Quilled Rose

Ah !! The classic, beautiful rose. When anyone would ask me when I was a kid what my favorite flower was, I’d always say rose. I don’t know why, exactly. Perhaps because my favorite color was red, and the classic rose was red. Anyway, I still love roses! Thankfully it’s fairly simple to re-create my favorite flower with a strip of paper, a quilling tool, and some glue. And today I’m going to share a tutorial showing how I make them !

One thing you can do with your roses is turn them into gorgeous earrings!

To make a rose you need a strip of paper, a slotted quilling tool, and glue. The wider your paper is the larger your rose will be. For this example (and for the roses in the earrings shown above) I am using paper that is 3/8″ wide (9mm). I use a strip that is 6″ long. I can do up to 12″ long with this width of paper. With paper that is more narrow you will use a shorter length.

Start by inserting your strip of paper into your slotted quilling tool and roll it just a bit.

Fold the strip of paper backwards at a 90 degree angle, pressing the fold firmly. Continue rolling the paper, but at an angle so that it flares on the top and the bottom corner of the folded triangle portion stays touching the quilling tool.

When you have rolled so that the folded triangle portion cannot be seen anymore it is time to fold your strip backwards again. Continue rolling.

Continue folding your paper and rolling, making sure the top flares out while the bottom always stays close to the quilling tool. When you have finished, take it off of the tool. It will unfold a bit as shown in the middle photo above. That is fine. Now it’s time to glue together your rose! Put a drop of glue on the bottom tab of the rose.

Put more dabs all the way up the rose. Then gently push the layers back together into a rose shape. The third photo above shows me turning the layers counter-clockwise to get it to look the best. Play around with it, adjusting it so that not all the corners are on top of each other.

Once you have the rose looking how you want it, add a bit more glue to the top layers. For this size rose I can just use this fine tip glue bottle. For a tiny rose using more narrow paper I add an extra fine metal tip to my glue bottle to get the glue into the tiny crevices. The finished glued rose is shown in the center photo above. Don’t worry if it seems like a lot of glue, it will soak into the crevices. The last photo shows the same rose when it has dried. It’s ready to be used in a variety of craft/art projects!

Some things you can use your paper quilled roses for:

1. Earrings
2. Gift tags
3. Greeting cards
4. Name place cards
5. Notebooks
6. Magnet
7. Wedding table decorations
8. Anything that needs a little decorating!

The Daisy Flower Earrings:

Here is how you could make petal structures using a regular comb (no I haven’t used the quilling comb).

Made these simple pair of daisy earrings – the petals as you can see have tiny loops in them giving the petals an intricately designed appearance.

How To:

Step 1:

Start with a strip of quilling paper and a comb.

Step 2:

Make a loop at one end of the strip using the quilling needle. Use a little glue to secure the loop.

Step 3:

Remove the strip from the needle and insert it in the comb.

Step 4:

Start by wrapping the quilling strip on the closest tooth of the comb.

Step 5:

As you can see, the strip is taken down the prong/tooth of the comb and brought to the front.

Step 6:

As you keep wrapping, apply a little glue at the center (bottom) so that the strips are in place. You may not need to apply the glue once you are comfortable in handling the strips.

Step 7:

My petal is going to be a small one, so I made 4 wraps on each side of the central loop.

This is the side view of the wraps to give you an idea of how the structure is at this point.

Step 8:

Now slowly slide the strip out of the comb.

Step 9:

Bring the two ends of the structure together as shown.

I did not like this image…my chipped off nail colour is so clear in this  !!!

Step 10:

Now quill the remaining part of the strip around this structure and use glue to secure the quilled design.

Five such petals have been made and glued together.

A tight coil is quilled for the centre of the daisy and glued on top. One more flower is made using the same steps as outlined above.

Jump rings and earring hooks are then inserted to finish the earring. A clear coat of sealant is applied to protect the earrings.

Chain Earrings

Chain Earrings from Paper Quilled Beads 

Another free tutorial for making paper quilled earrings! This is a very basic design idea, but has such fabulous and elegant results! Depending on the colors, size, and other variations you choose you can use these earrings with your casual, office, or even evening wear!

First of all, when making paper chain earrings the technique I use is to make open circles. This means that I roll the paper around something wide, not around the tip of a quilling tool as usual. For my usual beads, I use the end of my aluminium quilling tool.

For most of my paper beads I use quilling paper that is 1/8″ (3mm) wide. You can use quilling paper that is specially cut, or you can cut your own. You can use any width of paper that you prefer. If you use wider paper you will need to use larger jump rings.

Here is the basic technique for making the paper beads:

Take your strip of paper and wrap the end around the end of your aluminium tool (or any other object you are using instead. The diameter of the end of my tool is 3/16″ or 4.5mm). Place a tiny tab of glue at the end of your paper.



Hold the end with the dab of glue and make sure it tucks under the strip as you start rolling. Roll the strip of paper around the tool.



Once you come to the end of the strip place another dab of glue at the end and glue it tightly. Carefully twist the bead off of the tool without squishing it.



So, those are the basic instructions on how to make the paper beads! For my chain earrings I use this tool and a strip of paper that is 6 inches long. I like using quilling paper from Lake City Crafts because it is 24″ long. Therefore I just have to rip/cut each strip into four pieces and I can make four beads! Most of the papers that I sell on Honey’s Quilling (and I can also sell them on etsy as a custom order if anyone is interested) are from Lake City Crafts since they are the paper that I use the most and I love the 24″ length. I also now use Paplin papers in addition since they come in some different colours and are almost the same length. But any brand of paper will work, or you can cut your own!

The next step is to add sealant to your beads so that they are more sturdy and they are water resistant. This is not necessary if you are just making the earrings for yourself and you don’t mind re-making them once in awhile if something happens to them. But if you’d like them to be long lasting, definitely add a sealant to them. You can use any sealant or top coat you find in a craft store. I have tried a few brands and all seem to work well. For these beads I usually use a more liquid sealant and I dip the beads, let them sit in the sealant for a few seconds, dab them on a tissue, and set them on a plastic surface to dry completely. Depending on the sealant I use I may just need one coat or I may need to use several coats.

When your beads are dry and sealed, it’s time to put them together! I find that for paper that is 1/8″ in width that I use for these beads I use jump rings that are 6mm. You can also use 7mm. I find that 5mm is just a little too squishy for this size. But if you use narrow width paper you can get away with using 5mm jump rings. You could even make these beads with 1/4″ wide paper if you use big enough jump rings! That would be a pretty cool look!

Here are some photos of earrings that I have made with the basic paper bead made with 6″ long paper on the end of the aluminium tool. I like the rainbow ones because they are so fun and fresh, a perfect look for summer! But my very favourite are the ones made from the metallic papers. They really don’t look like they are made from paper! The longer ones that I made and looped around are very elegant looking.



There are also many other variations you can do on this paper chain design! One of my favourite variations is to do a bright colour regular bead, and then put a layer of metallic paper or silver trim paper just on the outside edge. What you do is make the bead as above. After taking it off of the tool, glue the end of a piece of metallic/trim paper onto the bead. Wrap it around just once and cut it the right length. Glue the end in place. Here are some examples:



Yet another variation is to make a different sized bead. I like the look of these larger beads for a fun change!



For these I use a different tool instead of the end of my aluminum quilling tool. I use the end of a pen that I have that has a nice smooth barrel. You can use any object really, just experiment! For a larger object you will need a longer piece of paper. Try 9″ or 12″ and see what you like. The longer the paper is the thicker and stronger the bead will be. Of course if they are much thicker you will need a bigger jump ring size, so just experiment and find a combo that works well for the materials you have on hand.

Angry Bird - Pendent n Earrings

Paper Quilled Angry Bird - Chain n Earrings 

It’s a free tutorial here were I have posted many of my designs. l start with this adorable simple Angry Bird pendant. It can also be used as earrings, a magnet, to adorn a greeting card, or anything else you can think of!

• For the eyes, glue together a black, ivory, and deep aqua strip.  Allow it to dry. Start rolling from the black end, and glue into a tight roll.  Repeat for the other eye.  For the nose, roll the 1 ½” deep aqua piece.  Let it expand into a loose roll.  Glue it closed to the size that you want, and pinch into a triangle shape.  Here are all of the finished pieces:

• To assemble, pour a little glue onto a surface and dip your eyes and nose pieces into the glue.  I like to use tweezers for this as the pieces are quite small.  Place the eyes and nose onto the base, and adjust as necessary.

• If you would like your design to be water resistant, now is the time to add the sealant! 

These can, of course, be made in any colour combination you choose!  Make them realistic colors, or make them colourful and fun as I have done here.  Use longer strips of paper to make bigger ones, and shorter strips of paper to make smaller ones.  These are approximately 3/4″ (2cm) wide (at the widest point in the body) and 1″ (2.5cm) tall not including the jump ring.

Earring Models

How to make Quilled Paper Earrings:

Step 1:

Make moderately loose quilled coils. You will need six such coils for one pair – three pieces per earring.

Step 2:

Take three pieces and glue them together after shaping them as shown.

Step 3:

A frame is quilled around the structure made in step 3.

Step 4:

A jump ring is inserted in the bottom and a pearl is slid in.

Step 5:

A small loop is quilled and attached using glue at the top.

Step 6:

Jump ring and earring hook is inserted in the loop.

Repeat steps 2 to 6 for the other earring.