Paper Quilling For All

Have you heard people say "I am not artistic" or "Crafting is not my thing"? Have you said that before? Whether you have said that or not, after today you are not going to be saying that ever. Crafting is for everybody and you never know what you are capable of unless you actually try it.

Having said that, let's face reality, nobody is ready to spend dollars on a craft that they don't even know how it works. So if I were to tell you that I can teach you a new craft with just a few things you can find in your house, will you try it with me? 

I started Miss Paper Craft with the sole aim of making Paper Quilling known to all and as I said before, today you are going to learn Paper Quilling with just a few things found in your house.

Paper Quilling is the art of creating decorative designs from thin strips of curled paper. Feels like Greek and Latin? Let me break it down for you.

Generally to begin, this is the minimum supply list you would need:

• Quilling Paper
• Quilling Tool
• Glue
• Lid of a box / old gift card
• Toothpick
• Circle Sizer tool
• Tweezers

But this is the supply list you are actually going to use today:

• Construction Paper (11 in x 2 in minimum required)*
• Toothpicks
• Glue (Any craft glue, including Elmer's glue works)
• Lid of a box / old gift card
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Cutting Blade**
• Scissors**

*You could even use newspaper or printer paper.
**Adult supervision necessary for kids while using cutting blade and scissors.

Once you have gathered all these supplies from around your house, let's begin: 

1. Cut 7 paper strips of quarter inch width and 11 inch length from your construction paper. A minimum of 11 inch is ideal, but you can make it longer too. Make 1/4 inch markings on opposite sides of the paper, draw a line connecting the two sides and cut the strip using a scissors. You can alternatively use a cutting blade. 
2. Make a slit on the flat edge of one toothpick using the cutting blade. Be careful when using the cutting blade. 
3. Pour out some glue on to a lid and keep toothpicks ready near it.
4. Take 1 paper strip in your left hand and the toothpick with slit in your right hand. (If you are left-handed, use your right hand, where it says left hand and left hand, where it says right hand.)
5. Insert one end of the strip into the slit in the toothpick and hold tight.
6. Start turning the toothpick towards you (slit side of the toothpick should be pointing left), while maintaining tension with your left hand on the strip, to form a tight coil. (When you are turning the toothpick, make sure the paper strip is aligned to the same level. There will be a natural tendency for the paper to form a cone shape.)
7. Once you reach the end of the strip, carefully remove the coil and place it on a flat surface to unwrap.
8. To control the size of the coil, allow the coil to unwrap between your thumb and index finger against a ruler. Use the ruler as a guide to get consistent sized coils.
9. Once the coil has fully expanded between your fingers, secure the end by applying glue, using the toothpick.
10. This is your basic "Loose Coil" shape in Paper Quilling.
11. Pinch one side of this loose coil, to change the shape from circle to teardrop.
12. Repeat steps 6 to 13, 5 more times and you will have 6 teardrops in total.
13. Now take the 7th strip of paper and coil it as mentioned in steps 4 to 6 above.
14. Once you reach the end, take out the coil from the toothpick, but do not let it unwrap. Glue the end. This is a "Tight Coil".
15. Arrange the teardrops in a circle, with the pointed edge of the teardrop facing inwards.  Place the tight coil on the center, above where the pointed edges of the teardrops meet. Do you see what I see? It's a flower! 
16. Apply glue in between all the pieces and let dry.

(Video Tutorial Link: Click here)

You just made a Paper Quilled Flower and what did it take? Less than an hour's time of yours and with no extra dollars spent. Isn't that amazing! That is the beauty of Paper Quilling.

If you enjoyed the past hour paper quilling with me and didn't know how the time went by, then I shall consider it a success and that means a lot to me.

This is just the basics of Quilling with things from your house. Now are you ready to take your quilling up a level with proper Quilling tools and paper? Get your Quilling Kit here and start crafting.

As a little token of gratitude, here's a 10% discount coupon just for you.

Until next time, happy crafting!