Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Easy, Breezy, Christmas tree ornaments!



Materials
- Two colors of letter sized paper
- Scissors, craft knife and ruler, or paper trimmer
- Glue (Tacky glue was perfect because it dries so fast)

There are two different ways to make this ornament.

Option 1 (ornament in the background)
  1. This is the simplest one. It only requires 4 strips of paper, of alternating colors. Cut each strip so that it is 11" (28cm) long (hint: cut along the long side of the letter-size paper) and 1/4" (6mm) wide.
  2. Fold over and crease 1/2" (13mm) of one end of one strip.
  3. Glue the new tab to the opposite end of the strip of paper. The teardrop will automatically form itself as you glue both ends together.
  4. Let it dry and repeat steps 1-3 three more times in alternating colors.
  5. Stack the teardrops together by tucking the creased ends one over the other. Tie them together with a strand of embroidery thread that is long enough to hang the ornament from. Done!



Option 2 (ornament in the foreground of the top photo)
  1. This style of teardrop requires 5 strips of paper in alternating colors. They will all be 1/4" (6mm) wide but will vary in length.
  2. The strips should be 11", 10", 9", 8" and 7" long.
  3. Follow steps 3 and 5 from above.
The simplicity of this project and the fact that the kids have been loving my paper trimmer recently, may help turn this into a group project. We'll shall see.

Here's a wonderful way to use what you have on hand to make some festive and easy decorations.  I found this on  A Little Hut where Patricia Zapata found herself in a hotel room with her kids and needed to make it more holiday-like and needed to entertain her kids at the same time.  Great post, great blog.  Check her out, won't you?  I'm off to make a few of these to use at work.
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