9th Day of Christmas: Quilled Snowflakes

Warning, I am not a quiller. I have never watched a video on quilling, read a book on quilling, nor have I looked at any real instructions on how to quill. But I got so excited by the craft, I bought all of the supplies and my amateur status hasn't deterred me from trying different projects. Given that warning, you should know that if I can make this snowflake, anyone can. I mean ANYONE.

Supplies needed for this project are quilling paper, a circle board, a slotted quilling tool, glue, spray adhesive and quilling tweezers. For the glue, you'll want a nice, fine tipped adhesive that dries quickly and dries clear.

To create the snowflake pattern I designed, you'll need to make 6 large cat eyes, 6 small cat eyes, 12 small tight coils and 1 large tight coil. They actually call the "cat eye" shape a "marquise", but I like to coin my own phrases and they look like eyes to me, so there you go.

For the larger cat eyes, I used an 18 inch piece of quilling paper and the 1 inch circle. For the smaller eyes, I used a 10 inch piece of quilling paper and the 1/2 inch circle. For the small tight coils, I used 9 inch a piece of quilling paper and for the large tight coil I used one whole piece (18").

The following 40 second video demonstrates a standard quilled circle, the starting point for the cat eye shapes:

To create the cat eyes, you start with a quilled circle. And then pinch the ends. So easy! This 15 second video demonstrates shaping of the eyes:



Creating the tight coils is a snap: wind the paper on the slotted tool, carefully remove and glue.

Making the Snowflake: To assemble the snowflake take your 6 smaller cat eyes and organize them so that they can easily be glued together leaving only a small gap in the center. Apply a small amount of glue on the side of each tip, place the cat eyes in place and let dry.
Next, attach the larger eyes to the tips of each smaller eye. You will attach these by placing the small coiled pieces on either side of the tips and adding a big glob of glue in the middle. This is why you want clear glue. These pieces will take a little longer to dry.

Tip: Keep checking your pieces while they dry to make sure they are not sticking to your work surface or you will have a beautiful snowflake adhered to your table. Working on a glossy surface like a magazine or wax paper helps.

Finally, add the large coiled piece to the center with a dollop of glue.

Lastly, you want to harden this baby up so that you can hang it on your tree, attach it to a wrapped package, or hang it from your dogs collar. This is accomplished with the spray adhesive.
When the snowflake is dry enough to move without falling apart, place it on a piece of wax paper. Take it outside and spray it like crazy. Bring it back inside and transfer it to a clean piece of wax paper. In the morning you'll have a nice, stiff snowflake, ready for hanging.

Phew, that was a long post! But really the snowflake takes less than 30 minutes to make including drying time before the spray adhesive. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! --Kim