Origami Christmas Tree Ornament

It's my turn to share in the 31 Days of Handmade Christmas Ornaments Blog Hop today. It's such a pleasure to be a part of this fun Blog Hop again this year, 31 creative bloggers bringing you a handmade Christmas ornament idea each day in October.

It's not too soon to think Christmas if you want time to make your own ornaments. You need time to check out all the ideas, decide which you want to try and then gather your supplies!

I've been playing with a bit of origami recently and have made these easy and inexpensive diamond shaped ornaments from paper and then had loads of fun making them pretty!

All you need to make a basic origami Christmas ornament is a sheet of paper and some embellishments - whatever you have or whatever takes your fancy! I used embroidery threads, yarn, an old tassel, beads, a gold pen, colouring pens & mini pom poms, I'll explain each one as we go along.

First you need to make your basic diamond shaped (octahedron - that's an 8 sided shape to you and me!) origami. I'm not going to show you step by step here, I used this brilliant You Tube video from Jeremy Shafer. There is no point me showing you how to make them when Jeremy's video is SO good. 
Go and watch the video and make a few practice ones from scrap paper, the pages of old magazines are good, then come back when you are an octahedron making expert! It's not a difficult shape to make so once you have made 3 or 4 you will be able to make them without instructions.

Now you are ready for the real thing, let's start with these white, gold and pastel geometric ornaments.

To make one you will need:

• A sheet of white paper (mine was 120gsm which is quite thick for origami but worked great)
• A gold pen (mine was a Pilot Gold Paint Marker)
• Colouring pens/felt tip pens
• Embroidery thread
• Scrap card
• A kebab skewer
• A needle
• Sticky tape
• Beads (optional)

Trim the paper to a 8" (20cm) square and make it into a diamond/octohedron origami shape as you have just learnt. From a 8" square it will turn out approx 3" (8cm) x 2.25" (6cm).
Using a gold pen draw a line on all the edges of your origami shape. Make them as thick or thin as you like, just make sure you don't smudge the lines you have drawn as the gold paint pen takes a few minutes to dry.

Colour in a few sides to your shape, as many as you like, whatever colours you like.

Now you need to make a tassel.

1. Take a piece of scrap card and lay a 28" (70cm) length of thread across it
2. Wrap thread round the card about 16 times
3. Tie the first length of thread in a double knot at the top
4. Slide off the card, lay on another length of thread and tie in a knot
5. Wrap round a few times and tie again. Then to lose the ends, thread them onto a needle and poke them inside the tassel as in the photo
6. Trim the end and you are finished

Thread any beads you are using to the long ends then tape the very ends of those long threads to the kebab skewer. It's easiest if you tape right over the ends of the threads, stops them getting caught up inside the origami.

This is to make the needle long enough to poke right through your origami shape. If by some fabulous luck you have a super long needle just use that!

Poke the skewer right through the diamond shape, just go slow and it's pretty straightforward, just twizzle it a bit if it gets stuck.

Pull the skewer right through obviously, I just stopped for the photo! Add more beads if you want too. 

Ta dah! Your ornament is ready to hang.

I played with this idea and made an ornament with beads and a little bell saved from a Lindt Easter Bunny.

I coloured a few sides in gold on this one instead of just the edges too.

This next one is made from more Christmassy scrapbook paper with an old tassel from my stash and a few beads. You can see here with the patterned scrap book paper that it is good to use one with no directional print. You have no control over what way up it comes out on the different sides so you could have upside down trees or Santa faces, better stick with something that works all ways up.

And this is probably my favourite #pompomallthethings

Make a scrap book paper origami shape and add mini pom poms with a strong pva glue.

Once that is dry make a small pom pom over your hand (this video show how) leaving nice long ends for tying it up. Sticky tape the yarn ends to the kebab skewer and poke through the paper shape as before.

These ornaments are quick and easy to make once you have mastered the basic origami involved and you can decorate them however you like with whatever you have.

Have fun!

My Origami Ornaments are part of the 31 days of Handmade Christmas Ornaments blog hop, a new ornaments idea every day of October.

Here are all 31 Bloggers in order of their appearance:

Here are all 31 Bloggers in order of their appearance:

Day 1 - The Silly Pearl :: Day 2 -Yesterday on Tuesday
Day 3 - Cupcakes and Crinoline :: Day 4 - An Extraordinary Day
Day 5 - Knick of Time :: Day 6 - Pet Scribbles :: Day 7 - Simply Kelly Designs
Day 8 - Town and Country Living :: Day 9 - Petticoat JUNKtion
Day 10 - The Everyday Home :: Day 11 - Up on Tippy Toes
Day 12 - Remodelando la Casa :: Day 13 - DIY 180 :: Day 14 - 504 Main
Day 15 - Sum of their Stories :: Day 16 - At Home with Jemma
Day 17 - The Kim Six Fix :: Day 18 - Shabby Art Boutique
Day 19 - Morena's Corner :: Day 20 - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Day 21 - Our Southern Home :: Day 22 - Domestically Speaking
Day 23 - The Crafting Nook :: Day 24 - Sweet Pea
Day 25 - Dukes and Duchesses :: Day 26 - Heathered Nest
Day 27 - Lovely Etc. Day 28 - Stone Gable Blog :: Day 29 - Mod Podge Rocks
Day 30 - Running with a Glue Gun :: Day 31 - All Things Heart and Home

An InLinkz Link-up

I'm looking forward to seeing At Home with Jemma's ornament tomorrow.

You might also be interested in:

Christmas Windows

Christmas Scrabble Sign

Wooden Christmas Gift Tags

Papercut Christmas tree Picture

I'll be linking up at all these great link parties, pop over and have a little look round at all the lovely ideas.