My first quilling pieces!!

I have been craft-lusting (crusting? no, that doesn't sound right....) after the idea of learning paper quilling for MONTHS! I follow another blogger who posted a while ago about a contest where you create a Pinterest board for a new craft or hobby you haven't tried yet, put supplies in there, and then enter the contest by commenting on her blog/Facebook pages to win $100 worth of supplies to try this new hobby. Thus, my Quilling board was created on Pinterest here.

I didn't win, so my board and interest took a back-burner until I could afford the supplies and time for this new hobby. With Christmas having just happened, I was (awesomely) given some money as gifts and so, was able to buy some supplies to get started!!

I bought this kit from Hobby Lobby:

Hobby Lobby - Basic Quilling Kit

It provided me with all the basic tools I needed to start; glue, circle sizing ruler, needle tool, slotted tool, tweezers, instruction booklet and a pack of paper strips. The container is one of those that has a lid on top and bottom so you have 2 sections to keep your supplies. After I decided I wanted more paper however, and realizing not much else would fit in the paper side but the 1 pack they gave me, I decided to buy this along with 4 more paper packs and a little box of pins with big heads so they're easier to work with than my sewing pins:

I already had a piece of foam-core from other projects so I was able to use that as a work surface, but I may actually get a couple pieces of cork board (those little 6" squares or something) to use so they're easier to take with me than an awkward piece of the foamcore, plus I can only put so many holes in the foamcore before it starts getting a little hard I would think to find spots without holes to use. 

I was able to get started once I finished my loom knitted baby blanket project (going to try getting better at finishing a project before starting a new one...) plus the fact that after working on the blanket off and on for a few weeks, I was anxious to get it finished for the sake of it!! :)

I sat down on Thursday night last week and made 3 pieces:

 

How can you tell someone Reddit's too much? I made sure to make a banana, "for scale"!!

I then took my kit box to work the next day as it's been slow at the office all week (holidays are usually pretty quiet at a desk job) and during my break time, I made:

Now after doing a few, and especially this last one having too much paper in the coiled areas, I realized I needed another trip to Hobby Lobby for more paper, a bigger case and varnish. I found a bottle for about $10.33 in the paint aisle, then grabbed a little empty 2oz paint bottle in the artist section to put some varnish in (the $10.33 bottle was 8oz and that was a little big to haul around with me on a regular basis). Varnish definitely does help strengthen the pieces, but I realized it's a little hard to paint it on pieces with big gaps, like the banana.

After getting more paper, I then made the following pieces Friday night even though we had friends over. I basically half-commandeered the kitchen table and was making pieces while a few friends sat around chit chatting and the rest were in the kitchen or living room.

Family portrait!!

The ducks themselves were fun to make, but the waves not so much. I was trying to use the same piece of paper to do all 3, but it just wasn't working out so I made 2, cut the paper, then glued the 3rd spiral on after getting it as good as I could.

Regarding varnishing difficult pieces, I realized that painting the tail feathers on the bird may not have been the best idea.... They look fine and even up above, but after painting the varnish on and how wet the pieces of paper got, it got a little wonky just because the pieces that are right next to each other stuck all the way and I could only straighten them out so much while they were wet. I think I might try to use a spray next time and see if I can find one that works well enough.

There is also a small matter of I didn't realize the tail feathers were sticking out past the lid of the box I have when I closed it the other night and so this happened:

I guess I'll be re-making the tail feathers after all!!

It's ok though, it's just a learning experience, right? Right! I'm not sure what I want to work on next, but I am thinking that printing out some templates would be a good idea.

I will try to make some time this week/weekend to make some more things and will definitely show you guys what I come up with!!

Craft ya laters!!