Day 19 at Beccy's Place - Q is for Quilling

  I'm playing along with the

Ninth Annual Month Of Holiday Cards

at

Beccy's Place

I'm not colouring at the moment but I am working on Christmas craft projects for creative little hands around our neighbourhood ... the endless months of Covid-19 lockdowns has brought our community much closer and I look forward to sharing more crafty adventures with them over the coming weekends and school holidays now that restrictions have eased.

Beccy's prompt for Day 19 is the letter "Q"

(Beccy's post with "Q" inspiration words and

quilted texture card to inspire is HERE)

My "Q" kids Christmas activity kit is for a Quilled Christmas Tree.

OK, I have to confess up front, my tree really shouldn't really look like this but I used the wrong type of adhesive and the only way I could salvage it was to smother it with glitter so that the excess "sticky" was covered, then take it outside for a serious shake and tap to get rid of the excess glitter.  I am hoping that the quilled Christmas Trees made by little hands with the "right" glue will do a much better job than me!  Also, the original inspiration for this activity (linked below) had the tree as a stand alone item.  I wanted the tree to become a decor piece that could be tucked away and stored flat to be used again, year after year, so I added an easel that doubles as a tree trunk and stand.

To make these trees / tree kits, I cut some heavy cardstock into 5" x 7" triangles for the tree base.  Paint the tree base green and set aside.  (I left lots of bases unpainted because painting is always a fun activity.)  While the paint is drying, it's time to start quilling the assorted length pipe cleaners.  Firmly hold one end and tightly spiral the pipe cleaner until the end, it will spring a little loose when you let go and can be a bit fiddly to start with, it gets easier each time.

Take the spirals and plan out how they will fit on the tree base, adjusting some looser or tighter to fit.  Apply a little liquid adhesive, see ingredients below (this one of the FEW occasions that Tombow Mono Multi will NOT work) to the back of each spiral one at a time, putting them in place, holding down with a little pressure until dry.

Once the tree is covered with quilled pipe cleaner spirals, turn it over and glue the brown trunk (easel) in place.  The easel folds in from each side and the small ornate panel in the middle folds down to hold the sides in place.  Glue is applied along the middle section, about 1" from the bottom up, with no glue going on the fancy cut panel, then more glue applied along the middle section to the top.  Align the easel in place on the back of the tree, with the trunk sticking out about 1" from the bottom.  When folded out, the easel forms a sturdy 3D trunk for the tree and it is easily folded flat for storage.

   

   

Here is a guide to the different pipe cleaner lengths and a bundle of assorted spirals ready for the younger ones to use if they get too frustrated making their own.

   

Here is the cutting pattern I used to manually cut the triangle tree bases from a A4 sheet of heavy cardstock.  Of course the scraps have been put aside to use another day.

*** INGREDIENTS ***

heavy cardstock - ruler - craft knife

green paint - paintbrush

assorted pipe cleaners

I used some original length, cut in half, quarters and even eighths,

so that the spirals would be formed in a variety of sizes

fiddly fingers

liquid adhesive - tacky glue or Helmar's 450 Quick Dry

Silhouette Cameo

Silhouette Design Store - Design ID #76159

Easel For Back Of Card by Lori Whitlock

*** REFERENCE ***

This project was inspired by the "Pipecleaner Christmas Tree Decor" post on the "Red Ted Art" blog HERE.