Vintage Inspired Crafts- Felt Ball Ornament Project

This super simple ornament is one that my son said was "Pretty cool". It was inspired by a paper ornament in Christmas Crafts for Everyone by Evelyn Coskey published in 1976.
This is the original project. Click on images to enlarge.

The original project calls for 9 layers of paper, however, felt is thicker than paper. 4 wound up being perfect.

To make the ornament, you'll need:

green craft felt

red craft felt

yellow 6 strand embroidery floss

Tapestry needle

scissors

something round to trace circles

pen to mark felt

I used a bottle that was 2 inches in diameter.

Mark 2 circles on each color felt and cut out. Thread needle with 3 strands of floss. Stack them in alternating colors and stitch a line down the middle. 

Match one green edge to a red edge, and blanket stitch through both layers to a 1/4 down the length (the length being just that circle half, so 1/8th of the circle), then blanket stitch through one layer only until you're a 1/4 of the length away from the bottom. Match the circle half from the other side to the layer you're stitching, and sew through both layers to the bottom. Continue around, then after all the segments are made, weave your needle through the stitches, being very careful not to pull, or just stitch back through the stitches, and finish the stitched edges. Knot off and hide knot and thread in center seam. 

Cut another length of floss and thread needle with it. Put through the top of the ornament and tie in a loop.

Here's the cover of the book if you're interested. My copy is a library discard. It distresses me that libraries discard such books, but I'm happy to give them a home!

Circles Box and what I've been beading!

As promised! Printable boxes to match the circles mandala posted yesterday.

Click on the images for bigger versions. Color and just outlines to color. Print on card stock, score, fold, glue. 

I finished a small beaded ornament yesterday and posted instructions on Beadwork at BellaOnline.

Ornament Coloring Page

Simple ball type ornaments to decorate and color. Click on the image for the larger version.

Recycled Ornaments

I recently had an opportunity to review Create Colorful Aluminum Jewelry for the Beadwork site at BellaOnline. It's a very inspiring book, and it inspired these ornaments.

It's made using a bottle cap, an empty soda can! I'm linking the tools I used to their pages on Amazon, it's an affiliate link, but mostly I'm linking them so if you want to know exactly what brand/type I used, you can see it. All of these punches should be available at your local Michaels.

You'll need:

An empty and rinsed out soda can

Old scissors you can cut a can with or tin snips

A bottle cap- also cleaned

An image- 1 inch square- 300 ppi looks best because you can get more detail in it. Print on cardstock or thick photo paper and seal with acrylic clear spray

1 inch circle punch

2 inch punch- I used a 2 inch circle punch

Decorative punch- I used this star

Metal punch or a hammer and nail

1/16 inch hole punch or any hole punch really. That was just what I had at hand

Wire, string or decorative yarn

Decorative beads if you'd like

Eyelets or brads- I recommend brads, more on that later.

Dimensional glue- the clear kind that you can cover an image with

An old phone book - I use one for almost all my drilling and punching to protect the surface I'm working on.

Sandpaper or nail file

Cut the top and bottom off the can, then cut the can open. By the UPC is a good place to cut if you want to center designs for your ornaments. Flatten it by running it across the edge of a table working against the curve. It won't flatten the can completely, but it will be pretty close.

Punch out the 2 inch shape and the decorative shape. If you have any sharp or rough edges, smooth them with the sandpaper or nail file. My punches are punching out the shapes pretty cleanly and need very little finishing.

Punch a hole in the middle of the large shape, and in the middle of the bottle cap, and put them together with the open side of the bottle cap out. I used an eyelet on mine, but because of the thickness of the bottle cap and how it bowed slightly when I punched it, I plan to use brads next time. The dome part of the brad would be on the back of the can piece, and the little arms spread on the inside of the bottle cap.

Cut the image out using the 1 inch circle punch, a 1 inch circle punch will fit perfectly into a bottle cap. You can do fan ornaments like my daughter and I are making, or you can do pictures of your children. It would be a good grandparent gift!

Glue the image into the bottle cap, and cover with dimensional glue. You can add glitter or all sorts of little inclusions at this point. 

Let it cure according to instructions. 

After it's cured, punch a hole in the top of your decorative shape, and the top and bottom of your framing big shape. Use wire, thread or yarn to connect the pieces and make a hanger.

If you want to decorate the metal, you can use paint markers, or let your kids design them and color them after you cut out the pieces. 

My daughter wants a full set of the Doctors for our tree. This is the art for them, click on the image for the full sized 300 ppi version. Personal use only please!

Sparkly Recycled Cardboard Ornaments

 We keep cardboard food packaging to use for crafting. It becomes the frame work for duct tape purses, new boxes, covers and backs for mini-notebooks and all sorts of other things. I like these a lot too. Glittered ornaments for our tree.

What you'll need is templates or craft punches a small hole punch, all but the heart I used a 1/8 inch punch on, glitter, we used Martha Stewart's because I have lots of it I bought on sale after the holidays last year,glue and some sort of spray sealer.

If you use my templates, print them out on paper, then cut them out. Trace the shapes on to your cardboard and cut out the cardboard. A craft knife is helpful for the peace symbol, but if you work carefully you can use scissors.

Punch a small hole near the top, and cover the shapes with glue and sprinkle glitter on them. Let dry. Seal. If you want them to come out very nice and neat looking, you could spray paint the shapes before spreading the glue and glitter on them, but I like the way these look without it. We put the glitter on the plain brown side.

You can actually decorate these all sorts of ways. I offered my daughter buttons and sequins as well. She did the green ones.She also wanted me to point out the shapes make nice negative stencils to decorate clothing with. Click on the templates for the full sized version.