Large Paper Ornaments

Like many people who have crafty blogs, I love the Christmas season. The cold weather, twinkling lights, decorations and holiday music make the month after thanksgiving the best time of the year.
I get a little craft crazy this time of year and make way too many decorations.

These paper ornaments from Curbly are similar to the paper pumpkins I made in October. I love these because they are super cheap and quick.


What You Need: 

12x12 scrapbook paper with a color or pattern on both sides
Paper cutter
Hole Punch
Brads


Directions: 

Cut the paper into 1" strips.  Keep two of them 12" long, two at 10" and one at 8".  I also tried a few ornaments with different sizes to make them different shapes.

Hold all of the strips together with the ends flush, put them in size order with smallest one in the middle and the largest on the outside. Hole punch the flush ends of the strips and secure with a brad. Then make the strips on the other side, line up and hole punch them again and secure with a brad.

I stapled the pumkpins and a few of the ornaments but one comment on the original post made a great point about them being easily stored at the end of the season if you make them with the brads.

Ribbon Christmas Tree

These ribbon Christmas trees from Michaels are another cheap craft that can be made to match any decor.  I think I might make a few in different sizes.


What you need:
3 or 4 kinds of ribbon  (1 inch width or more works best, 4 yards of each is enough with 4 types of ribbons)
Stryofoam Cone (mine was 3"x11")
Sequin Pins

Directions:
Cut ribbon into 4-inch pieces.  Starting at the base of the cone, fold ribbon pieces in half and use sequin pins to attach to the cone, placing each loop next to the previous loop. Continue until cone is completely covered with ribbon loops.

Paper Ornaments: Flower Shaped

These flower inspired ornaments from How About Orange, look great with the other paper ornaments I made on this post.  I may have a gone a little paper ornament crazy.

What You Need: 
12"x12" or 8.5"x11" sheets of paper with color or a pattern on both sides
Stapler
Double stick tape, I used scrapbooking mounting squares

Directions:
Cut the paper into 1" strips. Stack them in one pile and staple together in the middle on the stack, and fold them in half like a little book.

My stapler wasn't big enough to reach the middle so I opened it up and stapled onto the sewing cutting board. Even then it wasn't strong enough to make it through all the papers so a heavy duty stapler may be worth it.  

I put a photo mounting square on the tip of the first paper and bent it toward the center.  Continue bending the papers to the center until the flower shape is finshed.