OK, haul out those greeting cards, a ruler, pencil, scissors and some glue and get ready to spend a few hours making Christmas tree ornaments, or you can avoid storing the ornaments by tucking these instructions away with the cards for next year.
If you opt for making the ornaments next holiday season, be sure to leave a note for yourself on the 2006 calendar so you remember you have the supplies ready to go.
As we told you in last week’s Craft Corner, today’s column will show you how to make festive ornaments out of your old Christmas cards.
Many of you are familiar with the round ornaments made from paper circles, but this week’s project uses squares folded into triangles to create custom decorations.
We were inspired by ornaments seen in a recent holiday edition of Rubber Stamper magazine. The suggestion was to use card stock stamped with seasonal designs for the ornaments, but we wondered why recycled greeting cards wouldn’t work just as well while adding a bit of a sentimental touch to the ornament at the same time.
| WHAT YOU’LL NEED
* Greeting cards * Pencil * Ruler * Craft knife * Scissors * Quick-dry tacky and hot glue * Needle and thread * Bottle caps * Pictures * Scissors * Glue * Findings, ribbon, magnets and other materials as desired for bottle cap project |
The instructions are simple:
* Cut 8 squares for each ornament (2-by-2 or 4-by-4 inches work best; the ornaments can get pretty big if your squares are larger).
* Draw lines and score each square on the back side on both diagonals.
* Cut along one line from the corner to the center.
* Lay the section on one side of the cut on top of the section on the other side of the cut to form a triangle and glue in place. (Be sure to see which section looks best on top before gluing.)
* Repeat the process for all 8 squares.
* Glue 4 of the triangles together so that you have a four-sided pyramid; repeat with the other 4 triangles.
* Glue the two triangles together at the flat base and you have your diamond-shaped ornament.
* Finish off the edges with decorative or clear adhesive tape. (We used copper foil that we use in our stained glass class because it’s all that we had on hand, but at $8.50 a roll, we don’t recommend it unless you really like the look!)
* Finish off the points with tiny pompoms or other embellishments of your choosing.
* With a needle and thread, make a hanger at one tip of the diamond.
And that’s a wrap.
Now a few notes:
We recommend using quick-dry tacky glue to glue the triangles together as hot glue can make the paper pucker; however, hot glue works best to add your embellishments to the tips as it dries faster than the tacky glue.
You’ll need to finish off the edges somehow as opposed to just gluing the triangles together as you’ll have gaps between the layers otherwise. As we mentioned above, we used copper foil tape and we do like the look, but you can probably find a less expensive tape that will do the same job at your craft store.
Try stringing several different sizes of ornaments (2-inch, 4-inch and 6-inch) together and adding a tassel to the bottom to make a festive hanging decoration. This variation is the one that caught our eye in Rubber Stamper magazine.
Make lots of small ornaments (1-inch or 2-inch) and string them together to make a garland. Simply use a long needle to run ribbon or thread through the center of the ornaments and join them.
Use prints of favorite photographs in place of the greeting cards to make personalized ornaments.
Bottle cap crafts
In last week’s column, we also mentioned that we’d talk a little bit about using bottle caps in kids’ craft projects.
There are lots of ways to use caps, either those you’ve saved to recycle or those purchased in packages at the craft store.
If you use the recycled caps, begin by painting them with spray paint or hand painting with acrylics and letting them dry completely.
Next, cut out little picture circles and glue them onto the top of the bottle cap or on the inside of the cap, depending on what you plan to do with them.
You can also buy preprinted, bottle cap-sized, stickers at the craft store.
Use caps with the pictures on the inside to make refrigerator magnets, pins or embellishments.
Use caps with the pictures on the top to make bracelet charms (such as the lettered caps shown in our photo), funky earrings or other decorative items. An awl will easily punch a small hole through the edge of the cap so that it can be attached to a bracelet, necklace or whatever.
Glue photographs of grandchildren to the inside of the cap and then glue multiple caps to a length of wide ribbon to make a special gift for Grammy or Gramps.
Contact Jonetta Coffin at jrocoffin@aol.com
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