Article by Claire Harris

Children love quilling, with all the colored paper strips and the chance to create something all their own. As you practice your quilling skills, and experiment with designs, you may want to invite the other members of your family, or your friends, to practice quilling with you.

Although quilling takes a little dexterity and some coordination, it’s not beyond most grade-school age kids, and if projects are kept within their abilities, kids will come up with some great ideas.

Working with kids and quilling means going back to your first time trying to hold your quilling tool correctly and keep a coil tight. The best thing to remember is that quilling is fun–no rules apply to the ‘best’ way to do anything and any shape that is quilled can be used for making anything your heart desires.

Loose coils in gray can create an elephant’s belly, and curly spirals can be a tail. Brightly colored teardrops can become balloons and tight coils glued in stacks can become spinning tops. Kids can draw a design first, and then fill it with shapes they’ve quilled. They can cut out shapes, or use a paper punch, in several pieces of colored paper–then lay them in a stack to create a layered look. Then these can have quilled shapes added, either in designs of particular things or creatures, or simply as abstract shapes on a multi-colored sea.

Holidays can be the perfect time to bring your family into quilling. Christmas time comes to mind with quilled Santas and Holiday decorations. Remember your wreath!

Quilling can be fun and rewarding for anyone–even the guys in your life! Many quillings reflect masculine themes and abstract styles, and this artistic past time can be as relaxing as tying trout flies, working puzzles or whittling wood. As we say, quilling is without boundaries, so everyone can come join the fun!

Popular examples show kits available from many fine quilling craft suppliers and provide a wonderful way to work on Christmas quillings with your family.

Gather the kids and create a Santa for a Holiday decoration, a card for the grandparents, the favorite teacher or best friend. Everyone can the basic shapes that make up this fun pattern.

Take a moment to read through the instructions beforehand, and of course, have enough tools for everyone and gather up plenty of materials, so everyone can quickly dive into the fun. Some little fingers may have trouble using a quilling tool, but should be able to glue pieces together just fine. Before you know it, you’ve got a quilling party going!

Assembling a quilling design is as fun as putting together a puzzle–only more, because the pieces are hand made and the ‘puzzle’ stays together!

The Angels kit is a great example of quillings that can allow for personal artistic expression while still learning to follow a design correctly to achieve the finished piece.

Color combinations are the obvious options to play with here, but the spirals and scrolls used for angel hair could also be used on whatever pattern you wished. This would be an excellent opportunity to try your hand at miniature quilling as well.

Perhaps the family, or you and your best buds, would enjoy working with such a pattern together? Your creations could grace cards, gift boxes or maybe hang from the tree, or in a window.

Go through the pattern with the others and ask for ideas on color schemes and uses for the finished pieces. Have plenty of color variety in your paper strips, maybe including some foils, graduated papers or two-toned papers–an added bit of fun can be a crimping tool for crinkled paper.

Or, perhaps you can ask everyone to bring some accessory they would like to add to their piece? Beads, sequins, glitter, ribbons, silk threads–whatever sparks the imagination.

Again, and always, the idea is to have fun, be creative and enjoy yourself!

Animals, of any kind, are favorite quilling subjects. Whether you’re going for a realistic look or a caricature–or your own interpretation of a critter–quilling it will be an adventure. The examples below illustrate exception works of quilling where animals claimed the artists’ imagination and they, in turn, captured their subject uniquely.

There are a number of beginner’s kits with patterns for small animal shapes. These designs allow anyone starting out in quilling to learn yet another design skill that brings them closer to being able to create their own designs.

About the Author

Claire’s website has a Step by Step guide on Quilling. Please visit her site for more info on quilling patterns

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