Making Paper Quilled Chritmas Cards

    Here we go back in the game. I know I have been slacking with the crafts lately, but I have a couple involving paper I would like to post up here. The first one is paper quilling. Something I actually got shown very recently (so please excuse my 'wet behind the ears' projects). But I thought I would share a really cute way to make some cards for Christmas. It's not too late people. You can have your kids help you with this project very easily. Once they get the hang of it, they could be sending masterpieces out next year.
   You will need some glue (or glue stick or any craft glue really), strips of paper in all different colors, and your card base. Now I didn't take pictures throughout the process because these were pretty simple. I used a full paper slicer and cut my cards from cardstock first. Then I cut all the strips and got myself quite a few colors laid out. Then I started thinking of what I wanted for the designs. I wanted to keep it simple but stylish. I also had a paper hole punch that I used to embellish the cards a bit more..you can do what you wish, glitter, beads etc.
   I then, on a separate paper, drew out the different designs so I had something to keep looking at. Then you roll the strips of paper into small designs with a pencil or... what I used was a size 6 crocheting hook lol It gave me the tight circling I wanted. For more loose circles or just curves, I would use something bigger. I had a glue stick on hand, so I used that. I glued the edge of the strips to the paper after they were curled.
   Once the curved pieces were in place, I added the small dots cut from the hole puncher on the cards for a cute looking snow. There are many sites out there that show paper quilled projects or sell items. You can buy the strips already cut and with designs. I obviously am for hand making :)

   My kids loved getting in on the action. In fact, here is my middle son's ('Spaz') creation. See the star at the top and the moon. He wrote Merry Christmas in the red. Not bad for a non-artistic 5 year old huh? I loved it.

      Here are some creations others have made using the technique of paper quilling. Aren't they beautiful?

I just wanted to close with something I thought was really cute. My youngest 'Lil Riot' was very proud that he made a circle out of the dogs food....as you can maybe see from the picture lol. I just thought that was too funny not to share:)