Monday, December 13, 2010

Crafty Recycling - Recycled Card Ornaments Tutorial

I found these cute little decorations/ornaments on Martha Stewart's site, so decided to give it a try, and thought it's a good way to use cards you've received that just end up taking up space, you never really look at them again, but you don't really wanna throw them away either - well, this is me anyway.  But of course you can also make them for any occasion using pretty card stocks or your own painted or stamped papers etc.
So I've made a tutorial that's a little more in depth than on her site, and here it is:

This is what you'll need:
old cards (at least 2, depending on the size, since you'll only use the sides that have pretty prints on them)
craft glue and paint brush
scissors
sharp pencil
something to trace a small circle with (an ordinary 25g glue stick works well, and is the size of what I used)
protractor and compass (haha, well I wanted mine as neat as I could get!)
ribbon
glue gun

And here we go!

For starters, you'll need to trace and cut out 20 circles on your cards/paper:
Then cut out 1 extra circle and draw an equilateral triangle in the circle, making sure all 3 points touch the edge of the circle, then cut out the triangle.  This is where I had to bring in my husband and my protractor and stuff to help me make the perfect triangle! 

Anyway, once your triangle is cut out, place it on the back of the circle, and trace it on all 20 circles you cut out.  Once it's traced, you then need to score each line so that it folds easier:
This gets a bit tedious, but you'll survive!

Then you need to fold on every line in such a way that you're folding towards the coloured side of the circle, so that they look like this:
Now you take 5 triangles and glue 2 of each of their sides together to form the top of the ornament, like so:
Then you do the same for the bottom part of the ornament:
Next you take all remaining 10 triangles and glue them together so that they form a straight line instead of a circle like the above one, like so:
And then glue to the 2 loose ends together to form a circle:
Now you just take the top and bottom pieces and glue them to either side of the circle to form your little ball:

Lastly, cut a piece of ribbon and glue it to the ball to make your little tree decorations (or just leave 'em as they are and throw 'em in a decorative bowl or something).  This is where I do my glue-gunning, under my table, because its wire is so short it can't reach to the top of my table....hehe:
And here they are.....CUTE! :D

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11 comments:

Katherine said...

Amazing job! Excellent tutorial and a great idea! Thanks so much for sharing at the Holiday Hookup!

Traci S. said...

HI! I just love this project! What a wonderful idea...and they are so beautiful and colorful! You could use a glue pen on the edges and add a thin line of glitter or Stickles by Ranger. I love the look of them. I don't think I am co-ordinated to make them...but I love the look...I wonder if this could be done with old photos. Have one ornament of each member of the family! I don't know, I just know you are very creative! WTG!

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Traci Starkweather

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Unknown said...

What a wonderful way to use up last year's Christmas cards. I never quite know what to do with them and I always hate to throw them away ;)

CraftyMummy said...

These are a great idea! Love that you've used recycled card, and your pictures make them look super easy.

Thanks for linking to Mummy Crafts!

Andy Porter said...

Those are fantastic! I love how they turned out!! Thanks so much for linking!

Andy

Shelly @Crafty Creative Studio said...

What a great idea! Thanks for the tutorial. :)

Neil, Amy and The Girls said...

Oh, this are so cute! Thanks for sharing.

Monica said...

So cool, Monique... love it.

Met some really nice people through your blog... and I have become their follower. Great!

xxx Monica

lilia said...

Che bella idea !!! Complimenti !

cherspurple said...

Hi, I'm a member of DIsney Movie club .I think these would be great made from the fliers -withvarious Dianey characters in the circles!

Anonymous said...

These look cute ,I'm going to try them. Wish me luck ! Wish I cute print the instructions though !
Emilie