Tag Archives: pins

Paper Punch Ornament

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

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.

 

Felt Christmas Tree ornament

Ornament Advent: Day 7 Felt Tree and Wreath

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

Today’s ornament was a massive lesson in frustration. Or rather, the ornament that you don’t see was. My original idea for an ornament failed spectacularly. My craft table is covered with parts, bits, and pieces. Around 10:00pm I realized that it was never going to work. Then began the frantic search. I dug through all of my supplies in the hope for a lightning strike. I didn’t get one until I was texting my sister that I was ready to give up. Right after I hit send, it hit me.

Felt Christmas Tree ornament

I love felt and I had a lot of fun last year with the pins and sequins ornament I made, so why not combine the two. The base of this ornament is a ball I made for temari. Temari is a Japanese art form that I played with a few years ago and kept all my supplies (go figure). You make the ball by taking a very large handful of stuffing and wrapping it with thread (one way to make the ball anyway). A lot of thread. You keep winding the thread around and around and around the stuffing until you get a round ball. This particular ball was my attempt to create a flattened ball to showcase a design on the front and back. I never did get around to completing the temari, but it gave me an excellent form to create my Christmas ornament.

Felt wreath side of the ornament

Next, I cut strips of felt around 1/2″ to 3/4″ wide and started cutting these strips into triangle pieces. Then I took my piles of pins and sequins and pinned the triangles to the ball to make the images of the wreath and tree. I used some fuzzy white thread to make a sort of frame to separate the two images by sewing it around and around the ball. I made a quick hook and voila! I was finished.

Side view of Christmas ornament
Here you can see the fuzzy white thread.

I really like the effect of the multiple colors of green for the Christmas tree and the stars in the wreath really make it pop. You could use anything for the form of the ornament, Styrofoam would be very easy. I imagine a Santa Claus/reindeer ornament would be very cute. Anyone want to try it? Send us your picture and we will post it! I would love to see someone else’s version.

Christmas tree side of ornament

Just goes to show that necessity really is the mother of invention.

Happy Crafting!

Kristin

Christmas Ornament Countdown: Sequins and Pins

Christmas Ornaments, craft, Creativity, DIY, How to, , , , ,

I just barely made it under the deadline for my ornament in our countdown. Cheri’s paper snowflakes were amazing!

This particular ornament is for me a sort of homage to some ornaments of my stepfather’s.They were popular in the 70’s to make. We have hung them on our Christmas tree for years and I have always loved them. Here is my version:

Red thread wrapped ornament with sequins and pins.

I have tons of styrofoam shapes from another craft project  that I used to do, temari balls (more on that one later), and used a 6″ egg as my base. I wrapped it in yards and yards of red thread and stitched the thread under other threads to end it. I then followed the steps for marking temari balls. The process is here, under How To, and then Dividing Hints and Help.and is a very easy process to do. This ensures that your pins are all the same distance apart from north to south.

Top view of red thread wrapped ornament with sequins and pins.

I did have a lot of fun purchasing the sequins and pins. I have never had a project that needed sequins, so now I have a selection if I ever need them in the future. The seed beads were already in my collection.

Bottom view of red thread wrapped ornament with sequins and pins.

Happy Holidays from Kristin!