Origami Christmas Tree Ornament
/It's my turn to share in the 31 Days of Handmade Christmas Ornaments Blog Hop today. It's such a pleasure to be a part of this fun Blog Hop again this year, 31 creative bloggers bringing you a handmade Christmas ornament idea each day in October.
It's not too soon to think Christmas if you want time to make your own ornaments. You need time to check out all the ideas, decide which you want to try and then gather your supplies!
I've been playing with a bit of origami recently and have made these easy and inexpensive diamond shaped ornaments from paper and then had loads of fun making them pretty!
All you need to make a basic origami Christmas ornament is a sheet of paper and some embellishments - whatever you have or whatever takes your fancy! I used embroidery threads, yarn, an old tassel, beads, a gold pen, colouring pens & mini pom poms, I'll explain each one as we go along.
How to make Origami Christmas Tree Ornaments
Learn to make the origami shapes
First you need to make your basic diamond shaped (octahedron - that's an 8 sided shape to you and me!) origami. I'm not going to show you step by step here, I used this brilliant You Tube video from Jeremy Shafer. There is no point me showing you how to make them when Jeremy's video is SO good.
Go and watch the video and make a few practice ones from scrap paper, the pages of old magazines are good, then come back when you are an octahedron making expert! It's not a difficult shape to make so once you have made 3 or 4 you will be able to make them without instructions.
Now you are ready for the real thing, let's get started making beautiful geometric ornaments.
How to make White and Gold Origami Ornaments with Pastel Tassels
To make one you will need:
A sheet of white paper (mine was 120gsm which is quite thick for origami but worked great)
A gold pen (mine was a Pilot Gold Paint Marker)
Colouring pens/felt tip pens
Embroidery thread
Scrap card
Scrap book paper
A kebab skewer
A needle
Sticky tape
Beads (optional)
Yarn and a mini pom pom maker (optional)
Trim the paper to a 8" (20cm) square and make it into a diamond/octahedron origami shape as you have just learnt. From a 8" square it will turn out approx 3" (8cm) x 2.25" (6cm).
Using a gold pen draw a line on all the edges of your origami shape. Make them as thick or thin as you like, just make sure you don't smudge the lines you have drawn as the gold paint pen takes a few minutes to dry.
Colour in a few sides to your shape, as many as you like, whatever colours you like.
Making and attaching a tassel
Now you need to make a tassel.
Take a piece of scrap card and lay a 28" (70cm) length of thread across it
Wrap thread round the card about 16 times
Tie the first length of thread in a double knot at the top
Slide off the card, lay on another length of thread and tie in a knot
Wrap round a few times and tie again. Then to lose the ends, thread them onto a needle and poke them inside the tassel as in the photo
Trim the end and you are finished
Thread any beads you are using to the long ends then tape the very ends of those long threads to the kebab skewer. It's easiest if you tape right over the ends of the threads, stops them getting caught up inside the origami.
This is to make a ‘needle’ long enough to poke right through your origami shape. If by some fabulous luck you have a super long needle just use that!
Poke the skewer right through the diamond shape, just go slow and it's pretty straightforward, just twizzle it a bit if it gets stuck.
Pull the skewer right through obviously, I just stopped for the photo! Add more beads if you want too.
Ta dah! Your ornament is ready to hang.
Gold origami ornaments with beads
I played with this idea and made an ornament with beads and a little bell saved from a Lindt Easter Bunny.
I coloured a few sides in gold on this one instead of just the edges too.
Scrapbook paper origami ornaments
This next one is made from more Christmassy scrapbook paper with an old tassel from my stash and a few beads. You can see here with the patterned scrap book paper that it is good to use one with no directional print. You have no control over what way up it comes out on the different sides so you could have upside down trees or Santa faces, better stick with something that works all ways up.
How to make an Origami Ornament with Mini Pom Poms
And this is probably my favourite origami ornament idea #pompomallthethings
Make a scrap book paper origami shape and add mini pom poms with a strong pva glue.
Once that is dry, make a small pom pom with a fork leaving nice long ends for tying it up. Sticky tape the yarn ends to the kebab skewer and poke through the paper shape as before.
These ornaments are quick and easy to make once you have mastered the basic origami involved and you can decorate them however you like with whatever you have.
Have fun!
My Origami Ornaments are part of the 31 days of Handmade Christmas Ornaments blog hop, with a new ornaments idea every day of October. You can find all the other ornaments that were shared in this Christmas Ornament Round Up here.
Julie
I'll be linking up at all these great link parties, pop over and have a little look round at all the lovely ideas.
