Mrs. Penguin, Sacramento
Age and Occupation: 26, Video & TV Producer/Director/Editor
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Doctor of Physical Therapy
Engagement Date: January 29, 2007
Wedding Date: June 7, 2008
Blogging Since: September 14, 2007
Venue: Winery in the Gold Country
About Me: I'm a silly mess of a girl who, above all else in this world, LOVES the Spice Girls. I eat sushi at least 3 times a week, and feel guilty about how much it costs the other 4 days a week. I love designer jeans and cheap accessories. I don't like sweets, but I love the UCLA Bruins!
Quillin’ Like A Villain
February 7th, 2008 @ 12:07 pm by Mrs. Penguin
Awesome title, yeah? No? Okay. I tried 
Fueled by the quilling high I got from making my Valentines, I decided to get cracking on my table numbers! I mentioned earlier that I wanted to incorporate a Minnesota theme for the table numbers, and while I generally despise “themes” of any sort, I thought it would be a fun way to showcase Mr. Penguin’s hometown at our wedding.
I found these neato old drawn maps of various cities in Minnesota from the Library of Congress’ Zazzle site, so I ordered 20 cities on cards to turn into table numbers. Here’s a few, they are so pretty I hated cutting them out!
So, I’m not going to lie. Quilling takes a lot of time. And the tinier the letters, the harder it is. I originally started out with a smaller font, but had to double the size of the words because of my chubby fingers. But here’s the process:
First, you have to make quilling strips. My shortcut is to tape some graph paper to the paper that you want to quill with, and cut with an exacto knife.
Next, find a pretty font that would look good quilled. Anything flourish-y works. Print the words out and tape the printout onto the cardstock that you will use for your table numbers. Work at a glass table so that you can shine a flashlight under everything so you can see through the paper.
Quill your little heart out using a quilling tool (easily found at any craft store)
To adhere your quilled paper to your cardstock, simply dip them in glue and lay them on the paper.
Voila! The glue will dry clear.
I didn’t adhere the card/blue background to the cardstock yet, but I taped it really quick so you can see the outcome:
With chubby little fingers, this project is exhausting. But I think the results are pretty wedding-worthy! 19 more to go….
42 Responses to “Quillin’ Like A Villain”
WHOA. That is HARD CORE, Miss Penguin! I am DIYing a TON of crap, but I don’t know that I have the motivation for something that intense! High five!
Oh my gosh, that’s amazing. You must have the patience of a saint to do that.
I must admit; I’ve never heard of this before. See, that’s why this website is awesome. I get to add more words to my vocabulary: Etsy, Gocco, Quilling.
That’s awesome, Penguin! I can’t even imagine the amount of patience you must have to do that for all of your tables.
Ho.Ly.Mo.Ly.
!!!!!
I can’t believe how ambitious you are… I still don’t understand how you get the quilled strips of paper to form the letters, but that’s awesome!!
Geez #1. It’s one awesome thing after another with you ain’t it?
Wanna quill me?! kekeke. =0)
Mrs. Emerald - you kind of have to “form” the paper to do what you want, and use quick drying glue so that as soon as you stick it down where you want, it stays. It is surprisingly not very hard, just time consuming!
Wow, nice work! For the sake of your bleeding fingers, I hope the other city names are shorter. If it were me, all my cities would be as short as possible, like DC or NYC. Also, as I’ve just demonstrated, I’d bust out every abbreviation I could think of!
That looks amazing, Miss Penguin! And here I am thinking “can I really punch 120 butterflies out of card stock for my invite closures”? If you have the patience for that, I’m sure I can.
The finished product is beautiful!!! This is defintely a detail that will not be lost on your guests - great job!!!
Unfortunately, no such luck BIL…and if I abbreviated “Minnetonka” as “MTA” people would be like, WHAAA?
Maybe Mr. Peng should have though about being raised in a place with shorter names, PSH!!!
that is amazing!!!! you’re giving martha stewart a run for her money. lol
A-mazing. You one talented lady.
That looks great! I love the maps, the fonts, and the 3-D letters. Quill is certainly a fun word. Good luck with the rest of the cities!
i think i’d do that just so i can say, “no, i’m not busy. just doing a little quilling.”
though it took me a little bit to figure out how the quilling strips worked. i’m uber-impressed pengy!
Wow, that looks great!
i still don’t see how you cut and then get to the letters. i have to admit though, i’ve never heard of this either and it looks super cool! if i weren’t so craft-challenged i might try it!
those table names look great! so cute!
Damn…
That’s all I have to say.
All my props are belong to Pengy
(I’m not grammatically challenged, just a geek.)
I LOVE this!!! It’s Stunning!! I’m still a little confused on how you did it. Where’d you learn about this crafty quilling technique?? Please share oh-crafty-one!
gosh, they look professional! i’m confused too…i guess i need to read up on quilling..which to me also is new.
i had to youtube quilling! seriously amazing!
Everything you need to know you can learn from Martha
she traces the words onto the paper rather than does the flashlight thing that I did, which I dont like, because then if you dont follow your tracing exactly, you will be able to see your drawn lines. Using a flashlight/glass table is cleaner.
Its really just like curling ribbon with scissors almost, except you use little strips of paper instead…does that make more sense? And as for forming the letters, seriously, you just have to do it by hand….its painstaking, but PRET-TAY!
You are on a ROLL!! I’m gonna have to save your quilling posts to try later.
Wow! It looks amazing! What font did you use for your project?
Catherine - The font I used is “Renaissance”, Free Here:
http://www.dafont.com/renaissance.font
Also I used size 94 and spaced it out a bit (by 7 point I think). I tried originally with like size 80 or something but I started to go blind from all the small curlies. Bigger is better anyway for table numbers though, right?
I want to have your quilled babies. Is that forward?
PS: I am seeing the Spice Girls TONIGHT.
ALEX OMGGGGG
I saw them in Vegas! AMAZING show. Too short. I teared up a little bit when they first came out. So pathetic. They all look AWESOME and the show is insanely good.
Stooooooooop it Pengy! Stop giving me ideas!!!! I’m already goccoing every friggin piece of wedding paper in my life, and now, NOW, you give me quilling?! Damn you, pengy, damn you.
HAHAH JUST DO IT Kyleigh! SO CHEAP! Quilling tool $4, Paper, like what, 99 cents? People will see the blood, sweat and tears you put into it…okay maybe only crazy people like us.
Pengy, be careful with your quilling tool, so your guests don’t see actual blood on the quilled letters!
Are you kidding me right now? That’s the coolest thing, ever. omg. This was a “Mr. LB, get over here. You gotta see this” post.
Miss Penguin, I was going to do quilling numbers too for my table numbers when I saw the directions on Marthastewart.com!!! However we came up w/a different idea later on. But I love how your’s came out! It’s just spectacular. Good luck on all your quilling.
Yay! Minnesota names may be long, but they are beautiful, just like the state. Sigh.. missing my Minnesota.
Dang Miss Penguin, you are like the best crafter I (sort of) know! First you’re a gocco diva and now a quilling machine!
I still don’t really understand how you did this, but the results are so beautiful!
I was wondering what the cost would be for the tools. Do i sense a trip to AC moore in my future? Oh yes, Yes, i do.
this is insane! in a good way….but insane nonetheless!
Awesome. i guarantee that people will think these are cool. they will pick up the cards and be like, wow! neat 3-d effect.
you should write in uber-small letters on the back that they are made by the Bride. that will get you the praise that you mightily deserve!
I LOVE quilling and totally plan to use it for my wedding as well! I learned it in Korea a few years back and they sell tons of quilling paper in all types of beautiful colors, but I haven’t been able to find any good ones here (and theones I do find are not very pretty and SUPER expensive!) You know - you can also quill flowers and other images. fruits and things like that are super easy to do.. you can also look it up as twirling paper… I think that is the common term in the states. LOVE it! your table numbers are beautiful!
