Spray painted planter

Over the holiday break I traveled a bunch— first to Alabama and then to Minnesota for Christmas with my family on the farm. One day involved making Christmas ornaments with my little niece. We sold our products at an ornament stand in the living room. She set the price at 2 pennies each and we split the profits. I took my nine cents and went thrift-store shopping when I got home. Fortunately I had a little extra cash in my bank account, which enabled me to buy a dresser on Craigslist which I plan to paint for the dining room, and a couple of vases for the parlor mantel.


I loved the shape of this mid-century planter (maybe McCoy?), and the green-gold color was kind of cool, but I decided it should be pink to match the parlor chairs. I spray painted it with Krylon ColorMaster Mambo Pink Gloss, and now it's quite happy looking.

I stuffed a plastic bag inside the pot to shield the interior and taped the opening to the rim with blue painter's tape to get a clean line. A cardboard box made a good spray booth in the basement; I painted near the outside door which was open for ventilation. The key when spray painting is to apply lots of thin, light coats, and you'll get a lovely result.

DIY paper Christmas ornaments

It's fun and easy to make these traditional paper ornaments, and there are lots of tutorials out there. I posted a how-to in 2006 and decided to make more for my tree this year. This time I didn't glue these modules into a star (which looks great; see the old post). I like them as simple individual ornaments, too.


To make cutting more uniform, here's the template I drew.
Large ornaments
Small ornaments

Print out a page and cut along the inner lines with an X-acto knife. (I freehand it.) Then cut out the squares.


Bend the center flaps inward.


Moving outward from the center, bend the next pair of flaps around to meet on the opposite side. Secure them with glue or tape.


Keep alternating the direction of the flaps until each pair is joined.

If you like, glue the points of six ornaments together to make a lacy star.

Origami diamond ornaments

I tried out Emma's directions for how to make an origami diamond from two squares of paper. Each half is folded separately and then the two pieces are glued together. The folding was easy but the gluing was a challenge! Getting all the peaks and valleys aligned at once took some fiddling, but the result is really cute.


After making these, I decided to hang them on our Christmas tree. I poked a hole in each end with a needle, then threaded a piece of wire through. I bent the bottom end of the wire into an acute angle so the gem won't slip off, then wrapped the top end of the wire over a pencil to form a hook.


If you already know you're going to make these into ornaments, you could make your life easier by adding string or wire to the top half before gluing the diamond together. Or leave the hanger off and put them in a bowl on the coffee table.

Find the tutorial here at Design and Form!

Free vector frames and ornaments

Vectorian is a great resource for graphic designers, featuring beautifully digitized vintage ornaments, illustrations, and frames. Best of all, there are some great free .eps files you can download. If you like art nouveau or calligraphic illustrations, and you've got Adobe Illustrator so you can open and use them, go check 'em out!

Cheap, homemade Christmas ornaments

Our Christmas tree has a few purchased ornaments on it, but most are paper things I've made. For a recap of the tutorials:

Modular balls
Flowers
Teardrops
Snowflakes
Ice cream cones
Striped bulbs
Retro foam ornaments
Origami garland (not on the tree at the moment, since it's in the process of getting longer.)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

DIY paper teardrop ornaments

I made a few more ornaments for my mostly paper-decorated tree. It's been super gloomy outside, so the corner of the living room with the tree is too dark for picture taking. Imagine these on a silver Christmas tree, instead of hanging from the wooden skewer I taped temporarily to the window sill to obtain maximum natural light. Ha!

To make these paper teardrops, download the template and print it on colored paper.

Cut out the drops, then fold them in half lengthwise with the printed side facing out. Cut out the hole in the middle.

Align the sides of two pieces and glue them together. Keep gluing in more pieces until the ornament is as full as you like. I used 16 pieces for these, but you could add even more. Then string the ornaments on thread.

Make your own Lego ornaments

Designer and photographer Chris McVeigh creates objects out of Legos and shares instructions for how to build your own Lego Christmas ornaments.

See all of his build-it-yourself projects here, including holiday bulbs, a turkey, and Santa's sleigh. Or check out the Star Wars ornaments, along with a piece of cake and a hamburger. Find the parts lists and instructions for the Christmas items right here. Awesome!

(Via ManMade DIY.)

A Pantone eyelash curler?

Pantone, the color matching system used by the printing, textile and plastics industries, has teamed up with Sephora to put out a line of products in this year's official color, Tangerine Tango. (Thanks for the tip, Kayla.) I'm all for orange! I wouldn't be caught dead in orange lipstick, but my toes wouldn't mind some tangerine polish.

I'm amazed by the relentless supply of licensed merchandise Pantone has been cranking out in recent years. Socks, chairs, contact lens cases, cuff links, toothbrushes, eye glasses, Christmas ornaments, Visa cards, and more. Does the world really need official Pantone false eyelashes? Sure, why not.

An interesting note: after I posted this Pantone chip craft project, I quickly received an email from Pantone’s Licensing and Trademark Department stating that they need to protect their licensees and intellectual property, and if I desire to extend the use of their intellectual property for commercial purposes, I should contact them to learn about current licensing terms. Apparently the licensing folks at Pantone keep very busy making deals with manufacturers and combing the internet for home crafters using old Pantone chips. I'm tempted to put a set of magnets up for sale and see if I get a cease and desist letter.

Make your own Christmas decorations

Here are tutorials for a handful of unique holiday decorations. There's plenty of time left to make them... along with shopping and wrapping and mailing and cooking and hosting and visiting. No problem. Right? Try your hand at these projects:

Felt Christmas ornaments at The Purl Bee
Paper bag wreath at Bloesem Kids
Helvetica stockings from Teal & Lime
Amigurumi bear ornaments (make pandas, koalas, and teddies) using this pattern by All About Ami

Easy paper ice cream ornaments

I added some more DIY ornaments to our Christmas tree. I'm having trouble adjusting to the thought of winter; can you tell? These ice cream cones are made from tissue paper and a grocery bag.

To make the cones, cut circles from a brown paper bag. Mine were about 4 1/2 inches in diameter. Cut each circle in half. Shape the semicircles into cones, cutting off any extra paper you don't need (the section that's sticking out in the photo.) Secure the cone with hot glue.

Wad a couple pieces of tissue paper into balls. I used chunks that were roughly 6" x 12", folded them in half, and crumpled them up.

If you plan to hang the ice cream cones, thread a needle with a doubled piece of thread. Poke the needle down through the top of the ball that will be the top scoop, so that a loop of thread sticks out of the top. Secure the loose ends on the underside with a dab of hot glue and trim off the excess.

Line the inside rim of the cone with hot glue and push the bottom scoop into the cone. Spread glue on the underside of the top scoop and add it to the cone. Let the glue dry for a minute and hang it on the tree.

Paper gem Christmas ornaments

I love these DIY gems created by Kate at Mini-eco. Get a template for making all the paper shapes here, then create a mobile, a garland, or hang them on your Christmas tree. They'd look mighty fine on my aluminum tree, now wouldn't they? Hmm...

How to make 3D paper ball ornaments

I love 3D paper things. Love. And when I saw a little picture of what appeared to be paper balls in a CB2 catalog, I thought, "I am going to make those."

So the other day while Alex was writing a paper about mysterious things like polymers and flexible films and tactoids, I made a paper ball. Then I proudly announced I had created a tactoid and it was sitting on my desk. He giggled. Apparently a tactoid is not a paper ball.

These are made from 12 slotted flower shapes that fit together to form a sphere. No adhesive needed; the only ingredient is paper. I made a template in Illustrator and cut out the shapes with my Silhouette machine, but you could also print out the pages and cut by hand instead.

Download the PDF templates here:
Large ball (10")– print/cut 12 sheets
Medium ball (5")– print/cut 2 sheets
Small ball (3")– print/cut 1 sheet

Download a Silhouette .studio file here:
Small ball (3")– unzip the file; cut 1 sheet. (The shapes can be scaled up or down in Silhouette Studio if you'd like to change the size.)

If you want to hang your ornament, you might like to add the string before assembling the ball. I placed a piece of tape on the back of one flower so the hole wouldn't tear, then used a needle to pull string through, forming a loop on the front side. I secured the ends of the string on the back side with another piece of tape.

Use the slits to join petals together. Keep adding shapes, connecting as you go, so that every petal is connected to another petal on a neighboring flower.

It might be helpful to think of the first piece as the "north pole," and then add a row of five flowers encircling it. At this point, the ball is half finished.

Here's what it looks like upside-down:

Attach the next row of five flower shapes, and finally, add the "south pole" piece to finish the globe.

The colored balls are made from regular-weight computer paper (Astrobright from Office Max) and the white balls are made with cardstock. The big sphere is the size of a basketball; the little one is approximately a baseball. And the medium-sized guy is maybe a large grapefruit.

Decorate felt balls with embroidery

Via Bloomize I came across this Japanese magazine with instructions for making embroidered felt balls (see p. 15). So pretty for Christmas ornaments or shade pulls or embellishments on gifts... True, the directions are in Japanese, but I bet you could figure it out using the diagrams for inspiration. If you want to buy plain felted balls, search Etsy. Or to make your own, try this tutorial.

This just in! Helpful blog reader Tiffany Harvey has translated the Japanese instructions for us!

Continue reading »

Free vector ornaments and frames

The other night I was designing something for a friend's wedding and needed some fancy curlicues. I could make some—but I'm lazy. I opted for a quick internet search for free vector graphics and found lots of useful goodies.

If you have a vector editing program like Adobe Illustrator, you might be interested in these from the Vector Graphics Blog:
Ornate design elements
Vintage decorative elements
Vintage decorative frames
Vintage ornate frames

Plus lots more where those came from. A word of caution: you'll need to navigate through a minefield of advertising links to get these, so be careful what you click. Skip the Google ads and click "Download link" midway down the page. When directed to MediaFire, ignore all the large flashing buttons! Look for the name of the .zip file and directly underneath, choose "Click here to start download from MediaFire."

Free calligraphic ornaments

To make your own designs with calligraphic flourishes like the recipe cards in the last post, try downloading Nymphette, a free ornamental font available for personal and commercial use from Lauren Thompson.

How to make paper lantern ornaments

Well, kids, I had tons of ideas for other ornaments and decorations and lovely new things I wanted to make before Christmas. But my ambition did not quite correspond to the amount of free time I have. Too many graphic design projects to finish before we head out of town this week. But during my internet travels I did come across these nifty paper ball decorations, complete with instructions. Nice work, anonymous blogger at The Creative Place.

This just in: A shortcut to making these. Thanks, Whitney!

(Image from The Creative Place)

Felt ball ornaments

I tried making yesterday's project out of felt. Equally cute, I think. And more durable, too. To make them, follow these instructions, but use felt and a hot glue gun instead of paper.

How to make 3D paper ornaments

Here's a Christmas ornament you can make with colored papers or magazine pages. I'm not sure what to call it. A funnel ball? The instructions:

1. Cut out 10 paper circles (any size, as long as they're all the same). Text weight paper will be easier to work with than cardstock.
2. Cut each circle along the radius.
3. Put a small piece of double-stick tape on each side of the cut near the edge of the paper.

4. Flip the circle over so the taped side is down; then pull each flap across the circle toward you and twist to form a cone. Press the taped ends down to secure. You should end up with two cones that look vaguely like a fortune cookie. Do this to each of your 10 circles.

5. String the double cones together with a needle and thread. Make sure they're gathered snugly in a ball and tie a knot. Use the trailing ends of the thread to make a loop for hanging.

Here's one made from magazine pages. If you like recycled crafts, give it a whirl. Or try a felt version!

How to make felt ornaments

If you're in the mood to make some felt ornaments, here's a round-up of cute tutorials to keep you busy:
Ice skates (shown above) at Better Homes and Gardens
Ball ornament at Zakka Life
Christmas owls at Diversions
Bird in a cage at Felt-o-rama
Retro-inspired ornaments at Fantastic Toys
Polaroid pictures at Katie Cupcake
Peppermint candies at Better Homes and Gardens
Jingle mouse at Pimp Stitch
Rosette wreath at Domestifluff

Felt gingerbread ornaments

Friday's Chicago Craft Social was lots of fun. The theme was handmade gifts and holiday decorations, like these felt gingerbread ornaments. I made this half-eaten gingerbread man using Elsie Marley's free pattern, available here. These tiny houses are based on Betz White's design in the e-book Crafty Tree Trimmings: Six Festive Holiday Ornaments to Make, for sale right here.