Recycled Holiday Ornament Tutorial #2

I know it is almost too late to be making holiday decorations now, but here goes, anyway. Tutorial #2.

Cut a cardboard tube leftover from wrapping paper, toilet paper or paper towels into sections. I used scissors to do this and it did get squashed a little, but I was able to make it round again. You could try using an Exacto knife if you don't want to squash it. I had some leftover from the window project which were painted. You can paint yours or leave it au naturale. Here is what it looks like.

The next step is for an adult to do. Make evenly (somewhat) spaced slots around the edge of the tube in the middle with an Exacto knife. It should look something like this.

Next, I used some big paper clips I had leftover from one of the elementary art lessons I did a few years ago. But you could also try using strips cut from plastic lids or containers, or cardboard strips from food boxes. You just want to make sure it is something a little stiff. Push the paper clips or strips into the slots. You will end up with something like this.

Then I cut some circles to go inside the tube from some food boxes. Some I decoupaged on wrapping paper or magazine pages, but I also left some just the way they were. You will need to cut two circles, one for the front and one for the back (you can trace the inside of the tube to make a template before putting in the paper clips, if you want). If you would like some variety, you can cut shapes out of the circles.

When you have the circles the way you like them, you will put glue on the backs of each and glue them to the paper clips and each other (sandwich the paper clips). I suggest using tacky glue for this as it works well for gluing disparate materials together. This should be enough to hold the paper clips in place, but I also put a little white glue on the outside edge of slots to help reinforce holding the paper clips in.

Below shows the back of one I made where I left the food box just the way it was. My grocery shopping one week was largely based on the color of container. There are quite a few things with red containers or boxes.

After this point, you can glue more things in the center of the circles to spruce it up even more. Some ideas are buttons, bottle caps, stickers, a smaller circle cut out of a different container, beads, etc. I recommend using the tacky glue again, unless it is a sticker or paper item.


The selection of beer for that grocery shopping week was based solely on this very cute polar bear cap.


Tie a string around one of the paper clips, hang and enjoy.  A bunch of these would look great in a window.

Recycled Holiday Ornament Tutorial

I just wanted to give you a quick tutorial on one of the decorations I made for my Winter Window. It's super simple and uses recycled materials.

Start with some plastic lids from yogurt or butter containers (or whatever else you can find). You can also use the bottom of the container if you choose. Cut off the edge of the lid (or cut circle out of bottom of container). Make sure the piece is completely flat. Then cut lines in toward the center, about halfway in, all around the edge. Be sure to cut an even number of lines. You should have something that looks like this.

If you want two layers, do the same for a smaller circle. Then, bend one "arm" forward and one "arm" back, alternating all the way around the lid. You can also cut the "arms" into different shapes to create variety. Now, you should have something that looks like this.

Next, you can put a piece of string, yarn, fabric or pipe cleaner around the lid between the arms. Tie or twist and trim ends. You can also do the same for the smaller circle if you want.

Find different items, such as pieces of old wrapping paper, colorful food boxes, cut felt pieces, etc, to decorate the very center of your ornament. Cut a slit in the center of all the pieces and push a brad through all to hold it together. Punch a hole in one of the "arms", tie string to hang and enjoy your decoration. On the first picture, I used a piece of scrapbook paper for the center.

If you want a two-sided decoration, just put two lids back to back. After placing the brad through (and opening prongs), you can glue something over the prongs to cover. Here are some I did for the window.

Blackbird

Here is a bird I made yesterday for a coworker who likes blackbirds. It is made from pieces of wool sweaters and a blazer. I used this pattern. It is the first 3D bird I have made and I didn't really intend for it to be a funny bird, but that is how it turned out. Now Anna wants me to make one for her (probably so all her stuffed cats can eat it!).

Go Green

Quite a while ago, Quilting Arts magazine had a "Go Green" challenge to make a small quilt using recycled materials. This is what I sent in, but they chose not to use it. Maybe there wasn't enough fabric for it to be considered a quilt. Anyway, I'm showing it to you now.

It is made with old pattern paper, flowers cut out from tissue paper, a piece of wool fabric cut from a thrift store skirt, old beads and tops of old buttons, a piece of selvedge, plastic tab from an orange juice can (that's the ruffles on the shirt), strips of leftover plastic canvas to make the border with stitches in between the holes. The backing is Timtex and more of the shirt fabric.

Bits and Pieces

I am still working on what I am calling my Recycle series. Here is something I did today. Can you guess what it is I used? (answer at end of post).


This is some embroidery I am going to use in a different piece. I don't think I've ever really done embroidery like this (I really don't do embroidery at all), but this was what I thought I needed for my idea. It is done on a piece of old cotton/linen shirt that I tried to tea dye. I started with just a little bit of colored pencil on the tree before I started stitching. I guess I could have made it a little darker.


Answer: tape from a cassette tape. Yes, I still have a few cassette tapes and a tape player on which to play them!