Homemade Christmas Ornaments

"Woven Paper Ornaments"

Submitted by Marcia Stehouwer

With the availability of all kinds of fancy papers, this year I chose to do some paper weaving in order to create the annual Christmas ornaments. 

Scrapbooking paper often has two sides and this added to the variety available for weaving. Also the whole sheet is not required, just a third of it.

Choose a subject. These are the shapes I make every year for my nieces and nephews. There should be at least 2 varieties of colour, but the heart had four. 

For weaving, slash (weave) the paper leaving about an inch at each end. I did a width of about 3 – 4 inches, depending on how big you want the ornaments. Mine were about 3 inches wide, with the shapes being about an inch and a half.

Here you can see the weaving. Apply a backing (I used mailing stickers that I had handy from something else, and this kept the weaving intact when I cut out the shapes.

The original intent was to go with white “matting” but that changed after I started the hearts. 
Cut your shape out of the matting. Because I didn’t have a good exacto knife I used a pin to perforate the shapes. This gave a softer edge to each piece which was quite nice. You can do either!

Cut a piece of your weaving just a bit larger than your cutout. This doesn’t need to have the same shape, so you can get more out of your “fabric”. Glue or attach this to your matting. 
Finally cut a base piece and glue this to the bottom of the ornament, add a string and you’re done!

Each year I also make my daughter an angel using the same technique as the other ornaments. I love how the scraps worked together to make this one of my favourites. 

As you can see for the sheep, I did some drawing in of heads, tails, and feet. For the tree I paper punched a circle for the top and placed some brown paper for the trunk. I hope these instructions are helpful. 

2011 Homemade Christmas Ornaments Index