Christmas Projects

Christmas quilling! Tree ornaments and Santa Claus. Fun seasonal projects that seem new each year when I unpack Christmas decorations. My Angels and stars and snowflakes have their own pages.

Most of the small photos below link to larger ones, just click the photos.

Christmas 2020	Elves!! More elves were made for grandchildren and assorted gifts. These are similar to the one I made in 2018 (below) from Patrick Krämer's book but as hanging tree ornaments and I figured out how to make them a little more stable so they also can stand up, too.  The hanger goes through the hat and is secured inside it with a big bead.
Florida elves:	Colorado elves:	the feet have cardstock bottoms:
For my tree	two elves for special people:	This is how they look under the bodies. A tight roll is inserted in the body for the feet to be glued to.
	front and back of another quilled ornament for the Christmas tree
Christmas 2019	silver edged paper	ornament with fringed center
	Poinsettias make good pins, necklaces, and tree ornaments. The one to the right is a brooch. You can see what I do for a secure pin back on my jewelry page.  Both are almost three inches across. I like to recycled jewelry boxes for storing my ornaments, which is what you see in the photo.
A star inside a hoop ornament.	The star revolves independently from the ring.	5 layers make up the star.
	This ornament idea is from a popular Facebook posting. The original was by Jeanette Barber, using a base cut out from cardstock on a Cricut. I had mine laser cut from balsa wood and painted them white. There is a plain strip of white 1/8" quilling paper sandwiched between 2 crimped strips. I did not have the patience to do both sides as does Jeanette.
3d snowman with her fancy cap and shoelaces.	She sits with several "friends" on the window ledge or...	...she can hang on the tree by adding a loop through the hat.
Footnote to my elfman. If you look closely, you can see the clear plastic base he stands on. I try to get my 3d "people" to stand on their own. This one, and the snowman, are not stable enough to stand on the textured window ledge.		Since I got tired of standing them up, I glued a thin piece of plastic to them. It has a tiny bit more surface area yet isn't too noticable.
	For my friend, Daggi. It is an ornament for their BV Borussia 09 e.V. Dortmund football team in Dortmund, Germany.
My first cross.	It looks nice on my brother's Christmas tree.	And one for me with a silver edge.
Another cross. So many variations are possible.	Lacy and airy looking from straight on.	This photo shows the back. If you don't like your center point, add a narrow strip quill over it.
Below are 6 of the Harlequin Christmas ornaments I made.  They were designed by Karen-Marie Klips. I bought the kit consisting of 5mm wide strips and the instructions.	These were all made before the plastic form was developed. Each shape was formed with pins and a grid.	The most challenging part of this project was to get the diamonds to fit, touch, be even, and not be squished weirdly.
I used some of the strips to make two more ornaments.
Christmas 2018
Santa brought me a new quilling book for Christmas. The book is Quilling für die Weihnachtszeit by Patrick Krämer. It is in German, has full sized patterns included and about 15 projects. A very good book! Here is the first elf I made:
Christmas Bauble Project	Quilled Christmas gifts to family and friends this year were mainly these little ornaments. Ann Martin posted a tutorial on her blog, "All Things Paper", in December 2013. Link: https://www.allthingspaper.net/2013/12/rolled-paper-christmas-ornament-tutorial.html I loved this project and made dozens of them. I put together sets for the gifts. No two are alike!	After a few baubles I decided to try to make them rattle. My first one with a few beads inside did indeed rattle but I discovered the beads could get stuck in the pointy bottom. I solved this by gluing a round piece of cardstock on the interior.
The ornaments to the right were made using a comb. You can buy special quilling combs or use a normal hair comb. I folded the resulting quill "backwards" from the way these quills are normally used. Click on the photos to see how interesting this is.
	This ornament may look like a snowflake at first glance but it only has 5 spokes. Not a snowflake. I used a 5 spoke polar grid to get my spokes equidistant. It makes it much easier using a grid. The yellow paper has a gold edging on it. It just looks darker in photos but does shine in the proper light.
	This is a commercial painted glass ornament. I added the 2 colors of paper quills. I used my normal Elmer's glue. I will give it a quick spray of sealant as it is a gift and I would not want any to fall off. Just a precaution.
I made four of angel ornaments. I purchased two sizes of laser cut wood ornament rings from Dimension Laser.com. I painted all my rings with a soft antique gold paint before adding the quilling. The first ones are Karen-Marie style angels. The simple loopy greenery is an idea by Anita Wöller. I added little berries, both tight rolls and tiny punched circles to embellish the greenery.		Most of the quilling strips are just the normal 1/8" wide strips. All the halos and the golden angel below were made with gilt edged strips. I cut the strip for the halos lengthwise to make it narrower.
The ornament just below was inspired by Monika Schwarz.	She used comb quilled leaves of green with white. I glued the two strips together before forming the leaves. She added a wreath to the top where I put little 3-d bells with clappers.	My bells are of gilded paper but that did not come through in the photos. I also added greens and berries to the back of the hoop, both for balance and interest.
front	back	close-up and side view
	To the left is another hoop ornament. I filled the space with two sizes of eccentric tear drops, tiny tight rolls I rolled on a corsage pin, and beehive quills. Three little rhinestones add a bit of sparkle.
Christmas 2017	From an vintage quilling kit sold by Artistry in WOOD, Columbia, Illinois. It was complete with instructions, jewels, paper, and center post. The paper had yellowed so I used my own red strips.	This is the Shooting Star. "Out of the World ORNAMENTS. Heavenly bodies to orbit your tree....." Worst part of this ornament is trying to store it undamaged!
Spritz Christmas cookies! Quilled! These are so cute. The idea is from Lorrie Timberlake. Her's are actually smaller than mine turned out. They are adorable on the tree. Make a baker's dozen! Sweet!
This project was inspired by Julie Webb. Many other quillers have used the 3-D bell shape including Ze A-Quilling Dreams, Neli, Artmonica-handmade, IS Z, and Gaylaine Boivin but Julie's bells on top of Marquise quills caught my eye and I adapted her design into my 3 ornaments.	One for my Christmas tree, two for gifts.	My version includes the bell clappers, berries. a hanging loop, finished reverse side, a 3-loop bow, and is narrower. But still it is Julie's design. Thank you, Julie!
Christmas 2016
I rather got stuck on snowflakes and stars this year but I did make a gift for my friend, Daggi. She sent me the 2 little clothespin ornaments last year. Next year she will get back my quilled version.
	A quilled Christmas tree ornament, front and back.
	This is a small wood Christmas tree-shaped ornament, maybe 5 inches tall at most. It came just full of the holes for the ornaments, presents and garlands. I decided to use scraps of quilling paper to fill in the holes. It has 4 sides. It took awhile! Especially as I filled in all the very tiny holes which comprised the garlands. That was crazy. And it did not look good. My friend, Gail, suggested spirals. Perfect. I cut strips in half lengthwise and rolled them on my needle tool. I glued them on top of the filled-in holes. I had glued in all those 1/2" tiny tight rolls. Worked fine and the tree looks so much better.
Christmas 2015
I found a cute set of tree ornaments designed by Erin Curet (littlecircles.net). There is a tutorial link on her web site. The actual tutorial is on Craftsy. A couple of warnings... It took me far longer than Erin's hour estimate. Experts always work quicker! The other caution I have is to not go by her numbers of strips needed if you are not using her paper. I had a large number of leftover greens from different manufacturers. This caused me no end of problems as I tried to make the trees until I quit trying to use her strip numbers. I used my actual circle sizes. I love the way they came out. I even made a second set to give away. I also made a tree from crimped paper at Bob's suggestion. After the first couple of top-most layers, I began each circle with un-crimped paper, finishing the outer edges, the part that would show, with the crimped paper. It was far more stable.
		Another caution... Don't dome the circles too much or your trunk will not show when the tree is hanging. I did not want to add another piece of trunk as it then looked way too long. I actually made my trunks a bit differently from Erin's instructions. I have a plug in the top of the trunk as well as the bottom. I did not want my cord to have any kind of chance of coming out. The cord is glued inside the trunk, too, as a further precaution. I made two plugs, glued one into the top of the trunk, threaded the cord through the trunk and inserted the other plug. A bit more fooling around but very secure.
This little Santa belt ball ornament took for ever and a day! It is quite small. Lots of little red tight coils to be sure! My base is smaller than a golf ball and is a hard polystyrene craft ball. I colored it with a red Sharpie before I started gluing on the black belt tight coils.  The Sharpie rubbed off onto my fingers! Ugh! Try coloring only half at a time to prevent that problem.	This is not my original idea but I don't know who's it is. I saw the photo on-line but without any clue as to the maker. So sorry.	I added the eyes and long eyelashes. My string goes all the way through the ball. I just pierced it with a large needle.
I am putting quilling on the outside of clear glass ornaments. First step is to add glitter, actually something finer called Glamour Dust, to the interior of the ornament. It adds opaqueness and shine and, in the case of the green and red balls, a bit of color. Check my snowflake page for how-to's. I sprayed the outside of one with a sealer so hopefully the quills will stay on. I guess time will tell as to the durability of the others. I did not like the shine it gave the paper and I haven't checked into matte sealer sprays.		I wanted a silver edge on the quills for my white globe but I didn't have any of the metallic strips available that day. I had read an years-old article, I think by Pat Caputo, which suggested using a permanent marker to edge the strips. I gave this a try and it worked quite well. Not perfectly but pretty good. I used a new package of strips and pinned them on edge to my work surface. Bob has since made me a little jig to use. It is a piece of board with a groove cut into it. It holds the strips very tightly. This controls the bleeding of the Sharpie a little and the pins don't get into the way as I lay down the color. That also helps prevent bleeding. In the right-hand  photo directly below, you can see one of my quills made after edging the bundle.
Christmas 2014
Santa and a snowman. There are so many cute little 3d Santas on the Internet. I just had to try, too. The tree is just a little plastic tree I had intended for a future snowglobe project with the grandchildren. I put it into a tight closed coil base.
		The Snowman's scarf is a crimped piece of my re-purposed Berenstain Bears story book. I tried to cut circular but jagged buttons for his eyes and buttons to look like coal. We decided he did not need arms.
Santa Claus! I am so happy with him! I probably spent a week working on him but he was worth it. Notice I have him standing flat on his left foot and tipped onto his right toe. I like to have my 3D creatures look like they could be in motion any second. The balance is harder to get right. I pushed his legs around until he stood up and then held him until the glue was dry.

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