Quilling Cards

Written and Created by PaperCraftCentral Susan

Quilling cards can be very satisfying and can impress your friends and family too! The pieces you can make with this card making and scrap booking technique are very versatile.

"Quilling is a paper artform that dates back hundreds of years.  It is the art of taking thin strips of paper, of varying widths, and rolling, gluing and shaping them into different shapes.  You then take these little shapes and glue them together to create awesome quilled masterpieces (or whatever)."
~Sweet SpotCards

For this card, I simply made six rolled blue pieces to make the petals of the flower, a yellow rolled piece for the flower centre, and then I made two green rolled pieces and pinched them into leaf shapes for my leaves. You can see that I glued the edge of a piece of quilling paper to make my stem.

Once you know some of the techniques, you will be able to work out how a lot of inspiring quilled pieces are made.

Tutorial for Quilling Cards

The process of quilling cards or making paper filigree is deceptively simple.

You roll a strip of paper onto your tool, then ease it off.

You can either use a tiny bit of glue (I like Tombow Multi because it is a liquid glue that allows me a little wriggle room before it dries so I can make adjustments to get my paper even before the glue sets)  to tack down the end of your paper before you allow the coil to relax, or you can let it go on the table and allow it to become a loose coil before you glue it to stop it unfurling any more.The size of your piece depends on how tightly or loosely you coil it.

Quilling guides provide a place where coils can be allowed to unfurl to a given size, thus allowing you to make uniform sized coils. Such a guide can look like a plastic ruler with holes in it. The holes allow you to make each rolled piece identical sizes.

A coil can then be shaped further by pinching part of the circle to form a leaf, tear drop and elliptical shapes. Those are the shapes I started with.

Note: Scroll down past the place where you can share YOUR card to see some more of my quilled cards and a few other ideas.

The Tools

 Hint: Tryusing a dash of Stampin' Up!'s Tombow Multi to adhere your ends down. You can order it from me if you live in Australia.

The tools and papers can be bought from some craft stores and it is worth searching online for them as well as for cheaper options.

You can use any kind of clear glue. Here I show how I use Stampin' Up!'s Fine Tipped Glue Pan (it's a very strong glue, not just a dimensional or glazing product) but you can use any other kind of adhesive, as long as it dries clear.

You can also see the specialty rainbow coloured papers I used. All of these thin paper strips are joined together at the top and bottom with adhesive. Just select a strip in the colour you want and carefully remove it from the whole to start.

The quilling tool I show in the picture is a basic one that is not slotted like a darning needle or split like a brad. You can purchase tools with those sort of 'needles' and you can also buy them in different sized bores so you can make different sized coils with smaller or larger centres in them.

If you need a quilling kit, I recommend one on the Papercraft Supplies page.

I put together a little video showing you how I made my flower for the card in the picture. I will be publishing it for subscribers soon, so look for a notice in your inbox about that. If you are not yet a subscriber to Paper Twists it's not too late! You can opt in to receive free papercraft information right now.

Making a Quilled Flower

I trust you are now ready to start quilling cards at your own craft desk. And when you do, please share your card on PaperCraftCentral. I am so inspired by other crafter's work and you get to be featured on this site when you show me your work.

Here are a few more examples of what you can do with this paper rolling technique. First, a birthday card idea:

Here's a bookmark idea:

How about a layered heart to make for a card or a decorative box?

I'd love to see some of your ideas too.

You can also learn how to make a Quilled Paper Daisy if you would like.

If you would like to have your own quilling kit, try this one:

Paper Quilling Kit Quilled Paper – Pistha 600 PCS Strips Quilling Paper in 29 Colors with 8 PCS Different Quilling Tools, Quilling Coach, Quilling Board