Ruffled Pages Ornament Ball

Hi friends!

How was your Monday? I hope it was a good one for you all. :)

Well, I was going to show you my new ornament idea last night, but my camera battery died before I could add the pictures to this post, and it was so late, I decided to wait until today.

Besides, with three posts yesterday, I figured we'd already gone a little overboard! ;)

Actually, I am just so glad that something I did finally turned out okay! After last week's debacle with the attempted moss Advent wreath, I felt pretty low. Then I tried out another one of my ideas for an ornament, and it was a.total.flop.

So I went and took a nap.

But I was determined to create an ornament ball from book pages...and this is what I finally came up with:

Ruffled Pages Ornament Ball

This is a fun little ornament to make, and of course, it is made from book pages! ;) But the truly great thing about this is it is so inexpensive to make!

{What you'll need}

A book~ any old book will do! Some dollar stores carry paperbacks you won't mind cutting up! And don't forget to look at thrift stores. :)

Styrofoam balls~ the small size, about 2 inches diameter.

Glue gun and glue sticks

Pencil for tracing

Fabric scissors

Paper scissors

Small piece of cardboard or card stock for template

Thin length of linen or some other fabric or ribbon to hang ornament up with

First, make a template of a circle for tracing. (You can do this on cardboard or card stock, whichever you prefer.) My circle template is 1 and 3/4 diameter. You can make this with a compass, or even use an object such as a cup, that is the right size circle!

Trace your template onto a page of your book, as many times as you can on the page, and continue to do this until you have about 40 circles, or so.

Then cut all of the circles out. This is not a hard ornament to make, but I will admit, it does take a little time with the circles...

Now, taking one of your circles, fold it in half, then in half again.

{I am sorry you have to see my ugly, chapped hands...I just haven't figured out a way to show a tutorial without having them in the pictures!}

Then open it up like this:

Now this part is a little difficult to explain, but here goes: you need to hold it by fitting your thumb and pointer finger inside the two "holes" of the folded paper circle, like this:

Now see that little point on the end? Just put a little dab of glue with your hot glue gun right there.

{"lovely" looking glue gun, I know. But it's been with me through thick and thin for years now, and it's been well used...}

Now fitting your fingers into it like before, press it gently onto the Styrofoam ball.

Keep on adding the folded circles in the same way, gently pressing them in close together, so no styrofoam can be seen. It doesn't have to be perfect, but you don't want big gaps between the pieces you glue on.

When your ball is about half filled, add your length of fabric or ribbon to the "top". I made a loop and glue it together at the bottom and then glued it to the ball, pressing it in a little to make sure it had adhered well!

Finish adding the circles onto the ball, all around your fabric or ribbon loop. When it is completely covered, make sure there are no noticeable gaps.

Now you can hang it onto your tree, and enjoy! :)

What do you think? I am thinking of making these for some of my family and friends as part of their gifts...

I have a large styrofoam ball that I am doing this same thing with to make a hanging "mistletoe", or, as I think it is called when it is not make from mistletoe, a "Kissing Ball"...I will show you this when it is done!

And on Wednesday I will be back to show how to use a book page ornament ball to create something you can enjoy all year around, and not just at Christmas!

Thank you so much for stopping by! :)

Have a blessed night~

Jenni

I am linking this to:

Freckled Laundry's Air Your Laundry party

Homebody's Thrifty Gifty party