Peaches McGee: Quill It Never End

I chose the ‘Scroll and Heart Gift Cards’ project because let’s face it – I’m not exactly raking in the bucks doing this blog. In fact, without my dad’s gift cards to Jo-Ann’s (which I’ve used almost all of (and too bad he doesn’t read this because I could REALLY use some more)), I’d be up a creek because it’s expensive doing all of these craft projects. Yes, it looked intricate, but in Martha’s words, “Don’t let the elaborate effects fool you: The art of quilling is easy to master.” Plus, ‘quilling’… It sounds so nice – it rolls so nicely off the tongue. That’s where the niceness ends, because

Takes

Forever!

Yep. Try Googling “quilling” and you might stumble upon a site that has the following disclaimer:

I’m sorry, what does the first sentence say after the headline??

End product? Not bad.

Would I do it again? Meh. I’d like to try it using different patterns until I make a final judgment.

But perhaps I’m a tad bitter because yet again, I read the instructions probably too far in advance. For some reason I thought that the instructions said that you should use construction paper. Nope. It clearly states that you should NOT use construction paper. Oops.

The instructions (when read the day of the project) are so-so in the book, but they’re much better online (see link above; it’s not the exact same project, but it will give you a good idea). How she could have improved it? Put a disclaimer lady. Let the people know that it takes a long time and to set aside at least an hour (or two if you’re watching the Real Housewives of Orange County).

Martha lets you know that you can pay EXTRA for specialty quilling paper, or, you can choose not to be lazy and make the quilling strips yourself by just using a paper cutter and a ruler. Yes, it takes more time, and yes I’ll admit that if I had a lot of money, I would DEFINITELY shell out the extra dough, but I don’t, so I didn’t.

You then use a quilling tool – lucky for us, they’re not too expensive (less than $5 at Jo-Ann’s). You place the paper strip in the slot on the tool and then turn it loosely, or tightly, depending on the shape you desire. You use a dot of glue at the end to secure it and then use glue on the bottom to adhere it to the paper.

For the ‘fern’ that I made, the instructions called for 15 small tight circles that you squeeze into ovals to form the ‘leaves.” Then you make a loose scroll at the end of a strip, and finally, 4 open loose circles in the corners.

Here it is… like I said before, not great, but not bad. At a later date, I’ll attempt the “Scroll Bugs” that she has in her book. But for now, I’ll just take a little rest from quilling…