Folding Trees

Here’s a great idea to quill a stylized Christmas Tree, perfect for cards and decorations, courtesy of Ann at All Things Paper.

Today we have a very interesting tutorial for you, by Elizabeth Moad. Paper plaiting or weaving is a traditional technique with a lot of potential for making modern decorations and accessories, as well as Elizabeth’s traditional wheat sheaf designs.

Elizabeth says:

In the olden days it was the custom for a country lad to take an evening walk with his lass in the fields at harvest time. The lad would weave and plait straw to make a buttonhole. If the couple were courting, the lass would wear it over her heart as a token of her love. With this in mind, and by adapting techniques used by straw weavers and corn dolly makers, wonderful harvest designs can be made, but entirely from paper. Combined with quilled wheat ears they can make wonderful and unique cards and gifts.

Find out how to make this project with our tutorial:
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Quilling really does have more application than just making flowers to decorate cards etc (not that there’s anything wrong with that), as shown by our Folding Trees friend Ann Martin’s stunning replica ring of antique keys – these are all made from paper!

We’re delighted to present a quilling tutorial today contributed by Ann Martin. (If you would like to write for Folding Trees, see our Submissions page for details.)

Discover the art of paper filigree and make an elegant gold-gilded seashell or starfish pendant:

Find out how to make these projects with our tutorial:
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We hope you all had a lovely break over Christmas and New Year. There are lots of things happening this year and yes we will reveal some of these very shortly so stay tuned.

We are very interested to see if you have any (paper-related) New Year’s resolutions? Are you going to try some new techniques? Or is there a particular tutorial you really want to try out? Please leave a comment – we would love to know what you are working on!

We’ll leave you with some quilled inspiration by Yulia Brodskaya, absolutely gorgeous! [via: Craft]

If you’ve ever considered having a go at quilling, this would be a great project to try. Reese Dixon’s very clear tutorial breaks down the construction of this impressive quilled snowflake ornament into very simple steps that anyone can follow!

Here are some pretty quilling pictures by Flickr user: southerdraw77.

If you have never tried quilling before, have a look in the sidebar for some links to quilling techniques.

This post is a part of Flower Week on Folding Trees. Every weekday, I will be showcasing different types of paper flowers. You may be surprised at the variety of flowers you can make using different paper craft techniques! If you know of any amazing flower tutorials I should include in my round-up, let me know!

For the finale of Flower Week, I’m going to take a look at different types of paper roses. I covered origami earlier in the week, so here are some different ways to make a rose out of paper…

Quilt This and Scrapbook That! has a tutorial to make these pretty paper roses, with each petal cut out and glued individually. I’m guessing you could easily use recycled paper cut from magazine pages to give them a different look:

Absolutely gorgeous coffee filter roses, courtesy of Martha Stewart:

Quilled paper rose tutorial as seen in Crafts Beautiful magazine on YouTube:

And I’ll finish this week of paper flowers the way I started, with a tissue paper flower. This elegant rose is by The Artful Crafter:

I hope you’ve enjoyed the first Folding Trees theme week. If you make anything based on the projects I’ve highlighted, we’d love to see them in our Flickr group. And if you have any suggestions for the next theme week, please let us know!

Martha Stewart has written a tutorial on how to make these paper tops a great little project to make with the kids.

Pop over to Etsy seller Dazzling Delight to see (and buy) her adorable quilled bride and groom.