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Miniature Greenhouse: Paper Quilling Items To Go Inside

Supplies:

  1. Paper stirps in various sizes 
  1. Quilling tools.  This is the kit I purchased with several different types of tools
  1. Tweezers  
  1. Scissors  
  1. Elmer’s glue  
  1. Small tip glue bottle   

Basics of paper quilling tips 

For paper quilling I like to use a quilling tool and slide my paper strip through the slit in the tool.  I use my finger from my right hand to hold the paper down.  I use a finger nail from my left hand to keep my paper straight on the quilling tool as I quill.  I rotate the quilling tool with my right hand.  I keep Elmer’s glue in a bottle with a thin tip.  I keep this bottle upside down in a cup with a wet paper towel at the bottom.  This allows the glue to stay at the bottom of the bottle, no waiting for the glue to come out, and the wet paper towel keeps the glue from drying up at the tip.   For examples of basic quilling please check out this post: https://kandfdesign.com/getting-started-with-paper-quilling/

miniature greenhouse

Small flower pot (purple and orange ones)  

To make a small pot I quilled one strip of paper.  If you want to make a larger pot, then you will need a thicker strip of paper and glue a few strips together.  Once I had a nice tight coil I used this tool that had a dome shape.  I pushed my tight coil over the smallest dome shape, which pushed my quilled paper into a dome shape.  I then placed a small dot of glue at the end of the paper strip to hold it together.  This pot seemed a little plane.  So, I added a lighter thinner strip of paper around the top of my pot.  I then cut strips of paper and rounded the tip to look like pieces of grass.  I also curled these pieces a little with my quilling tool like you would do to curl a bow on a gift.  The inside still looked a little plane and needed more greenery inside.  So, I made a tight coil and glued it inside the pot.  I also made two more pots in orange, like tera cotta pots.  I left one of these pots empty and filled the second one with the green coil.  I later added a little twisted plant I made from a scrap quilling strips.  To make this plant I cut a small slit down the middle of my paper strip and twisted the two pieces over each other and glued them.  I later added a little reindeer moss to the empty orange pot and made it look like it fell over and the moss was starting to fall out.   

Watering can  

For the watering can I glued two strips of quilling paper together, then tightly quilled it.  I used the dome shaped tool again, but pushed the dome shaped top flat with my finger.  I needed to apply some glue to the inside of this pieces so it did not uncoil.  I just applied and rubbed in the glue all over the inside and held it till it dried.  If a piece is uncoiling after you glued the end down, then I suggest doing this.  I then quilled a small piece of a light blue thin strip of paper.  I used my quilling tool to push the coil down the quilling tool to make the shape of the watering spout.  This piece kept coming undone on me, so once I had my piece, and while it was still on the quilling tool, I applied my glue all over the front of it.  The glue dried clear and it helped the piece to hold its shape.  I used my thinnest quilling strips of paper to wrap the bottom and top of my watering can.  This really added to the piece.  I then glued the spout on.  For the handle I quilled just a little bit of the end of a paper strip and let it uncoil just a little.  I then used the quilling tool to shape the handle into an S shape.  This is similar to how you make the ends of the bow on a gift, just run the scissors or in this case the quilling tool down the piece to round it.  I then glued this in place.  You will have to hold this piece in place until the glue dries.  You may want to use tweezers to help you do this.  I was going to add blue to the top of my watering can so it looked like it had water in it, but I was afraid this might mess it up, and I did not want to have to remake this again.  This piece took several attempts to get it to where I was happy with it.  

Rose  

For the rose I took a small scrap strip of quilling paper and rolled it with my fingers.  Once I had a center coil, I rotated the rest of the quilling paper slowly down the center of the flower till I reached the end, and glued it.  I cut a strip of my smallest quilling paper down the center to make a thin stem and glued it to my rose.  I also cut a small leaf and glued it to the stem.  I tried to make another flower by cutting half way down the strip of quilling paper, then quilling it.  Unfortunately, this piece was too small and it just did not look good to me.  So, I threw that piece away.  My boyfriend saw me playing with the quilling paper and decided to give it a try.  He made the yellow flower pot with the pretty purple flowers inside.  He did not take any pictures of him making these flowers and could not explain how he made them.    

Larger brown flower pot with real dried flowers  

I made this flower pot similarly to the smaller ones, but with a thicker quilling strip and for the top portion I glued two paper strips together before quilling them.  I made a tight coil and used the dome shaped tool to push out some of my coil, but still keeping it tight.  I then glued the end down.  I then made another one with the same thickness, but this time only one quilling strip, since I wanted it to be smaller than the top piece.  I also just pushed it out a little with my finder instead of the dome shaped tool so it still stayed somewhat flat.  I then glued the bigger more dome shaped piece to this smaller piece.  This created my flower container.  I then quilled a thinner brown shaped quilling strip and let it uncoil a little before gluing the end down.  I let it uncoil a little so I could stick flowers in it.  I then glued this to the inside of my pot.  I had these pretty dried flowers that I decided to use.  I cut the flowers down to size to fit in this flower pot, and glued them in place.  I added a few extra loose flowers to the flower pot and to the stems of flowers where needed.   

Water hose  

For the watering hose I quilled one full strip of green quilling paper.  I then released the coil and let it uncoil on its own.  I then cut a piece off of a yellow quilling strip and tightly coiled it.  I then glued this so it would not uncoil and glued it to the end of the uncoiled green quilling paper.  If you need the paper to uncoil a little more or be a little tighter of a coil, then you can mess with it a bit with your hands.  Just be careful not to make a crease in the paper with your fingers.   

miniature greenhouse

Thoughts  

My favorite pieces are the watering can, the bigger brown flower pot, and the small yellow flower pot with the purple flowers.  My greenhouse still looks a little empty, but I was a bit tiered of paper quilling after making all of these pieces.  Not all of them worked out the first time, and I need to rethink some designs and try again.  Making these pieces helped me to better understand how to work with the quilling paper, especially understanding why the strips come in different sizes.  A few days ago, I was playing around with some polymer clay I have.  I had not worked with this in years.  I decided to add some of these pieces to my greenhouse, since they seemed to fit.  Maybe I will add more to my greenhouse in the future.  I would like to add more plants and greenery.  I might make more pots and add fake greenery instead of trying to make the greenery with the quilling strips.  I would love to see all the little pieces you add to your greenhouse. If you would like to see how I made the shelves or the greenhouse, then check out this post: https://kandfdesign.com/miniature-greenhouse/

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