Tag Archives: ball

365 Days of Creativity

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I have turned into a slug. I realized that my creativity feels at an all time low (not quite true, but certainly close). I had forgotten that creativity, like so many other skills and abilities can go stale. I need to practice, practice, practice. Also, after the holidays and Christmas I am feeling a little consumery and need to create (feeling a little like Dr. Frankenstein, “It’s alive!” as I come out of my consumer coma.) So, my plans for this year:

365 Days of Creativity

I will create something every day. It can be simple, dinner. It can be complicated, shelving for my loft. The key here is to create something that will benefit someone in some way. That someone could be me as in the case of dinner, but it could also benefit my husband, sister, mother, friend, co-worker, dog, stranger, bird in the tree. Be prepared for some bad photos with bad lighting on occasion, heck, maybe a good create would be a good photo, or a good photo booth, who knows.

Tonight, I created happy dogs. Easy I know, but I am starting small. It creates the added bonus of a Happy Kristin, too.

KC wants attention
KC wants attention.
Petey found his ball
Petey found his ball and brought it to me.
Now, throw the ball already
Now, throw the ball already!!
Woohoo! I get to catch the ball!
Woohoo! I caught the ball!
Let's go play in the snow, okay?
Let’s go play in the snow, okay?

Happy Creating!

Kristin

Paper Punch Ornament

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Okay, I am 2 days late with this post, but you will have to forgive me, between class, a major migraine, and a massive snowstorm, I have been a little bogged down.

In my last post, I used this wonderful paper punch and I just have not been able to resist using it again. This time, I used gift-wrap for the paper cut-outs. I have discussed before my one-time hobby of making temari balls. I have massive amounts of supplies left over from this hobby and I raid it regularly for other projects. For this project, I nabbed a wrapped ball that I had already made. I use stuffing and wrap it with loads of sewing thread. I was a little more proactive this time and added my hanger before I got started adding the paper punch-outs.

Paper ornament with paper punches

I cut out loads of the paper punch-outs and used beading pins and sequins to attach them to the ball. I started at the bottom of the ball and went around in a spiral adding paper punch-outs as I went around and up the ball.

Paper ornament close up

It is a really easy ornament to make and only took me about a 1/2 hour. This does not include the time it took me years ago to make the thread-wrapped ball, but that only took me about 20 minutes at most. You could also use a foam ball for your base as well.

I am really happy with how the ornament turned out.

Happy Crafting!

Kristin

Small photo of paper ornament.

 

Ornament Advent: Day 11 Foil and Scrapbook Paper Ball

Advent Ornament Countdown, Christmas Ornaments, craft, Crafts from the Past, Creativity, DIY, Homemade, How to, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I really wanted to make a simple ornament with aluminum foil. I have been wracking my brain trying to think of something and it hit me while I was driving home from work. I could make an awesome ball with strips of foil and paper.

Ball Christmas ornament made of strips of paper and aluminum foil

The ornament is a ball inside a ball. The style is reminiscent of a ribbon temari ball  that I made years ago. I cut strips of aluminum foil 1″ wide and strips of scrapbook paper 1/4″ wide (all the strips were roughly 12″ long). I folded the foil lengthwise to not quite in half. I then folded the other edge to give myself two nice, smooth edges. This made the foil strips about 3/8″ wide. I ran a bone folder over the foil strips to make them smooth and shiny. I glued the scrapbook strips to the foil strips and let them dry.

Paper and aluminum foil Christmas ornament.

After they were dry, I cut the strips to 10″ long, just to make them easier to handle. Then I wrapped the strips around a solid object (I used a small glass for the outer ball and the glue bottle for the inner ball), glued the ends down, and cut off the excess. I made four smaller rounds and 4 larger rounds. I made the inner ball first then added the larger strips to make the outer ball. I glued the top and bottom where the strips met.

Ball ornament made of strips of paper and aluminum foil.

I made a small circle of foil about 1/4″ wide and glued that to the top of the ball and attached a homemade hook and I was finished. I think the whole ornament took me about an hour to make.

I am really happy with it, although it is rather delicate. At least if it gets bent out of shape it is really easy to fix.

Happy crafting!

Kristin