Spiraled Paper Ornaments

Classy paper ornaments to snazz up your home!

Posted by TallysTreasury

About


The darling little ornaments simple to make and look wonderfully classy and unique. Also, if you play Magic the Gathering or any other collectible card game, you're probably DROWNING in far more cards than you need. Here's how to use up some of those extra land cards and valueless commons.

Playing cards are the perfect size for this project, and for this tutorial I’ll be giving you instructions based on making ornaments out of Magic or other playing cards.

To follow these instructions with other papers, cut strips that are 3.5 inches high and .5 inches wide. You’ll need 14 to 16 of these strips for each ornament, depending on the paper and how exact your width measurements are. You can use the same paper all the way around, or use 2 or 3 different papers.

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You Will Need (5 things)

  • Paper - playing cards (any playing cards) happen to be a perfect size for this, but you can also use scrapbooking paper, magazine covers, etc. Old greeting cards can make beautiful ornaments. It’s best to use pretty thick paper, of card stock weight.
  • Cutting Mat & rolling cutter OR ruler, pencil and scissors
  • Scissors
  • Yarn
  • Large Sewing Needle

Steps (13 steps, 60 minutes)

  1. 1

    Take 3 playing cards and cut each one into five vertical strips that are each 1/2 inch wide.

    Or cut 14 to 16 strips of any card stock weight paper, each strip 3.5 inches high and .5 inches wide.

  2. 2

    Lay the strips of the first card out in order, with large gaps between each piece.

  3. 3

    Lay the strips of the second card next to these pieces. Lay the strips of the third card in the remaining spaces.

    Your layout should be a strip from card 1, a strip from card 2, a strip from card 3, then another strip from card 1, and so on.

  4. 4

    Thread your needle with about a foot of thread/yarn/embroidery floss.

    Knot the end and trim off the extra.

    (Unless you want to tie a bead on the end, in which case do that now. Then knot the thread on either side of the bead.)

  5. 5

    Take the first card strip and pierce it with the needle at the bottom of the strip, on the front side. String it onto your thread.

    Repeat this with each card strip, in order.

  6. 6

    When all the strips have been strung, your ornament should look like this.

  7. 7

    Flip the strips over so you can see their back side, and tie a knot in your thread as closely as possible to the last strip of paper.

    There should now be a knot on either side of the stack of card strips.

  8. 8

    Grab the strip that's on the bottom of the stack, and pierce it from back to front with the needle.

  9. 9

    String the strip onto the embroidery floss, and push it down so it curves outward into a half circle shape.

    Repeat this process with each strip from the bottom of the stack to the top. Use one hand to keep the strung-on strips in their curved, half-circle shape while stringing on each new strip with the other hand. (If this is proving too tricky, you can always use a needle to poke a hole in the top and bottom of all the strips before stringing them.)

    You want the top end of each strip to be on top of the strip before it, not below or beside.

  10. 10

    When all the strips have been strung on, you'll have a spherical ornament, with a spot on one side where the strips meet up that’s slightly open and uneven, like a seashell.

  11. 11

    Push the top down as much or as little as you wish to create a flatter or a more oblong shape.

    Then, keeping the strips in place by pushing down with one hand, tie a knot in your thread as close to the top end of the ornament as you can.

  12. 12

    Make a loop with your remaining thread and tie a knot in it, again close to the ornament. Trim any excess thread.

  13. 13

    Decorate!