Quilled Monogram in Black and White

My love of and adventures in Quilling continue. The more I do, the more I want to do! Apologies for the photo quality. Between it being overcast and the fact that the dog accidentally broke my main camera lens and I'm having to use my distance lens and it's hit or miss...frustrating b/c this may be my favorite project ever! 

Supplies: 

• Cardstock for outlining monogram and matting
• Scrapbook paper for matting
• 12x12 shadow box frame
• Quilling paper
• Glue
• Quilling tool 

Choose a font to use. I used one called "Acherone". I printed out then traced w/ my lightbox onto white cardstock. I cut 1/4 inch width pieces of cardstock and then glued the strips around the letter to form my outline. Once the whole letter was outlined, I added a middle strip for more definition.

I decided it didn't matter if my pencil marks showed because I could just fill in those areas with quilled coils. 

I made coils, swirls and teardrops and just kept filling in the frame at random until I was happy. Once done, I added a few swirled coils as shown. 

I trimmed the paper the monogram was glued to, and then  matted that w/ black cardstock. Then I chose a black and white piece of 12x12 scrapbook paper and framed using a shadow box frame (Michaels...they come in multiple sizes in packs of 2, $29.99 regular price but I bought mine when they were 50% off). 

Quilled Butterfly Card

My adventures in my new obsession continue so expect to see a few posts. I wanted to incorporate quilling into my card making so played around and made this butterfly for a Thank You card I needed to make. 

Supplies: 

• Cardstock and Scrapbook Papers for Card
• Quilling Paper and Tool
• Glue
• Quilling Board

The quilling board came in the kit my girlfriend gave me and it really helpful for ensuring consistent shapes and sizes. You make your coils and then drop inside the shape and use your fingers to help form the shape,  I chose paper strips that coordinated with the colors of the polka dot paper I used. 

To make the Butterfly Wings, I started with the orange and yellow papers shown inside, former the teardrop shapes and then just went around them with the other colors to build up the shapes. 

To make the antennae and the middle ( I have no idea what this part of a butterfly is called) I folder two black strips in half, then curled the tops to make antennae. Tightly coiled the green coils and wrapped the black strips around and glued down to the card. 

Once all my wing pieces were assembled, I glued to the front of the card as shown. Paractice makes perfect and this isn't 100% but I'm pleased with it for a first try. 

I had a question on my last Quilling post about how to actually make the coils and shapes. I think this video is really helpful :

Back Into Blogging With A New Craft Addiction: Quilling

Now that I have some unlimited time on my hands, I'm excited to get back into sharing some of my creations. Not that I had stopped making things but the past couple of years have been hit or miss on consistency and time to post regularly. I'm excited to share a new love I've discovered, thanks to one of my oldest and best friends: Quilling. Really "Modern Quilling". Last year for my birthday, she surprised me with a book and box of supplies and I sat down last week to play with them. 

Quilling is thought to go back to the 15th century and started by English, French, and Italian nun and monks. Traditionally, quilling, similar to embroidery, recreated images of nature etc. Modern quilling still does that but can also be more fluid and abstract. This appealed to me. As is my nature, I looked at the basic process and then just kind of went where I went with it. 

I had several embroidery hoops in my stash so they came to mind when I wanted to start my first project (shown above).  Stayed w/ my often used colors of black, grey, and white. 

Supplies: 

• Embroidery Hoop
• Lightweight Chipboard
• Quilling Tool ( available at craft stores or online)
• Tweezers
• Glue. I just used Elmers but PVA glue is recommended.  I had this package of precision tip glue pens in my stash which worked great! 
• Quilling strips

I traced the shape of the embroidery hoop onto the chipboard, cut out, and glued together w/ hot glue. As that set, I made a bunch of shapes. Pinterest and You Tube have great tutorials to show the basics!

I made a collection of loose coils, tight coils, teardrops and the "eye" shaped ones as shown ( loose round coils w/ each end pinched). Once I thought I had enough to fill in my hoop, I started gluing them down to the chipboard base. 

Since I'm an intuitive crafter, I just started filling in space w/ the black, then moved to the gray and the white ( really cream). Where there were big, obvious spaces, I just rolled some tight but smaller coils and filled in. 

I had so much fun with it , I decided to play with some other color combinations. For the next one, I chose browns and purples. 

I found it was helpful to have something damp to store my glue tip in to help keep it clog free as I was working and also to clean off my fingertips which get sticky as you seal the ends of your shapes. I put a couple pieces of paper towel in a small jar and wet them and they actually stay wet for a few days. I didn't close the jar because I didn't want mold to have a chance and you can just re-dampen if it dries out. 

I repeated the same process with the embroidery hoop and a piece of cardstock, then made my shapes and glued down, again in no specific pattern, just as I went along. 

Once again I filled in some spaces w/ tighter coils but the intent wasn't to fill in completely which is why I went w/ a coordinating piece of cardstock as the base. 

For the first two, I used 6 inch hoops. I was having so much fun I wanted to do another one and play w/ some other colors and only had 8 inch hoops so went w/ that and trust me, that little increase in size makes a difference in the number of coils you need! Not a bad thing mind you. It goes pretty fast once you get the hang of using the quilling tool. Law & Order SVU marathons or music make the time fly by! 

I am hooked! I cannot wait to play some more. I want to do monograms, and cards and, and, and ...