Christmas Baubles

 

How to make some really pretty baubles from Christmas patterned card

In this blog I will show you how to make a single bauble and then how you could string a few together to make a garland.

I've used Christmas patterned card but you make these from plain card or even old Christmas cards. You could make them in any colour or pattern to match the occasion - ie Easter or maybe even for a birthday.

They are fairly easy to make and I ended up doing all the folding over an evening whilst watching a bit of television. I have made them fairly small so they can hang on a Christmas tree, however you could scale them up for bigger decorations to hang from the ceiling just by cutting larger starting circles.

Follow the below link to find out how the bauble was made

You will need

• Christmas patterned card - not too thick (you will get one bauble out of 1 piece of 8 " square scrapbooking card)
• Scrap piece of white card
• 3 . 5 cm diameter circle die or punch
• 30 cm length of thin ribbon or string
• Pen
• Ruler
• Glue

1. Using the 3 . 5 cm circular die cut a circle from the centre of your scrap piece of white card. We will fold the circle but do not throw away the remaining card as this will be used for the template
   
   
   


2. Fold the circle in half, then into thirds as per the below photo's. Make sure you crease the folds, then unfold the circle
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


3. Place the circle back into the white card you cut it from and draw a mark at every second fold line of the circle onto the scrap card. Remove the circle - it's the scrap card that will be used as the template
   
   
   


4. Use the 3 . 5 cm circular die to cut 20 circles from your Christmas patterned card. I've used a robin patterned card and because I have used a die , I can centre the circle around a particular robin
   
   

   
   
   


5. Put one of the patterned circles into the white template
   
   
   


6. Lay your ruler across two of the pen points and fold the circle along the line
   
   
   
   
   
   


7. Lay your ruler along the next two points and fold the circle again. Do this for the last two points. This creates a triangular shape in your circle
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


8. Do point 7 for the remaining 19 patterned circles
   
   
   


9. You will need 5 of these folded circles for the top, 5 for the bottom and 10 for the centre line
   
   
   
   
   
   


10. Start by gluing the top section together. Put glue on one tab of a folded circle and place another folded circle against it matching up the semi circle shapes. Carry on gluing the 5 circles together but do not glue the final one to the starting circle. Make sure they form a circle as per the below photo
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


11. Now glue the bottom section together in a similar manner. (If you are using a picture like I did, be careful to ensure your image will be the correct way up when view from underneath. I glued my top and bottom the same way but you will see form the below photo's that once viewed from underneath my robins are all flying upside down !)

    

    This is the first bottom I stuck together

    
    

    

    However, you can see when it does become the bottom of the bauble, all my robins are upside down !

    
    

    

    So I re-made the bottom.  The one on the left is the first one and the one on the right is my second attempt

    
    

    

    Yay - my birds are now the correct way up when they form the bottom of the bauble
    

    
    


12. Now glue the centre line together in a similar fashion but ensure it keeps to a line rather than in a circle like the top and bottom.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


13. Take your piece of ribbon and tie the two ends together forming a knot and a loop
    
    
    


14. Place the ribbon inside the top piece so the knot shows in the white underneath and the hoop shows through the top. Add glue to the tap of the first circle and stick to the last circle so the top now forms a dome.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


15. Trim the tails of the ribbon if they are too long
    
    
    


16. Take the centre piece and now form it into a hoop by gluing the first and last circles together by the tabs
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


17. Put glue on the top tabs of the centre hoop and attach the top to it by matching the semi circle tabs
    
    
    
    
    
    


18. Take the bottom piece and form it into a dome by gluing the first and last circle tabs together
    
    
    


19. Now glue the bottom to the centre hoop in the same way you glued the top to it by gluing and matching the semi circle tabs
    

Your bauble is now complete and ready to be hung on your tree. 

I then went on to make a garland using a similar process. Instead of adding one piece of ribbon, I used a bit of bakers twine and built the baubles around it:

• Cut enough circles to make 6 baubles and follow the above steps 5 to 12
  
  
  
• Cut a long length of red and white bakers twine


• Place the string through the first bauble's top and glue the tabs together to create the top dome.
  
  
  
  
  
  


• Glue the centre strip of the first bauble into a hoop but ensure the string from underneath the first dome goes through the centre
  
  
  


• Glue the centre hoop to the top piece
  
  
  


• Place the string through the first baubles bottom piece and glue the tabs together to create the bottom dome
  


• Now glue the bottom circle to the centre hoop, therefore finishing the first bauble. The string now goes through the first bauble.
  


• Repeat this process until you have all of your 6 baubles attached to the string. Try to ensure you do not glue the string to any of the baubles. This way when you have added them all you can slide them along the string to even their spacing
  
  
  


This is your finished garland. You can add as many baubles as you need.