Christmas Quilling - Quilled Holly Mat

A simple quilled mat of holly leaves  and berries  dedicated to all my Friends, Followers, Visitors and Passers by .

Irish Christmas Blessing 

May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home
and may the hand of a friend always be near

May God be with you and bless you;
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings.

May you leave this page with a cheer in your heart,

And may you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.

Quilled Picture Papercut Silhouette - Reindeer in the Snow

I have combined paper cutting and quilling for this quilled picture, Reindeer in the Snow, for which I have used only beehive quilling as a background. Usually, the paper cut is mounted on a paper backing but I wanted to make it a bit different, so whats better than using beehive quilling to depict a snowy backdrop?

For tips on beehive quilling check out my tutorial, which is for those who already know the basic beehive technique.

This one was very simple, I got a couple of silhouettes of reindeer and Photoshopped the design and then cut it out with a craft knife. Then I covered the backing paper with beehive quilling. I have used two variations of the beehive. The border is made of the variation I introduced in filigree flower .  The beehive variation is given in the Filigree Poinsettia Tutorial.

The snow backdrop for the center is the usual beehive quilling pasted closely, taking care not to allow it to unwind too much. When glued close it looks really good and can be used for background filling.

Enjoy and be motivated.

Christmas Quilling- Quilled Stained Glass Window

Now for a change!! A quilled picture of the Nativity of Christ. A quilled mosaic stained glass window design using only beehive quilling, quilled like a mat.

If you hold it up, the light comes through just like a stained glass window; the reason for using beehive. Looks rather holy ( Just couldn't resist that pun!!).

Well it took me a lot of time to get the beehive quilling stuck one to the other!! Not an easy task at all!! Mother Mary's face had to be redone twice. Would have been much easier to glue it to the backing, but I wanted to try and use clear plastic for the final mounting so the light can come through.

I am happy with the results as it is something unique!! Probably the first time a mosaic design has been quilled!!

Hope you like it too. Should look great on a card too.

Sorry I forgot my how to!!

The steps involved are fairly simple but the task is laborious for someone like me who does not have too much patients!! I basically overlaid a printout with a plastic sheet and shaped the black outline with around 4 strips stuck together for a thick, visible outline and then filled it with beehive quilling ensuring that each sub-coil had glue on the sides. To do this, I basically filled the shape with beehive and then took a tad of glue on a toothpick and poked it between adjacent sub-coils to stick them together. Got them stuck to my fingers many a time, threw out a few in a temper and then managed to complete it somehow. It did get easier with practice though. Just made sure the proportions of the hands were as per the drawing.

I used a towel to hold the beehive coils down till dry after I had that "eureka" moment. Avoid getting the glue on top,but if you do, do not panic. Just wipe it off with a damp napkin before it dries. Keep your fingers clean at all times so keep a damp cloth handy.

For my beehive quilling tips follow this link.

Quilling Technique Tips & Tricks - Moulded Quilled Bell / Shapes

Here it is!! Quilling Technique Tip & Tricks for mold quilled christmas bell decoration. These tips can be used for any quilled item created using a mold. I gathered these tips when I was quilling the bell for Bells & Holly and have posted it here as I did not find any tutorials covering these points.

 

The Basic Steps

1. Take  the mold and cover it with cling film or plastic or take a plastic mold.
2. Quill basic shapes.
3. Glue the basic shapes one to the other and create the shape.
4. Paste the pieces together and complete the shape.

Tips & Tricks of Quilling Using a Mold (Christmas Bell)

1. If you are quilling for the first time use a rather large bell/ mold.
2. Start form the narrowest part and quill down, leaving the argent space empty so that you can glue a loop to hang the bell.
3. If you are quilling a sphere, do it in halves, from the top to the mid line and then glue the two halves together.
4. Make sure the coils used for the basic shapes are not too loose ( unwound too much) and are well formed with small centers that are closely (not tightly) coiled and equally spaced.
5. The size  of the basic shapes is important and depends on the size of your mold.  The smaller the basic shape the smoother the curvature.
6. Use basic shapes that fit into each other and ensure that every single basic shape touches the adjacent shape comfortably at some point  so that the side of each shape can be glued firmly to the adjacent shape or the part thereof that is touching it.
7. You can quill molds with spaces as part of the design but make sure the shapes around the space are glued firmly to each other.
8. The best results will be achieved with same size shapes within each row even if different shapes are used.
9. Glue a  few of the basic shapes together, place it on the top section of the mold and apply a bit of glue to the underside,where it will not be visible once removed, and paste it to the mold but avoid getting the glue on to the bottom or top of the basic shapes  in any of the other areas.
10. Always start at the flatter part when molding on a curved surface so that you can glue a few shapes together and stick them to the mold.
11. When molding curved areas, hold the shapes down on the mold till dry. Where possible use a rubber band to tighten the shape against the mold. If you find gaps fill them and glue any loose areas before proceeding.
12. Always plan ahead about how you are going to remove your shape from the mould before you begin molding as you may have to do it in two halves or smaller pieces and then glue them together. For a bell however, you start from the narrow and end at the broad end in one go.
13. You can quill all the basic shapes and then start moulding but be prepared to quill a few while you are moulding as the sizes required may change and you will have to quill to fit the space sometimes. I usually quill a few at a time and glue.
14. If you want designs (you will need experience to do this), make the design, then glue the design on the mold and put a rubber band around it, then glue basic shape around it to embed it into your quilled shape.
15. Press the shape on to the mould at every step and glue loose basic shapes. If possible, put a rubber band on the last glued area and keep moving it down as you complete gluing so that it dries into shape.
16. Once completed, allow to dry well before removing from the mould.
17. Any parts that protrude will have to be quilled last and separately, and then glued into place.
18. Always start with easy shapes and them proceed to the more difficult ones.  
19. Allow to dry hard before you remove off the mold or it can loose shape.
20. Make all corrections before the piece dries as it will become quite hard once it does.

Quilled Christmas Bells & Holly

Quilled christmas bells and christmas holly is a must to complete any quilled christmas decoration, so here is my version. The bells are quilled on molds using basic shapes. The bells have argent and ringer as well, all using strips.
I used a stem  described in my tutorial Stems Twigs and Trunks for the stem of the ringer .

For the holly I glued 4,  11' 3mm strips together for each leaf and shaped it like a holly leaf.

I shaped all the coils right to the center. so the center is not circular. Since the leaf is made from a long strip it tends to drop down in the middle so I applied glue to thry to hold it together, but smaller leaves with less space between coils will be firmer.

For the fruits I just quilled 3d caps with 3mm strips but you can try 1.5 mm strips to make 2 caps and glue them together to make the berries. Remember that the thickness of the strip will dictate the shape of the sphere.

Tutorial for quilling with molds is available here.