A Quilling Tutorial/Quilled roses.

Pink ones of course, are going to be the subject of For Pink Saturday this week. I’m going to teach you all through a free quilling tutorial how  quilled roses are made ,you can view the quilled roses tutorial below ,haven’t you always wondered how those very charming, realistic, tiny , paper roses, that make a wonderful decoration to virtually any craft project, are made by quilling or twisting a slim piece of paper ( quilling strip)  around a simple quilling tool ,well here goes. And seeing as its ” Pink” Saturday all my tutorial pictures will be in pink. For other pink themed blogs check out the list of participants as always on Beverley’s blog

When I got back into quilling if ever it could be  said that I was ever really in quilling in the first place , as previous to me teaching myself only a few  months ago,from various quilling tutorial websites around the net, the only occasion on which  I had ever quilled  before was when I was about 7 years old one Sunday afternoon with my Aunt . I am now 47 so as you can see anything  I ever knew was long ago forgotten . In fact the memories of ever quilling with Aunty at all  didn’t resurface until much frustrated I flung down my newly acquired  quilling tool in a tantrum and decided to give up quilling if not permanently then at least for the day. I then had to laugh out loud as the memories of quilling with Aunty Rose suddenly returned and I recalled her saying “sternly if your going to let twisting a silly piece of paper upset you so much then I don’t hold out much hope for you in the rest of your life” (Aunt didn’t have any children).
Unknown to me the very realistic looking tiny quilled  roses that I had seen on one  paper quilling craft site  and had  admired  so much ,and were the very reason for me sending away for the slotted quilling tool and for me  desiring  to teach myself to quill  in the first place. Were I discovered the hardest of  the paper quilling techniques to master and that I was starting out at the deep end of quilled shapes in trying my hand at quilled roses.

Undeterred  by  this knowledge ,as then I was not then really interested in the other quilling shapes , and confidence bolstered with the thought of  how hard can twisting a stupid piece of paper into a certain shape really be ?

Well it the took viewing of every possible quilled rose tutorial I could find on the net about making folded  quilled roses , I even bought somebodies how to tutorial on the topic (which is so unlike me) but nothing helped, my quilled roses just didn’t look right. It took me almost 24 hours of constant rose quilling before I could make a quilled  rose I was happy with.

Now I can quill a rose with out even looking (well almost) when I go on road trips with my trucker husband  I make hundreds of little quilled  roses while he drives down the road, as  one of the things I like most about quilling  roses is you don’t have to glue them together straight away, unlike a lot of other quilled shapes, quilled roses you can just toss them in a tub and glue them when you want to use them as they still retain their folds .

Now the hardest thing for me about quilling  roses is how to  take a decent photograph of one apparently the macro feature on the camera I am using has stopped working……isn’t that just typical or possibly perhaps I should of taken my daughter up on the instruction on how to use her camera when it was offered ,perhaps I need a photography tutorial. Anyway never mind that back to quilling roses.

So  I said none of the 10 to 15 rose quilling tutorials that I had found on the net helped , that’s not exactly true ,  all the tutorial s said basically the same thing, well how could they not after all they are all attempting to impart the same piece of quilling knowledge. As a matter of fact this tutorial is not going to tell  you much different ,its going to show you the same quilling tool manipulation, the same folding of the quilling strip, how could ithis tutorial or any other quilled rose tutorial do otherwise after all there is only one way of quilling a folded rose ,a few slight variations possibly but nothing amazing we are after all just twisting a little strip of paper around a split pin.

So your going to see  pictures probably very similar to all the other quilling tutorial s you’ve visited, your going to get the same quilling commentary (well probably a little more commentary I can’t seem to help being wordy) the only additional quilling info here are  a few tips and tricks  that helped me make my first successful quilled rose. But before you look at the quilling tips and tricks at the bottom of the post if you have never quilled a rose (or at least tried To ) or you have never even tried to quill any shape before let alone a rose and by some remote chance you happen to have found this quilling tutorial first please do NOT feel tempted to skip to the bottom of the page for the quilling hints, as they will not benefit you in the least, the reason being is that they are little discoveries or improvements on the usual rose quilling tutorial s and if you have not so far even attempted  quilling a rose you will gain no insight from them, its only through previously trying and possibly feeling dissatisfied with your results and then trying again, employing the the quilling hints ,that you will realize how much easier the task has become with them.

A couple of Quilling tips I will pass on right at the beginning

1)For quilled roses you just have to have the slotted  quilling tool (see this quilling tutorial for what the quilling tool looks like if you haven’t got one) some say you can manage with a needle tool or even a cocktail stick , you can’t  you simply must get the split quilling tool,in order to be able to make a quilled rose, and complete this tutorial

2) Do not start practicing quilled roses using your purchased quilling strips  you will only waste them, cut your own quilling strips from scrap printing  paper ,if you have a paper shredder that doesn’t cross cut  use the shredded strips to practice on they’re about the right size for quilling roses.

3) If you haven’t got a shredder do not bother getting out ruler and craft knife and cutting board ,to cut perfectly straight quilling strips it takes too long and besides for the rose you do not need a quilling strip with a perfectly straight edge,(well that’s the first law of quilling I’ve just told you to break) your going to fold most of the edges under so they won’t show anyway and any slight imperfections only add to the realism of the quilled rose petals.

QUILLED ROSE TUTORIAL

Below is a diagram of the fold sequence for quilling a rose  just included into the tutorial because some people find it easier to work from a diagram rather than a photo.

According to most tutorial s  5mm wide quilling strips are the appropriate choice for quilled roses on average each rose should use approx  160 mm of quilling strip length. (In my opinion to start you should use wider quilling strips you will find it easier (sorry couldn’t resist sharing that little tip up front)

Rose Quilling Tutorial Step 1

Grasp the SLOTTED quilling tool in your natural writing hand and slide the quilling strip into the slit along the side of it’s shaft, always keeping as near the tip of the quilling tool as you can. Begin  winding the strip around the quilling tool by turning the handle a few times to create what will become the  center of the rose.

Tutorial Step 2

Fold over the loose end of the quilling  strip at approx a  45 deg  angle to the handle of the quilling tool ,continue to wind the folded quilling strip on to the quilling tool , until the fold has gone, and the loose end  of the quilling strip is facing  straight out again  from the side of the quilling tool .You can make your fold in either a backwards or a forwards direction, it doesn’t matter just be consistent one way or the other, for me folding forwards feels more natural but when I choose to fold backward I produce a more uniform quilled rose.

Tutorial Step 3

Try to allow the fold (which will form the rose petals) to flare out at the TOP and yet try to hold the quilling paper against or closer to the quilling tool at what will become the base of the rose . ( this allows the necessary cup or cone shape to form for the quilled rose)

Tutorial Step 4

Wind the folded section around the quilling tool until the paper is out straight from the side of the tool again,  then do another 45 deg fold DOWNWARD and wind that onto your quilling tool as well. Repeating this maneuver several times . If the center of your quilled rose starts to protrude too much beyond the rest of the rose do not worry too much but try to relax your hold just a little to decrease the tension of qour quilling.

Tutorial Step 5

Continue folding and winding until you are happy with the SIZE of the quilled rose and then tear away the free edge of remaining quilling  strip. Do not cut it a torn edge shows up less.

Slide  the quilled rose off the end of the slotted quilling tool allow  the tiny quilled rose you have just greated  to relax slightly and then arrange the quilled rose petals with your fingertips or tweezers till you are happy with its shape and balance . If the center of your quilled rose is protruding a lot beyond the rest of the rose push the center  ( the tight rolled part) down and make certain when you glue the bottom of the rose to seal it into the base ,ensure all the layers particularly the mid point are glued down all together at the base point of the quilled rose.Then using a cocktail stick place some glue into the loose torn end of the the quilling strip and hold it for a few seconds against the main part  of the quilledc rose untill it tacks into place.

You should hopefully after several attempts have completed a few quilled roses, even if the centers protrude too much and they resemble mini Christmas trees or pine cones rather than quilled roses I know mine did, but at least you have got the hang of the quilling technique involved, even if you haven’t perfected it yet

Now to let you in on a few Quilling Secrets that helped me

To  avoid over protrusion of quilled rose center  narrow the end of the quilling strip by cutting it at an angle so it is no longer square,  for the length of 3 or 4 cms .

If after doing this  your completed quilled  rose  still protrudes too much for your liking  carefully trim off the  protrusion until the center matches the level of rest of the quilled rose (no one will ever know ,and I will never tell)

Forget the small sized quilling strips completely ,go to as large a quilling strip as you can handle comfortably, the really thin quilling strips are too fiddly to work with at this stage you can progress on to thinner  and thinner quilling strips once you have fully mastered the  rose quilling  technique

One of the problems I had ,was that I would hold  the loose end of the quilling strip too tightly creating  too much tension causing  the quilling  strip to snap , this was particularly frustrating as it would occur whenever   I thought  I was finally getting the hang of things, the quilling strip would break, everything would instantly unravel and I’d have to start again.

The way I overcame this was to stop using quilling paper and start using card stock instead, it makes just as nice a rose it accepts the fold better than the quilling paper, its easier to stick to itself and to the project , I always even now prefer card stock over quilling paper unless I need to create particularly small quilled roses then of course you will have to use quilling paper.

When I do not have quilling paper of a desired color I paint plain card stock on both sides the wanted color wait until it is dry to the touch then cut it into strips and use it for quilling (to read a little more about this see the Quilled st Valentines day Card tutorial) of course this is a handy quilling tip but not the one I really wanted to pass on here ,that quilling tip here is  I discovered by painting my own color onto card stock, and waiting for it to become just dry to the touch , in other words  I guess using it while still damp in the center ,I found it creates some of the nicest quilled roses that I make ,the damp card just feels so good when quilled,so easy to work with it is soft and malleable and really lends itself to the quilled rose folds it actually feels like a treat to work with it. Unfortunately depending on room temperature the card  dries out quickly, but it can retain this wonderful flexible quality and quilling texture for up to half an hour …..you can make quite a lot of quilled roses in half an hour.

The white rose is done using card stock  and the pink from a scrap piece of  pink printing paper (see not much difference) I hope that you will have found some of this tutorial and my  quilling  tips and hints  beneficial in helping you learn the secret of quilling roses more easily, I would really enjoy hearing from you, about your rose quilling experiences.

Now when you’ve created  all those wonderful quilled roses here’s a simple DIY gift tags project/ tutorial in which to use them

DIY QUILLED ROSE GIFT TAGS TUTORIAL

First go raid your blue bin for a nice patterned  box, an empty tissue box is used here ,or parts of brightly colored cereal boxes ,or the cardboard cases  that 24 pops come in ,I have used them all, they all often have suitable areas to cut a few gift tags from. But remember gift tags don’t have to be rectangular they can be any shape and any size. If you have no suitably already colored   bin dived card ,cut out the gift tag shapes  and paint them.

Always remember to check your recycling bins for sources for craft supplies  and that the simple addition of just a couple of quilled roses or any ther quilled shape without even the addition of further decoration really adds to any gift tags appeal and interest significantly.

Best of luck with all your quilling projects but particularly your quilled roses

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Tagged as: Paper Crafts, paper quilling, re purposing, recycling, Trash to Treasure, upcycling ideas