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Quilling Paper Crocus

April 3, 2019

I think it’s just about official. Spring has come to the East Coast!

The snow has melted, the birds are singing, and my son’s allergies are going haywire.

And, those first flowers of spring, the crocus, are popping up all over the place.

So that’s what I’m making today – a quilling paper crocus!

This post contains affiliate links. If you click on the links below and make a purchase I may receive a small compensation to help me finance this site and keep coming up with awesome tutorials and tips! There’s no cost to you and I only ever include links to companies and products that I trust and work with on a regular basis. 

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

I’m excited to be sharing this tutorial because it showcases a technique that I’ve been waiting to show until the perfect moment.

But first, the petals!

I was looking for these crocus to be as dainty as they are coming right out of the ground, so I’m using thin 1/16” white quilling paper strips for the petals.

1/8″ strips will work, too, but will make a larger flower. Look back at the succulents I created with those for an idea of what that would end up like.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

Glue two 17″ strips end to end to make a long strip.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

Roll the long strip around the quilling tool of your choice.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

Without gluing the end of the strip, remove the coil from your quilling tool.

Hold the coil carefully and let it unravel a tiny bit from the middle. This might take some practice, but you can always reroll your coil if you want to.

That open space in the center of your coil allows it to be squeezed into an oval shape.

Bear in mind that the super-thin paper doesn’t have much width at all, so make sure you’re holding the front and back with one hand loosely while guiding the opening with the other. Otherwise, the middle might just pop out. I also don’t have much faith for the circle guides with this size paper. The coils would be too hard to remove because they are so thin.

When your oval is the shape of a flower petal, glue the end of the paper strip to keep it in place.

You’ll need 6 petals for each flower.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

While pinching, add some glue only on the bottom of the petal to keep it together.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

It’s really important that the glue is only applied to the bottom third of each petal because the rest needs to be clear for something I’ve been waiting to show for a while – adding watercolors to quilling!

I’m even using my kids’ cheapo watercolor paints, they’ll work perfectly for this one.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

Watercolor paint doesn’t have to be intimidating; its just a matter of knowing a little technique.

First, brush a little plain water on the outside edge and around the top of the petal.

In order to have that flowing, blended look to your paint, its best to brush it on a wet surface.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

Next, add the purple watercolor paint.

You’ll want to start with just a bit. You can always build it up with more paint after.

As you can see below, my first pass with the paint was really faint!

The glue on the bottom of the petals acts as a resist, so no paint will stick to that part of the paper.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

After painting both sides of the petal, put aside to dry.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

When the paint has dried, it’s time to start building your quilling paper crocus!

First, stick 3 petals together on a piece of wax paper.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

Let sit for a few moments, then place in some sort of mold so the petals dry in a cup shape.

I like to use the underside of my dome mold. Push gently on the center so the petals point up and dry fully.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com
Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

Once those first petals have set, add the other 3 on the outside so it looks like the crocus is opening.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

While the flower is drying, start making the orange stamen for the center.

I used short strips of 1/16″ melon paper to match the size of the rest of the crocus.

Roll each strip a couple turns on your quilling tool, glue the coil to the rest of the strip, and pinch to flatten.

Each flower has 6 stamen of different heights.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

Glue the stamen to the center of the crocus so they stand up straight.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

You can stop right there and have amazing crocus for frames and cards, or you can go all out and make some stems, too.

I used wire, floral tape, and quilling paper to create small stems.

If you’re interested in making these too, follow the steps as I laid them out in the coneflower project.

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com
Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com
Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

I can just see this little quilled crocus poking out of the melting snow signaling that warm weather is on the way!

Quilling Paper Crocus - Celebrate spring with the first flower of the season | ThePaperyCraftery.com

I hope this quilling paper crocus tutorial inspires you to add some watercolors to other projects, too!

It’s a really quick way to add colorful details, without having to juggle multiple paper strips.

Enjoy and Happy Spring!

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in Quilling, Tutorials # quilling crocus, quilling with watercolor paint

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Comments

  1. Cathy says

    April 3, 2019 at 10:22 am

    I love the subtle color from the water paint.

    Reply
  2. Ayla says

    April 3, 2019 at 8:43 pm

    Que flor tan bonita has hecho :D. Pero lo que mas me ha encantado ha sido el tutorial, es estupendo. He de probar yo eso de pintar el quilling, jiji, me parece que da muchas opciones al color 😀
    Besote!!!!!

    Reply
    • Meredith says

      April 3, 2019 at 8:57 pm

      I’m so glad you like it so much! And I agree, there can be so many uses for the watercolor on quilling 😊

      Reply
  3. Ana Cristina says

    April 4, 2019 at 8:13 am

    They´re lovely! Thank you so much for sharing!

    Reply
  4. Kristen says

    April 26, 2019 at 11:03 am

    This is so very pretty!

    Reply
  5. Cher Dexheimer says

    June 6, 2022 at 10:14 am

    How about a video to go along with this tutorial.

    Reply
    • Meredith says

      June 7, 2022 at 11:05 am

      I do have one from a few years back! You can watch it here 👉 https://youtu.be/NI3gx20MeDU

      Reply

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