When I was growing up I loved putting ornaments on the tree and there were quite a few that really burned their way into my mind. One in particular was curly Q’s of wood shavings, glued together, and lots of sparkly glitter. Of course the glitter was globbed on not evenly in random spots. Love it! Anyway, so with that in my mind and past quilling experience I thought it would be nice to make some paper filligree ornaments. Quilling, at least the basics, is really easy. Perfect for a quick ornament for sure! Here is an easy way to make little leaves. You can use junkmail, scrapbook paper, any paper really, about card stock thickness works best.

Cut strips 1/4″ thick.

You can put a little glue on one end, but it’s not neccessary.

Then roll it up.

Then let it unroll a bit.

Then glue the end of the paper in place and dab glue in the spiral at the bottom to get it to stay.

Pinch the other end.

Repeat in different sizes by letting it unroll more or less.

Fit the smaller ones into the bigger one.

And there you go, a nice easy leaf.

You can build these up and add just little spirals and all sorts of great things. You can work symetrically to make snowflakes, leaves, flowers, etc or intuitively to make a leafy web structure. 

Do a quick flickr search for “quilling” and see what a lot of amazing folks have done. I especially like this woman’s work. 

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I wanted to let you know about this great new thing I put into the shop today. It’s the Spot of Tea Gift Set! I have two made up and in the shop today. It comes with a vintage/retro tea cup, enough loose leaf tea for 4 cups of tea in english breakfast or jasmine green (it comes in a great handmade pillow box that I made myself) and a reusable tea bag! It’s just the thing for any tea loving friend. You should go check that out as well as the new handmade goodies and kits that I added this week.

In other news I’m working all day tomorrow. Literally like 8am to near 8pm, so there won’t be a post. There will be a pattern on Monday, but I’m leaving out of town on Tuesday for Thanksgiving stuff, so I’ve decided to (for the most part) take the week off posting. I’m taking over thanksgiving dinner so I’ll be cooking pretty much non stop the whole time I’m there. Love it! I’m actually pretty excited and have been pouring over recipes and working on a meal plan so my mom can give it the thumbs up and I get the groceries. 

I’m seeing pies, stuffing, turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, maybe a sweet potato cassarole (the non marshmallow kind), and other delectable treats. I haven’t made for 9 people before, so it should be fun. 

So I will see you on Monday. Have a great crafty weekend!

Kristin

ps – I am going to add some more things over the weekend as well as update the pattern/how to archive so check back for that on Sunday.