Quilling for beginners: simple crafts, tools and materials

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Twisting from strips of paper fascinates and falls in love with the process from the first try, because quilling is so simple. From the very beginning you understand that this art is subject to absolutely any person. No need to be a seamstress or an artist, as in other types of handmade, everyone can twist and beautifully arrange strips, even a beginner.

Simple pictures, composed of just a few elements, can decorate any craft or card for a holiday to a loved one. Quilling is an easy and beautiful kind of creativity. From thin strips of different colors, whole pictures and small figures are created, you can make beautiful New Year decorations and original earrings, a keychain for a bag, or effectively decorate an album for photos for a wedding. Working with stripes is interesting for both adults and children.

Today we will talk about quilling. It will be useful for novice craftsmen to find out what tools will be needed for work, how to learn how to use stripes, create various figures using a templaterulers. Quilling strips come in different widths and paper thicknesses. The choice depends on the version of the craft. Quilling kits can be purchased at craft and stationery stores. They are also different. There are huge and expensive options with a lot of different tools, and there are cheap options that contain only the essentials to get started.

Paper hook

Of course, if you decide to just try your hand at this art form for the first time, to understand what it is all about, then you will not buy quilling tools and materials. To get started, simply purchase strips of paper. You can wind them on any thin stick - a knitting needle, a rod from a plastic handle, a wooden skewer or a toothpick. Even with this foundation, you'll do great.

But if you love quilling and want to develop further, we advise you to purchase a special hook for twisting stripes. This is a device that resembles a paste pen, only at the end is a thin metal tube with a forked tip. The edge of the paper strip is inserted into this slot and it is better fixed on the base. It remains only to perform rotating movements with the handle and the strip will curl around the rod.

Template ruler

If you just make a tight twist into a paper cylinder, then only a hook will be enough for you, but even in simple quilling crafts, you need not only tight, but also free twisting of the strips. In order for the elements for the picture to have the same size and shape, you need a template. Such a ruler, as in the photo in the article below, has many different hole shapes. It is enough to insert a loosely twisted circle into the required template and press down with your fingers in the corners to get elements of various shapes - triangles and squares, drops and leaves, hearts and semicircles.

Template lines come in a variety of configurations. When buying, you can choose any option you like.

First steps

Quilling for beginners is a workout for twisting strips into different elements. The very first and easiest is a tight circle. From such elements, you can collect a flower or make its middle. They fill the gaps in the picture between large details, the eyes of the characters are made.

The rest of the elements can be seen on any quilling pattern. Let's look at the description of each element below. Making them is easy. The basis is a freely twisted strip into a circle. The larger the figure, the more diverse you can squeeze it with your fingers when forming a square, a star, or any other detail. For pressing, except for fingers, you can use the plastic part of the hook. Press the circle with two fingers, holding the part with the other hand.

Creating Items

After you have purchased a quilling kit, you can start training exercises that allow you to master the technique of twisting paper strips perfectly. Start with simple elements. A strip is inserted into the slot of the hook and a freewrapping paper around the base. There is no need to put in any effort. After twisting, the circle is inserted into the required template. Let's start with a circle. It can be any size. Then the hand is released and the strip, straightening, takes on the contours of the template we need. Thick PVA glue is smeared on the edge of the strip, and it is attached to the last turn. Only then is the workpiece removed from the template ruler.

How to make leaf quilling, look at the photos above. The workpiece, taken out of the template, is taken with two fingers from one and the other, opposite side, and slightly pressed down. The principle of folding figures is identical to this one, only squeezing with fingers occurs at different angles and in other places.

Quilling for kids

With children, you can make the simplest crafts or postcards, using only the ability to twist the strips tightly and freely, forming circles and leaves. A chamomile with a dense yellow circle in the middle and white leaves located around it will look beautiful. The stem of the flower is made from a green strip, which is placed along the drawn line on the end part. With a brush, PVA glue is applied to the very edge of the strip and it is placed on the end. It seems that it will not hold at all, but it is not, the main thing is that the glue is thick.

Using the quilling technique, children can make a picture of a butterfly or beads for mom for the holiday of March 8. To do this, it will be enough to be able to twist tight circles and thread a strong thread of nylon into them.

3D flowers

Look carefully at the sample in the photo. The flowers are made from two or three different strips. They differ not only in color, but also in the width of the quilling stripes. If you didn’t find such wide details on sale, then don’t be discouraged, they can be cut out of double-sided printer paper with scissors, a ruler and a simple pencil. First think about what the width of the strip should be, then using a ruler, draw a few details in length and carefully cut them out with scissors.

How to make quilling crafts, let's look further at the example of creating volumetric flowers. First, try to create a flower from two types of stripes. A dense circle is twisted from a thin colored one. If one strip is not enough, then at the moment when one strip ends, we get another one and carefully glue it to the edge of the previous one. The winding continues. If necessary, you can add a third.

How to make petals?

Wide strip cut into ½ "noodles". Try to keep all the cuts the same depth and have an equal distance between them. If you need to frequently use such parts in your work, you can purchase special scissors that perform several cuts at the same time.

Then, a wide prepared strip is attached to the middle of the flower and the tight winding continues. When the required thickness is reached, the edge is glued on PVA to the last turn, and the petals are pressed gently by hand so that they are distributed over the entire diameter of the circle.

Read more on howmake quilling volumetric flowers from two types of petals. The principle of the work is the same, only strips are cut not only of different colors, but also of thickness. First, a middle-width strip cut into "noodles" is attached to the middle, then the widest one. With pressure and distribution along the diameter of the petals, all layers of the flower will clearly stand out.

Beautiful snowflake

If you have learned how to create dense circles and leaves from stripes, then you can decorate the Christmas tree with quilling snowflakes for the New Year. Making it is easy. The craft begins with a central, tightly twisted circle. It will have to be glued from several strips, as it should be large.

Next, you need to roll fifteen identical, loosely twisted circles and form leaves, pressing down the circle with two fingers on both sides. To make the leaves the same, you must use the template. Quilling for beginners requires mandatory work with such a ruler.

Then the parts are glued together. Elongated elements in the form of flower petals are attached to the central circle. PVA glue is smeared on a sharp corner and a little on the side parts at the base. Then the gaps are filled with the rest of the leaves. Each corner on the outer diameter of the craft is additionally decorated with three tightly twisted circles. They are wound on a thick hook or on a rod from a handle so that there is a hole inside the element. When the snowflakes made using the quilling technique are finished, it remains to attachrhinestones, which in the light of a Christmas tree garland will sparkle very effectively.

How to make drops and hearts?

Master class for beginners in quilling, see below. The photo shows in detail how to make different elements for crafts. The edge of the tape is inserted into the slot of the hook and torsion begins. In this case, not too tight winding of the strip is required. At the end of the winding, you need to smear the edge of the strip with thick PVA glue with a thin brush and attach it to the last turn of paper.

To make a drop, you need to take the resulting free circle with the fingers of one hand over the edge of the circle and squeeze it slightly. The resulting part is also often used in the work of the master. But let's look at the next stage of work, when a heart is obtained from a drop. As you can see in the step-by-step quilling master class for beginners, the end part of the hook needs to be pressed down a little in the center of the rounded part of the droplet. To keep the shape of the heart, a little pressure is also applied with the fingers on the opposite side.

Candlestick

After the novice master learns how to make circles, drops and leaves, you can try to create such a beautiful candlestick. It consists of all previously mastered methods of twisting strips. You will need PVA glue for work, a circle cut out of red cardboard. In its middle, you need to mark the location of the candle with a simple pencil. Work will be done around this circle.

First madeidentical lilac, loosely twisted circles using a template ruler so that they are the same size. When 10 pieces are made, stick them around the place designated for the candle. Then strips of crimson color are taken and drops are created in the same amount. The finished elements are arranged in pairs, with acute angles to each other. Similar details to hearts. Leaves are made from green stripes. All 10 parts are first twisted in the form of a free circle, then flattened from opposite sides with two fingers. It remains to bend the leaves a little in different directions so that the sides are not even, but wavy.

The leaves are fastened in pairs and attached to the gap between two adjacent circles in the center. This craft is held firmly by the cardboard stand. The original candlestick can be moved from place to place, nothing will fall off and the craft will not fall apart after moving.

Basket

When mastering quilling, beginners can try to make such a spectacular basket. The bottom of the craft is drawn with a compass on thick brown cardboard. Then, crafts are assembled on the cut out circle. The work is carried out by tight twisting of the same size cylinders. The height of the basket and the color scheme depends on the wishes of the master. The sides are assembled from parts in a checkerboard pattern.

The pen also has a cardboard base and is assembled from two different strips. Their differences are not only in color, but also in the fact that the inner light strip has a large width. You can decorate the craft with flowers or butterflies.

Conclusion

The article describes in great detail the manufacture of individual elements from quilling strips, gives examples of the easiest crafts. After reading, these works will be able to be done by both children and novice masters - lovers of creating something special, original with their own hands. Fantasize and implement your ideas in crafts using the quilling technique. It is very interesting and will definitely captivate you!