How to Quill a Snowflake
Quilling is an age-old paper craft art form dating back to the Renaissance. It consists of winding thin strips of paper tightly around itself using a quilling tool. The rolled paper is pulled from the tool and pinched to form various shapes like teardrops, hearts, squares and many more. The individual shapes can be glued to one another to form larger shapes such as snowflakes and stars. Quilling is used to decorate cards, the outside of boxes, to make ornaments and much more. Quilling is an easily learned craft technique that can be used to create intricate decorative designs.
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Things You'll Need
- Strips of quilling paper
- Rotating, slotted quilling tool
- Plastic circle template
- Paper glue
- Toothpicks
Instructions
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1
Stick the slotted end of the quilling tool into one end of the strip of quilling paper perpendicular to the paper. Slowly start winding the paper around and around itself, creating a tightly rolled coil of concentric circles. Pull the rolled paper from the quilling tool and place it in one of the holes of the circle template--a transparent sheet of rigid plastic will multiple holes cut in it of varying sizes. The size hole chosen will determine the finished size of the quilled snowflake. Lay the rolled paper in the hole on one of its flat sides and let go. The quilled paper will spring out, filling the hole of the template. Dip a toothpick in white glue and glue the outside tail-end of the coil against the adjoining paper.
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2
Roll another strip of quill paper, pull it from the tool and place it in the same hole of the circle template used in Step 1 and glue it. After the glue has dried, hold the rolled coil between the thumb and index finger of each hand. Using the dominant hand, pinch a portion of the coil between the thumb and index finger to create a teardrop shape.
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3
Repeat Step 2 15 more times.
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4
Set the circle coil from Step 1 down on the table. This will form the center of the quilled snowflake. Around this center coil, arrange eight quilled teardrops. Set the rounded part of the teardrop against the center coil. Finally add the last eight quilled teardrops. Set one each between the tips of every two teardrops from the first circle. The rounded edge of the teardrops will be touching the sides of the quilled teardrops of the first circle of them emanating out from the center coil. Glue the quilled forms together at every contact point. Let the glue dry before picking up the snowflake.
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Tips & Warnings
Attach a string to the snowflake and hang it in front of a window or make a lot of them and use them for Christmas tree ornaments.
