Simple but Elegant Paper Quilled Christmas Ornament

Welcome to the 2017 Ornament Exchange & Blog Hop! This year, there are 47 amazing bloggers participating in the exchange. The rules of the challenge were simple: be partnered with a fellow blogger, create a handmade ornament for $15 or under, create a tutorial, and ship the ornament off to a new home! Being a longtime fan of paper quilling, I decided to put together a simple but elegant paper quilled ornament for my partner. The design is my own and I had a wonderful time coming up with it. 

I’ve been paired up with Molly of Just a Little Creativity.  Molly and I were well-suited to be partners as we have similar tastes. She likes vintage, shabby chic items in traditional Christmas colours or in teal, pink, gold, or white. I think that the delicate filigree patterns of paper quilling lend themselves well to a vintage, shabby chic look and I hope that she enjoys it! 

Meet the 2017 Ornament Exchange Hosts

Erlene ⋅ My Pinterventures Kim · Made In A Day Pili ⋅ My Sweet Things

Amanda · The Kolb Corner Shirley · Intelligent Domesticatons

Michelle · Our Crafty Mom Beverly · Across the Blvd. Cindy ⋅ DIY Beautify

Christene · Key to Inspiration Nicki · Sweet Parrish Place Katrin ⋅ Kreativ K

Megan · C’mon Get Crafty Hilary · Raising Fairies and Knights

Emily · Two Purple Couches Tina · One Crafty Mess Marie · The Inspiration Vault

Debra · Shoppe No. 5 Trisha · Rosewood and Grace Jeanie · Create and Babble

Terri · Christmas Tree Lane Maureen · Red Cottage Chronicles Toni ⋅ Small Home Soul

Ula ⋅ Lulu & Celeste Sue ⋅ A Purdy Little House Pamela · Home On The Corner

Lorelai ⋅ Life with Lorelai Debbie ⋅ Tweak and Style Stephanie ⋅ Swoodson Says

Chelc ⋅ Inside the Fox Den Susan ⋅ Super Mom – No Cape! Molly ⋅ Just a Little Creativity

Roseann ⋅ This Autoimmune Life Angela ⋅ Simply Beautiful by Angela

Vicki and Jenn ⋅ 2 Bees in a Pod Joanne ⋅ Our Unschooling Journey

Tylynn ⋅ Bitterroot DIY Sam ⋅ Raggedy Bits Mary ⋅ The Boondocks Blog

Cyn ⋅ Creative Cynchronicity Dione ⋅ Clever Chameleon Quilting Erica ⋅ Erica Ever After

Chelsea ⋅ Love Paper Crafts Evija ⋅ From Evija with Love Anne ⋅ Orange Bettie

Samantha ⋅ Little Bits of Home Hope ⋅ Hopes Crafty Niche Pam · P.S. I Love You Crafts

To make your own paper quilled Christmas ornament, you’ll need:

• quilling paper, 1/8 inch wide. I used 5 – 18 inch strips of gold, 4 – 12 inch strips of pink, and 2 – 12 inch strips of burgundy.
• scissors – I like to use small scissors and for some sections, I like to have a pair of manicure scissors on hand. 
• white glue – my favourite is Aleene’s Tacky Glue. 
• a slotted quilling tool – some people simply quill around a needle or something similar but with my arthritic hands, I need a handle. I also find that the slot helps hold the paper in place and there’s less slipping. This makes for a more precise coil. 
• a quilling ruler – this not only has measurements on it like a typical ruler, but it also has circles that allow you to make consistently shaped and sized coils for your design
• a quilling board and some straight pins – not a necessity but really hand for assembling your shapes and holding them together while the glue dries
• a quilling glue spot or waxed paper – you want something you can place your shapes on to glue them that won’t then tug on the paper (and perhaps rip it) or stick to the shapes when you pull them away. Waxed paper is very handy because it’s translucent. You can place a pattern under it and you will be able to see it through the paper to form your quilled art. 
• toothpicks – I use these to apply the glue. Too much glue can make things look gloppy and messy. This allows me to be more precise.
• clear fishing line – to hang the ornament with

Paper Quilling Christmas Ornament Tutorial Instructions:

This pattern is made up of 3 simple shapes. To copy mine exactly, you will need 7 gold marquise, 7 burgundy coils, 13 pink hearts, and 13 gold hearts. 

I begin by tearing the pieces of quilling paper into the required lengths. Tearing is desirable because the little fibers of paper it leaves behind on the torn edges helps the glue to hold better. If you aren’t comfortable with this, you can certainly use the scissors instead. You just may need to hold the shapes a bit longer to ensure that the glue is secure.

For this project, I used:

• Gold – 7 pieces – 3 inches long and 13 pieces – 3.5 inches long
• Burgundy – 7 pieces – 3 inches long
• Pink – 13 pieces – 3.5 inches long each

Next step is to create the basic shapes:

Marquise shape –

The marquise is also known as the eye shape. Begin by making 7 gold coils. Make the coils by inserting one end of the paper strip into the slot of the tool. I twirl the tool with my right hand while the finger and thumb of my left hand keeps the paper coiling against the tool. My coils were each approximately 1/2 inch in diameter. This is where the ruler can come in handy. It has circles in it of various sizes. Make your coil and place it in the appropriate circle. This helps assure consistency of the coils.

While the coils are still in place in the ruler, I use a tiny dab of glue applied with a toothpick to secure them. Let them dry well. Remove a coil from ruler and give it a pinch. I always pinch right where the coil has been glued. I just find that it really helps to secure that connection. Your coil should now look like a teardrop. Pinch again opposite where you made the first pinch to create the marquise or eye shape. Repeat 6 times.

You can now glue the 7 marquise shapes together as shown in the photo above or save all of the assembly for the end. I like to do it at this point because while it dries, I can be working on the next set of shapes. 

Coil shape –

This is just as simple as it sounds. You need 7 burgundy coils. My coils were roughly 1/4 inch in diameter. Once the glue is dry (it doesn’t take long), you can add the coils to your ornament base. Glue one coil in between each pair of marquise shapes.

Heart shapes – 

To make the heart shapes, begin by folding each pink strip in half. The fold forms the point of the heart. Coil in from one end of the paper strip towards the fold about halfway. Then coil in from the other end of the paper strip towards the fold about halfway. This is the trickier of the shapes simply because you are trying to get the coils even with each other so you don’t end up with a lopsided heart.

This is one of the quilling shapes where glue is not generally used. You can add a dab where the coils meet if you feel it’s necessary but I wouldn’t do this until your ornament is completed. As you can see in the photo above, mine wouldn’t have fit appropriately into the ornament if I had glued them. Glue each heart to one side of each coil as shown above.

Now, make another batch of heart shapes using the gold strips. Each gold heart gets glued to a pink heart – “bumps” of the hearts together as shown in the photo.

And that’s it! Add a hanger for the ornament – I like clear fishing line so it doesn’t really show – and display on your tree. Pretty, delicate, and old-fashioned. I sure hope that Molly likes it! 

FIND ALL 47 HANDMADE ORNAMENT TUTORIALS BELOW AND SHARE YOURS TOO! Use Hashtag #2017OrnamentExchange so we can see your creations on social media.