Quilled Dragonfly Dangler

Hi guys,

I'm gonna be teaching you all a gorgeous dragonfly dangler, in very simple steps.. Let's create something gorgeous and colorful from just a few strips of paper :)

Hope you like it and that it inspires you to give it a shot..

Thanks, Kunali - PaperTales

Here's the materials required for the quilled dragonfly dangler -

- Black and Colorful strips of paper (nice bright colors and a few shades of green)

- Quilling tool

- Glue

- String / thread (I use crochet thread)

- Tweezers

- Scissors

We'll start with making the body -

For the body of the dragonfly, take 16 strips of black paper, divide them into 2 parts of 8 strips each. Keep them exactly the same size and cut them in ascending order.. The first strip has to be the smallest and move on to get them bigger and bigger by about 2-3 inches. The smallest one which i made is 4 inches, and the biggest one is around 20 inches.

Start rolling them all into tight curls and stick them properly. I've added a 3D dimension to all the rolls by bowling them. Once thats done, apply glue all over the bowled rolls. Now, once they've dried, stick them all together in descending order. With the biggest roll right at the beginning followed by the smaller one. Give it a little curve so it looks cute and different. Make 2 exact black roll bodies and keep them aside to dry.

Lets make the wings for the dragonfly -

For the wings - there will be 4 - 2 big and 2 small (lower wings). For the bigger set of wings, stick around 10 colorful strips of paper to make a train. Roll them up and make a loose curl. Once thats done, evenly keep them together with the help of a tweezer and apply glue on a corner and stick it to the mat. In the same way, make the rest of the 3 wings. Stick them to the mat and keep them aside to dry. Once they've dried, lift them up and shape them into wings. Apply glue on them all on 1 side so they don't unfurl. Stick both of them together as shown in the pic and keep them aside.

Now we'll move on to the leaves and small bowls for the danglers - i've made 3 danglers and for that we need to make 3 bowls and 3 leaves. For the leaves, you need to stick around 10 strips of green strips together. Roll them up to make a tight curl and bowl it and make it into the shape of a leaf. Apply glue on the leaf (inside and out) so it doesn't unravel. Make 3 such leaves. For the bowls - if you want them, make them exactly like the leaves, but in the shape of bowls / flowerpots. Apply glue to these too and keep them aside to dry.

Take some string and string it through the leaves and bowls as shown in the pics. Once thats done, take some string, double it up and tie a knot to make a holder. Once thats done, place it in one of the roundels in the dragonfly's body. Apply glue to them and attach the other body part on top. Once thats done, stick the wings to the sides of the dragonfly's body and voila, your dragonfly dangler is ready. Keep it aside to dry and you can use it in your car or at home.. You can also make a butterfly dangler or any other cute bird / animal dangler.. They'll all look great!

Aaaand your dangler is done! Happy quilling! :)