Dec 15, 2015

Quilling Letters 101 - Part 4 Gluing Letters in Stages

Quilling Letters 101 - Part 4 Gluing Letters in Stages

The next letter I'm quilling is the capital letter E. Although I try to form my letter as accurately to the final setting as possible, there's no way I can simply glue the letter E without it being misshapen. Fighting the letter is like herding cats, so rather than do that, I'm going to glue it in stages.

First I lay down a bead of glue about the length of the long vertical piece of the letter E.

Quilling Letters 101 - Part 4 Gluing Letters in Stages

After dipping in the glue, I will turn it over and check for missing spots – like the area near the right. So I will re-dip in glue until the entire length is coated (the glue shown on this letter is a bit heavy, but I left it like this so it shows up better in the photos for you).

Quilling Letters 101 - Part 4 Gluing Letters in Stages

I glued the left side down first because it seemed to give the most leeway in dealing with the rest of the letter.

Don't pick it up like I'm showing here! I'm exaggerating it so you can see how much flexibility there is in dealing with the unglued parts.

Quilling Letters 101 - Part 4 Gluing Letters in Stages

Next, place glue on a scrap strip and slide it under the letter portion you'd like to glue. Using tweezers to pick up the unglued letter portions here is very handy. Dab the letter onto the glue and set the letter in place. Repeat this, gluing section, by section. You are in control every step of the way and have time to loosen your shoulders too!

Quilling Letters 101 - Part 4 Gluing Letters in Stages


When I reached the end and had to glue the corner, I pushed the left strip aside using my tweezers.

Quilling Letters 101 - Part 4 Gluing Letters in Stages


Dab glue along the end and bring the two corners together.

Note: apply less glue than I've shown here so you're not transferring a soggy blob. When I'm taking photos in my light tent, my back is tired from hunching over shot after shot, so I have less patience with my techniques than I show here.

Quilling Letters 101 - Part 4 Gluing Letters in Stages

Finally I slide a straight edge against the corner to ensure the seams are lined up.

The paper shown here is Canson Mi-Tientes, #507 Violet, 160 gsm, 1/4" wide.


Quilling the Letter B is easy with my free template!

Quilling Letters 101 - Part 4 Gluing Letters in Stages

I hope these tips help you quill your own letters. Please let me know how your progress is going in the comment section!

13 comments:

  1. Thank you for all those tips Cecelia some of them will help me improve my technique !

    juste a question : wich paper do you use for this project ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Séverine, I'm so happy you've commented and let me know! I'd love to see your work. For this project, I've used Canson Mi-Tientes, #507 Violet, 160 gsm, cut to 25" wide.

      Delete
    2. Thank you for your answer Cecelia. Do you hand cut your strips by hand or with your silhouette ? The only time I tried to cut Canson mi-teintes with my Cameo, it was a disaster ! I love to use Canson Vivaldi instead.

      Delete
    3. Hi Séverine, I am much too lazy to cut my strips by hand! LOL! I used my Silhouette and then now I have a Cricut Air, and have enjoyed using both.

      PLEASE, tell me what happened with your Mi-Tientes paper? If I use a brand new adhesive mat, it can tend to curl the paper because it's too sticky. So what I do is put the pair on my table, with the paper facing down. Then I peel the mat back, making the mat curl instead. My paper then ends up being as flat as possible. In honesty, I keep old adhesive mats that I've loved a bit too much for lighter weights of paper, and use new-new mats for cardstock until it gets enough love that it won't hurt my Mi-Tientes.

      Oh, I've not seen Canson Vivaldi in my local fine art store. Where do you buy yours? Whenever I travel, my poor husband has to accompany me to any and all art supply stores!

      I'd love to see what you're making! Let's see!

      Cecelia

      Delete
    4. First of all, I would like to wish you a happy and quilly (this word does not exist but I found it sounds good !)new year to you and your family.

      Thank you for your answer Cecelia. I tried to cut Mi-teinte paper months ago when I still was a cameo newbee. The cuts I made were not as neat as I wanted because this paper is very fibrous. Some of the fibers remain caught by the blade and some cuts were missed after that... I was so disapointed that I never used this paper again.

      I'm from France and Vivaldi paper is quite easy to find in local fine art stores here ! It will be a very long trip for you !!

      I share my work on google+, I would love to have your comments ! I hope the link will work : https://plus.google.com/photos/109954778997800092510/albums/6004808562915627825

      PS : I'm so sorry for my bad english... Please forgive me.

      Delete
    5. Happy Crafty New Year to you too Séverine!

      Oh I'm surprised your Cameo didn't cut through the Mi-tientes paper because I assumed it had stronger cutting force than my Silhouette SD model. Was it on the deepest cutting depth? I have cut thicker items as well by removing their colored caps.

      Oh I'll have to stock up on Vivaldi paper when I'm in Europe again.

      Your English is parfait!!!

      Thank you for visiting my blog!

      Cecelia

      Delete
    6. Maybe I have to give the Mi-teintes paper another try... and improve my settings !

      I love the vivid colours of the Vivaldi and its very smoth finish. And it cuts perfectly !!

      Thank you soooo much for all of your comments on my work. I hope to see you soon on my future blog !
      Severine

      Delete
    7. No need to bother with Mi-tientes since you can easily buy Vivaldi. I don't love the texture, and it seems Vivaldi offers the same wide range of colors. Maybe I'll look it up online - thanks so much for the referral.

      Ooh la la! I'm SO excited to see your new blog! I can't wait! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me and all the other readers here.

      Delete
  2. Cecelia, you have made me so happy with thei tutorial. I've found so many things I'm doing wrong and now know how to correct it. I love the idea about scoring the edges so they fold better. I've only been folding them so far. And I realise I use way too much glue. I'll tag you on some of my pictures so you can critique them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Natasha, I'm thrilled to hear you're inspired by my work. Thank you so much for leaving a comment and letting me know my tutorials are helpful to you. I'd love to see your work!
      Cecelia

      Delete
  3. Another question is how you can shade inside letters...multi colours bordered by quilling strips. Have you tried that?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish I had taken photos of this project, a monogram letter for a dear friend. I cut the letter out of the paper first, then quilled around the edges.

      https://paperzen.blogspot.com/2011/01/quilled-e-monogram-with-fringed-flowers.html

      Delete
  4. Hi Cecelia. I am a new quilter. Just quilling for fun. Now I want to try quilling my daughters name and hang it in her room. I want to just be sure which strips are best for quilling name? I mean 3mm or 5mm or 10mm?

    ReplyDelete