Quilling, the art of rolling narrow strips of paper into coils or scrolls, is a wonderful way to decorate boxes, tags, and cards. It can also turn a simple craft item into an elegant gift. This project includes Christmas quilling designs and examples of how to combine quilling with handcrafted items. If you are new to quilling or need a reference for quilling shapes, refer to the Basics of Quilling craft project.
Read through the project and gather everything you need. If you plan to cut your own quilling strips, see the Basics of Quilling craft project for tips. All the designs in this project are made with a winder that is about 2 mm in diameter, like a round toothpick. You'll also need a toothpick for applying glue to the wound coils. See the Basics of Quilling craft project for how to wind coils.
Spread out a sheet of waxed paper for your glued coils and quilling designs. Select the design you want to make from the Christmas Quilling Designs below. Make the coils and scrolls listed for the design, using the color and length of colored paper given. Glue the coils and place them aside to dry. See Basics of Quilling for how to form each type of coil and scroll.
After all the coils and scrolls for a design are made, glue them together as pictured below. Or, for a handy printed reference, download and print the project sheet below.
Patterns are Adobe PDF files. The Adobe Reader is available for free.
All of Aunt Annie's project patterns are designed to be printed on standard letter-size paper (8.5"x11" or A4). When printing from Adobe Reader, you may need to select Auto-Rotate and Center or Choose paper source by PDF page size to ensure the best fit.
The Christmas quilling designs can be used to decorate just about any paper craft, or can be used as ornaments with the addition of a hanger. To attach a quilling design to a craft, use white glue that dries clear. Apply the glue lightly to the back of the quilling design, and then press it against the craft surface and hold for a few seconds. To ensure a good hold, weight the design using a pad of paper or a paperback book.
The possibilities for combinations of coils and scrolls are endless. Start with these Christmas-themed designs then come up with your own ideas and designs. Each of the quilling designs below includes an example of it being used as a decorative element on one of Aunt Annie's crafts.
Quilling design: Glue coils together as shown.
Card: Make an elegant greeting card with the quilling Christmas tree. This is a basic matted card using a green card blank (4¼" by 5½") with red (3¾" by 5") and white (3½" by 4¾") mats. See the Matted Clip-art and Photo Cards tutorial for more details on making matted cards.
Complete the card with a rubber-stamped MERRY CHRISTMAS in red under a yellow strip of paper.
Quilling design: Glue coils together as shown, and glue the V-scroll to the top as a hanger.
Card: Decorate a gift enclosure card or gift tag with the Christmas bell quilling design. Make a simple matted gift card from a 2" by 4" piece of green cardstock (folded in half) and square red (1 5/8") and white (1½") mats. Or, follow the instructions in the Miniature Frame Gift Tags craft project for making a gift tag with decorative paper.
Quilling design: Glue coils together as shown and arrange the two green parts on either side of the red S-scroll.
Gift Box: Create an elegant gift box by decorating the box lid with this red and green quilling decoration. This box was made using the Green Christmas Box pattern in the Rectangular Box craft project. Check out the Boxes and Bags Index for other box crafts with printable patterns.
That's it! What will you decorate with quilling?
Tip: The Christmas tree quilling design makes a nice decoration for Christmas Tree Shaped Boxes.
Tip: Add quilling decorations to greeting cards. See details in Fall and Winter Quilling Cards or check out the Snowflake Project Sheet for how to make snowflake quills.
Related craft: See the Basics of Quilling craft project for more quilling designs, including some especially for children!
Box Patterns
Tip: Perfect for quilling! Print the Christmas box patterns, in seasonal red or green, from the Rectangular Box craft project. The patterns come in two options—plain white or polka-dot box bottoms.
