Quilled Snowflake

Technique Used: Quilling

Materials:
white quilling paper strips
quilling tool
pva glue
adhesive spray
fine glitter

Tools:
quilling tool

From the strips, cut the following:
one 6-inch-long strip (center round);
eight 3-inch-long strips (arms);
four 6-inch-long strips (scrolls);
four 3-inch-long strips (teardrops);
four 2-inch-long strips (marquise shapes)

For the centre round: Using a quilling tool, begin rolling a 6-inch strip from one end. Roll strip into a tight circle. Finished center round should be 1/2 inch wide. Use a dot of glue to secure end; let glue set.

For arms: Roll one end of a 3-inch strip around quilling tool twice. At opposite end, roll strip around tool until finished arm is 1 inch long, with a small scroll at one end and a larger scroll at the other. Make eight of these. Glue arms together in pairs so that the they are mirror images of each other and allow a few minutes to dry. Glue the large scrolls of the arms in place around the center circle.

For scrolls: Fold a 6-inch strip in half. Roll each end to the center so that it resembles a heart shape. Make four of these. Glue the bottoms of scrolls to bottoms of arms near the center round, awhat you are doing here is lining up the middle section where you creased with the large scrolls of the arms. Let glue set. Gently extend the heart shaped scrolls open and ahere these to the arm sides of scrolls to arms.

For teardrops: Using a 3-inch strip, make a 1/2-inch round. The length of paper used here is pretty short, and when allowed to unwind naturally it will be much smaller than 1/2 inch. What i did here was to wind up a tight coil from the strip, then open it up fully and rewind it loosely by hand. Place the loose coil into the 1/2" circle on the quilling board and glue end down. Allow a few minutes to set, then recoil the centre with the quilling tool. Pinch one side into a point. Make four.

Glue the teardrops between rolled ends of scrolls.

For marquise shapes: Using a 2-inch strip, make a 1/4-inch round. Pinch opposite sides into points. I used the same technique here as previous for the 3" strips. Coil, unwind to relax the paper, recoil loosely with your fingers and then place in the quilling board to set into the correct size.

This is the working sketch I used to help with the placement of the pieces.

Let ornament dry overnight. Spray one side of ornament with adhesive and sprinkle with glitter; let dry. Turn over ornament and repeat on opposite side.

Whilst making this ornament I reminded myself that the only woman capable of creating a perfect snowflake was Mother Nature!