper so it would stand out when we hung it up.
Your finished designs can be framed, used on cards or on scrapbook pages.
Roll the strips of paper into circles. Use a pencil or straw to help with the rolling. Rolling the paper around the pencil or straw helps to make more consistent and tighter rolls. The size of each circle depends on how tight the paper is rolled.
Arrange your paper rolls to create a picture or design. We created a pumpkin with ours. Notice from our picture how we "pinched" our green circles slightly to create more of a leaf shape. Your paper rolls are easily manipulated to accommodate your design.
Once your design is in place, use the glue to attach the paper rolls to each other. Just a drop of glue is all that is needed since the design space is so small.
We attached our finished design to a piece of black paper so it would stand out when we hung it up.
Your finished designs can be framed, used on cards or on scrapbook pages.
