Jeweltone Quilling Papers with and without Mica Watercolors

(This post was first published on 3 Feb 2014, it has been updated and republished).

Part of the fun of paper quilling is using special and new papers!  Today I’m going to show you what some of the jeweltone colors from Lake City Craft look like.  It is often helpful to see what colors would look like in a design before committing to purchasing them.  When I first purchased these metallic jeweltone quilling papers I didn’t know what to do with them.  Since then I have worked out what types of designs these are best for, and I’ll be sharing what I’ve found works for me!

The first thing to note is that all of these shiny and metallic papers are called different things by different brands.  For example, the Lake City Crafts jeweltones are similar to the Quilled Creations and Paplin metallics.  And the Lake City Craft glistenings are similar to the Quilled Creations jewel tones.  So you need to go by what they look like, not what they are called.  These papers I am showing you today are darker metallic tones.  The specific ones I used in my example are amethyst, sapphire, golden topaz, and emerald. Click here to view some of the metallic papers available on Amazon.

These papers are darker tones and are a shiny lovely metallic sheen on both sides.  But the edge does NOT have a metallic sheen.  In fact, if you look at them from the top it can be a bit difficult to tell what color it is supposed to be:

You can kind of tell they are different colors, but if you are further away and the light is not bright it can be tricky to tell.  Also, there is no lovely metallic shine from the top view.

However, don’t let that stop you from using these in a frame design!  If you are using a dark color anyway, these can add quite a special touch.  At first glance it will look just like a dark navy/purple/green tone, but when someone looks more closely they will see the metallic sheen on the side.  Quite impressive!

Adding Mica Watercolors

There is another way that you can add a little extra shine to these papers and that is by using mica watercolors (Here are the exact ones I use in this post).    The mica watercolors last a loooong time.  All you need to do is get a little eyeshade sponge wet, dab onto the paint color of your choice, and gently dab onto your paper quilling.  Here my daughter is helping me by doing the painting:

Click here to view some of the mica watercolors available on Amazon.

As you can see, with both the jeweltone quilling papers AND the mica watercolors you can get the metallic effect from both the side ANd the top of your design!  You can choose a shade that is most similar to your paper color (as I did) or you can choose a totally different color of watercolor for a unique effect.

Using it for Jewelry

I can’t leave this post without sharing another use for your jeweltone quilling papers, and that is quilled jewelry!  I find that for some jewelry designs it is the side of the paper that shows the most.  For those designs, these metallic papers are absolutely perfect!  Here are a few examples of designs that I made with these papers.

First up, here are some chain earrings made with all of the jeweltone quilling paper colors.  From left to right there is golden topaz, citrine, amethyst, emerald, black pearl, and sapphire.

Here are some multi circle earrings made with golden topaz (click here for a free tutorial!):

And these eclectic circle earrings are made from citrine.  I love how they look just like copper!

Have you used these jeweltone quilling papers or similar papers for paper quilling?  I’d love to hear what you like to use them for, and feel free to leave a link to any project that you made with these, or post a photo on my facebook page to share with everyone!

Feel free to leave any comments or questions, and stick around to view some more great pages here!

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*All products and supplies in this post I purchased on my own.

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