Quilling - a cheap and easy project

I came across quilling when I was looking for different arts to feature for the guest blogger series I had in September but I wasn't able to find anyone to do a post for me. Now, I must admit, when I first came across it, I thought WHY? but then I discovered it is quite an ancient art form started by monks and nuns who used strips of paper taken from gilded edges of books and there are some beautiful quilled pieces of art.

Now, I am not a quilling expert, this is just something I came up with to do with Ebi-kun. You can buy pre-cut quilling strips or a quilling kit but I just cut strips of coloured paper and use a humble tooth pick as the tool. Just tightly wrap the strip around the toothpick and finish with a dot of glue. I found this to be quite relaxing to do whilst watching TV in the evening, so we started off with a box full of quilled swirls.

Next, cut yourself a template, I used a piece of card box and cut out a Christmas tree and a stocking. Then we dipped the quilled swirl into white glue, squish them into the shape you like to fit the template and stick into place. You do need to check that the glue hadn't stuck to the template, if you have some kind of plastic template that might be a good option to use.

Fill in the whole template, squishing the swirls as you go. Then carefully remove the template...

And this is Ebi-kuns stocking... 

If you want to see some more quilling ideas, I started a pinterest board over here, a couple to get you interested...

Lavanya Naidoo Via Illusion Scene360

If Looks Could Quill