Paper Quilling for Beginners: Coil Your First Christmas Card

Roll It, Let Go, Watch It Spring

Wind a narrow strip of paper around a thin metal tool, let go, and it relaxes into a spiral you can pinch into a teardrop, an eye or a tiny diamond. Glue a few dozen of those shapes together and you've got a snowflake that looks far fussier than it was to make. The craft goes back centuries. Nuns in France and Italy once wrapped the gilded edges of old holy books around goose quills to decorate reliquaries, which is where the name comes from. By Jane Austen's time it was a parlor pastime, and in Sense and Sensibility Lucy Steele is busy rolling papers for a filigree basket.

If you've tried folding origami from a single square, quilling works the other way round. Nothing gets folded into shape. You build the design from lots of separate coils and glue each one down. It isn't card making either, though the two go together: quilling is one way to decorate a card, and a snowflake glued to a folded blank is where most people start. A Christmas card is honestly the ideal first project. It's small, and nobody expects perfection from something handmade.

Keep the first kit tiny. Narrow strips, a slotted tool, a circle sizer and a glue bottle with a fine tip will fill your first card, and everything else can wait until you know you're hooked.

Nothing below costs more than a takeout dinner, so if quilling isn't for you, you're only left with a drawer of pretty paper.

Four Little Things That Make Every Coil

It's tempting to grab the biggest boxed kit with a dozen gadgets. Don't. The strips matter more than the tool count, because real quilling paper is a touch heavier and softer than printer paper and it's cut with the grain, so it rolls smooth instead of kinking. Stick with the 1/8 inch (3 mm) width that most patterns are written for. If you marble your own paper, a swirly sheet makes a gorgeous card front behind a plain white snowflake.

For When the Snowflakes Get Ambitious

None of this is needed for a first card. Once you start working from printed patterns, though, you'll want somewhere to pin pieces while the glue sets, or the six arms drift out of line. Lay the pattern on cork, cover it with wax paper or cling wrap so nothing sticks, and pin each coil down as you go. Husking is the other thing you'll want to try. You wrap one long strip back and forth around a row of pins, and it feels oddly like weaving.

Shrinking Coils, Wandering Arms and Other Snowflake Surprises

Why does my coil stay tiny and tight when I slide it off the tool?

You're almost certainly rolling too tight. Most beginners grip hard because the strip feels like it'll slip, so the coil has no room to relax once you let go. The result is a dense little button instead of an open spiral you can pinch into a shape. Keep the tension gentle and even, then let the coil loosen before you glue the end.

Why do my coils come out different sizes when the strips are all the same length?

Because strip length isn't really a standard. The same three-inch strip makes a slightly different coil for every person, and even for you on different days, depending on how tightly you roll. That's why a pattern's coils won't always match yours. Let every coil for one design relax in the same hole of your circle sizer and they'll come out the same diameter.

How much glue should I actually use?

Far less than you'd think. A normal bead of craft glue is too much for a strip end that's only 3 mm wide, and the extra ends up on your fingers and then on the next coil. Squeeze a small dab onto a plastic lid and pick up a speck with a pin, or use a fine-tip bottle. Keep a damp cloth nearby so your fingertips stay clean.

Can I fix a snowflake arm I glued in the wrong place?

Usually, yes, even after it's dried overnight. People tend to scrap the whole piece, but you can very gently pull the coils apart instead. Rub the torn sides with a barely damp cloth to smooth the rough edges, then glue the coil back where it belongs. The mistake rarely shows.

Will a quilled card survive the mail?

Not in a plain envelope, and a bubble mailer on its own isn't enough either, because the card can still bend and crush the coils. Sandwich the card between two sheets of cardboard before it goes in the envelope, or send it in a shallow box lined with bubble wrap. It's a bit of extra effort, but it's better than a flattened snowflake.