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confetti ornament

Christmas Advent 2015 – Day 6 Confetti Ornament

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It has been a nice, quiet Sunday around here today. A positively beautiful day that my dogs are thoroughly enjoying.

We are now at day six and I have a really awesome ornament for you today. I have this bag of plastic snowflake confetti that I have been using for various projects and I made up this confetti ornament last night.

confetti ornament

Materials:

  • 3″ Styrofoam ball
  • Confetti snowflakes
  • Sequin pins
  • Small piece of wire
  • Super glue
  • Ribbon
  • Nail set (not necessary, but I found this very helpful)

I took my small piece of wire and made a loop that I stuck into the top of the ball and super glued. This gave me my loop for the tree hook. This appears to to be the start of all my Styrofoam ornaments.

I bent up the snowflake arms of the confetti to give my ball a 3-D appearance. Next, I started pinning the bent snowflakes to the foam ball with the sequin pins. I pinned these in circles around the ball. I snugged them all together so they the bent snowflake arms are all intertwined and there is very little of the foam ball showing.

start of confetti ball

I used the 1/32″ Nail Set to push the pins in all the way so I would not bend up the confetti snowflakes. The nail set is a simple tool from the hardware store, used to inset nails in trim and such. You can see it in the photos below. It worked great for this project. It even had a small cup on the end so the pin doesn’t slide around as you push the pin into the ball.

materials used for confetti ball

AlmostDone

After starting this ornament, I thought that it might be very pretty to have painted the ball before adding the snowflakes. I wanted a very white ornament to contrast to the green tree, so I left mine white. I made a small ribbon bow and attached it to the top of the ball with the tree hook.

I do not recommend dropping this ball on the floor if you have carpet and pets. I have a lot of dog fur on my floor no matter how many times I sweep and I was terrified that I would drop the ball and end up with it covered in fur. The bent arms of the confetti snowflakes make them almost velcro-like in its ability to pick up lint and fur. I didn’t drop it, but I just wanted to forewarn anyone else who made this.

Happy Crafting,

Kristin

Ornament Advent: Woven Paper Heart Ornament

Christmas Ornaments, craft, DIY, Homemade, How to, ,

heart

Loryn – The Crafty Sisters are kicking off our Advent Ornament Challenge! For each day of December up til Christmas, we’ll be posting a fun and easy ornament that you can make.

First up is this woven heart ornament. I remember making these in Girl Scouts in the early ’80s. I was fascinated by the technique. Weave the paper together, and it makes a basket. Magic!

To make the ornament, first pick out your paper. Back in the Girl Scouts, we used construction paper, but I had some double sided scrapbooking paper on hand that worked great. Use a medium weight paper, not too thin or they won’t hold up, and not too thick or you won’t be able to do the weaving. Fold the paper over the 3 1/2″ mark, then trim off the rest.

heartfold

Then you’ll want to cut two pieces that are 3 1/2″ long (one side of the fold only) by 2″ wide. Then fold one of them the other way so the reverse print is showing.

heartready

Then shape the top of each piece into a semi-circle, for one part of the heart. Cut two slits into each piece, starting at the fold. The slits need to be more than 2″ long. You’ll end up with this:

heartslits

Now you’re ready to start weaving. The technique isn’t your standard over-under-over-under. Instead, you need to put the “under” pieces through the middle of the alternating piece. Here, I’m starting by inserting the gray piece into the middle of the pink:

heartstart

Then the pink ones need to go through the middle of the gray on the next row. It’s best to do the first two on each side, then finish up the last three.

heartweave2

When you get to the last ones, you’ll see why the paper still needs to be flexible! Keep at it, and you’ll end up with this:

heartweave3

Now all you have to do is push the pieces into shape and add the finishing touches.

heartopen

To give them a bit more finish, I put a small grommet onto each side of the heart, to thread the ribbon through. I used about 10″ of white ribbon and tied them off with square knots. Fill them with candy for a simple Christmas gift!

— Loryn

heartgkr