Quilling Tips for Scrapbookers
by Alison from the About Scrapbooking Forum
Part IV: Ideas and Inspiration

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Ideas and Inspiration

Probably the most common question I’m asked about quilling is where I get my patterns.  Well, I don’t use patterns, or at least not in the traditional sense.  There are some patterns in books and other places that you place beneath your work and quill on top of, but I have never used them.  To tell you the truth, I’m not all that fond of the idea in general, mostly because I feel it stunts creativity and limits what can be made.  I don’t recommend developing a reliance on quilling patterns.  I feel you’re better off experimenting and letting your own style of quilling emerge.

So where do I get my ideas and inspiration, if not from patterns?  I generally do one of three things when quilling—look at a photo, use a stencil as a guide, or sketch out my own design.  I’m a visually-oriented person, so I need something to look at when quilling.  I always put the photo, stencil, or sketch next to me as I work.  I glance at it from time to time to give me an idea of what pieces I need to make, what steps I should be taking next, or how to assemble my design.

Most commonly, I work from photos of other people's work, at least as a starting point.  I invented my own little system to collect ideas and keep them relatively organized and easy to find.  When I started quilling and needed ideas, I searched all over the internet for photos of things other people had quilled.  Each time I found something I liked, I saved the photo to a folder on my computer.  Once I had collected a bunch of them, I used my photo program to arrange the pictures so that there would be several to a page.  I then printed these pages out in draft mode on heavy/stiff white paper that I got cheaply at Staples.  I still use this method for new photos I run across.  It takes very little work, is easy to do, and doesn't cost much money.  Most of the photos I've gathered have come from online stores that sell quilling supplies and quilling kits, but a few are from various other websites or from books I own.  When I need ideas or inspiration, I just flip through the pages until I find something I like.  I probably have about 40-50 pages (sized 8 ½” X 11”) of photos, with an average of 4-8 photos on each page, so I’m unlikely to run out of ideas any time soon. 

Another way I come up with ideas is by looking through my massive collection of stencils.  This is useful for getting ideas about what to quill, especially when I’m making a set of quilled items and want ideas for more items to go with the theme.  It’s also helpful because it sometimes gives me a general idea of the shape and/or details of something I want to quill.  Just to be clear, I don’t quill the items the same size as the stencils, because most stencils are too large for that.  Rather, I use the stencils for ideas about what and how to quill an item.

If there's something I want to make but have never seen done before, I make up my own design, which is much easier than it sounds!  I just sketch it out, drawing each piece/shape I'll be using to build a picture.  I'm no artist and can barely draw anything, so if I can do it, anyone can!  It's easy once you're familiar with quilling in general and have an idea of what it takes to make a bunch of individual quilled pieces into a picture of something recognizable.  It's really not much different than doing punch art, where you combine different shapes to make a picture. 

Quilling may seem a little complicated and confusing at first, but I guarantee that if you play around with it a little bit, you'll catch on quickly.  Happy Quilling!

~Alison

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