Quilled Monograms -Cheap, easy, no special equipment

Recently I have been greatly inspired by Yulia Brodskaya, an amazing paper quilling artist and I decided I would make some Monograms in her style of quilling. As I have never done quilling before, I didn't want to spend money on special quilling paper ( truth be told I couldn't find any at craft stores near me!) or a quilling tool. So I bought 10 different colours of card stock and cut them to size.

I had a couple pictures of Yulia's work, and I tried to make wavy patterns like she does on her stuff, but really It felt like doodling. Once I got how to work with the paper figured out, it took me half the time of the first one I did.

This is quite a fun relaxing craft and can feel quite zen like once you get the hang of it! I hope you enjoy my tutorial!

Step 1: Supplies

You will need :

- Round Toothpicks, I used about a dozen
- 10 sheets of different coloured paper ( I used card stock because that is what I could find in interesting colours)
- Paper cutter, or a ruler and exacto blade
- Elmer's Glue ( or tacky glue would be better but I used what I had)
- Computer and working printer
- 6-7 small weight things ( I used some paint containers and apoxie containers, and a package of sweet chili thai sauce... it was what was on hand...)
- Patience

Comments

[busyrn]

You did a beautiful job!! Wat size was the font you used?

[dsherlock]

Do you mind if I use one of your photos of your amazing work along with a link to your instructable in a "where to go from here" step at the end of a beginner's Quilling instructable I have been trying to make for about nine months?

[mezcraft]

Go for it!

[dsherlock]

Thanks!

[JaxieCraftie]

I have just stumbled upon this beautiful craft and would like to ask, what would you recommend using to "seal" the completed art? A spray lacquer or a clear acrylic perhaps?

[mistyp]

This is beautiful, thank you very much for posting.

[MicioGatta]

That's great. I've done, more or less 10 years ago, with the same style, a simple (a lot simpler) greating card with flowers, but it was broken after a while. Maybe too little glue. This is very handsome, congratulations!

[mezcraft]

I have no idea about the longevity of this. I just used regular school glue. I guess time will tell!

[heartart]

These are absolutely gorgeous! After I finish all my projects for clients...I'm going to try these!! I love letters for decorating...so this will be so fun. Thank you for such a great I-ible. : )

[susanrm]

Quilling is so pretty. I saw this -ible posted by a friend's friend on her Facebook wall. Congrats!

[aliciacar]

I love your creativity. It's so wonderful you are up there! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!

[Dream Dragon]

Nice project, it's an entirely new one to me. Am I understanding correctly that you just glue the edge of the paper to the base paper, or is there some kind of support structure?

[mezcraft]

No support structure, just glue it down onto the paper. I think ( as this is my first project really with quilling) that you can make shapes with quilling without having a base to glue it onto, as long as you do it on a surface that glue won't adhere to. So basically I mean that if I had made what I did on say a piece of wax paper, and when it was dry I peeled off the wax paper, I think that the C would retain it's shape. The curly cues on the outside maybe not so much but the quilling contained in the letter probably would.

[ebenboy056]

wow, very nice written on the wall,beautiful.i hope the cardboard stock and round toothpick did not cost much,i like it

[mezcraft]

Toothpicks were from the dollar store - so 1$
If I had known from the beginning how little sheets of paper I would have needed I could have gotten away with buying 10 sheets of cardstock by themselves at 30 cents a pop that would bring me to 3.00. However because I thought I would need a lot for some reason I bought packages of assorted colours which cost me $8.00 total. So this was an extremely cheap costing craft. If you already have paper that are coloured all the way through ( not just printed on top so that will give you white edges instead of coloured..) It would be even cheaper, but my paper supply was low. However now I have a bunch of papers that I can do all sorts of stuff with!

[jbissell]

Thanks so much for posting this instructable. I used to quill when I was young, and I think I'm missing it now! Also thanks for the link to Yulia's page, that is truly gorgeous work.

[iOskr]

Excelent work... So creative and beautiful!!! thanks for sharing

[ChrysN]

Gorgeous!

[inquisitive]

Really quite lovely! I have always been fascinated by quilling and tend to doodle a great deal myself-I look forward to trying this out soon-I bet doing a portrait with a blown up photo behind a glass backing for template would be intriguing to play with and see what kind of abstract expression could come from it.
Thank you for the inspiration!

[mezcraft]

If you do that please share, I think that sounds like a great idea, and I would love to see it!

[Penolopy Bulnick]

So beautiful! I've seen this before and thought it must be incredibly difficult! Maybe I'll just have to give it a try!

[ilpug]

Simply amazing!