Sunday 12 October 2008

Christmas baubles

I know, it's only October! But if you want a handmade Christmas you have to start early.



I love how these look together. These use a mixture of Laura Ashley and Amy Butler papers.

You will need:
Polystyrene balls (I got mine from ebay, about £5 for 20)
Some 7inch florist wire
Wallpaper paste
Paper
Acrylic varnish



Step 1:
Use wallpaper paste because it stays nice and wet for ages, and you want to be able to mould the paper to shape. Make the paste quite "sloppy".
If you use quite thick paper, leave it to soak for a minute or so in the paste to soften.


Step 2

Chop up the papers randomly, into little bits.

Step 3

Bend the wire into a loop and twist the end inch together.

Step 4

Stick the end into the bauble

Step 5

This is the messy bit. Start by handing the bauble from something, then gradually cover the surface in your gluey paper.

Take your time, and allow the paper to soften if it's too stiff to work with.


Step 6
Allow to dry, it could take a whole day. When dry, apply a coat of varnish.


It also works quite well without the wire. Here are some I made using mullberry paper and some gold thread which look quite effective arranged in a bowl.

A


A note from Julie : Thanks for a great tutorial Anna !! For further inspiration check out Anna's Marmadaisy Blog HERE

10 comments:

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

These are really cute! I'll be linking to them in my Christmas Roundup.

CraftyHope said...

I love this idea. I see doing it without the wire and with some cook Christmas wrapping paper and then filling a large vase with them for the dining room or foyer table. Thanks for the inspiration!!

Unknown said...

Great tutorial!!!
Sandi

Nayheli said...

Wooow, que maravilla, esta idea me encanto para tener un árbol con toque de "scrap", muchas gracias por la inspiración.

Nayheli.

Anonymous said...

These look very vintage and I will definitely be borrowing this idea and putting them with some nice ribbons and beads. Thanks for such great inspiration.

Unknown said...

This is fun...definitely goopy with the wallpaper paste. i found that wrapping paper was easiest to work with. (i also tried it with some wallpaper samples....didn't work so well.) tomorrow, i apply the varnish. if it works...i'll do a vase full of little ones in wrapping paper. i think. :)

Jess said...

These are so cool! Very inspirational :D

Helen said...

What size polystyrene balls did you use? :-)

Anonymous said...

Works beautifully with fabric also. So easy, but so pretty! When you're done, and they're dry you can further "glam" them up with some glitter.

Anonymous said...

These are so easy to make that my 4th graders made then as Christmas presents for their parents. We used pieces of fabric one year and fancy paper napkins another. We used school glue to adhere the paper or fabric and when the original application of the decoration was dry we would put one more layer of glue over the entire project and sprinkle it with diamond dust ---- they were goreous!