Every year my sister, sister-in-law, and mom make our own ornaments. We have tried scads of different kinds in our years doing it. Some have been awesome and some have been duds. This year, depending on who you ask, was mostly a dud. I thought it was okay, and I genuinely enjoyed laughing so hard along with everyone at the ending results, of Beth's in particular.
Oh and it was also Beth's birthday. And she got laughed at. A lot. But all in good fun!
Okay so these ornaments. We followed these instructions found here. And as you can see by the ending product they turned out exactly like the images found at that link. Nope. Hard pass. But what fun was had in the process...
So. You need a sheet of scrapbook paper, a hot glue gun, scissors or a paper cutter, tape, twine/ribbon and a ruler.
You cut the paper into several different size strips...
1" strips x 2
1.25" strips x 4
1.5" strips x 2
Then you are to trim those down. The directions had a minor typo but! Leave the one inch strip alone. Cut down the four 1.25" strips into eight inches in length. Cut down the 1.5" strips into ten inches in length. Then arrange like so:
Then tape the middle three strips together, tape going on the blank side.
Then fold each shape like an accordion. How tightly do we fold here? Well this is the clincher. I ended up measuring mine and it seems in half inch folds to be best. One inch is no beuno and a quarter inch is just too tight. If your hand isn't cramping by the end you aren't doing it properly.
Then hot glue gun the ends to form circles like so....
And this next part got tricky. Lots of heckling in the peanut gallery and heavy wine pours later we eventually figured it out... but you need to bend the circle inward, pushing down one side to form this almost star-like shape. Then more hot glue in the center of both sides, holding it together until it dries. It was difficult to keep each layer flat but that seemed to really help the end product... so while it dries try and keep it flat.
Then stack together and glue down the center....again trying to keep it flat.
Then hot glue gun your hanging apparatus and done and done.
Or not, depending on how you see it.
Oh how we all love it when my mom laughs so hard she starts to cry. It's just such a gas. And here are more photos from the task and the day and yes! Happy birthday to Beth! A few weeks ago...
Oh and quite a lot of these were taken by Letty... she's quite handy to have around I think!
