Sunday, December 22, 2019

Hanukkah Star Ornament

Hanukkah Star Ornament

This Hanukkah Star ornament design is based on the same premise as Twelve Days of Christmas Ornaments.  Please use the instructions from my previous blog posting to make this ornament. https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-twelve-days-of-christmas.html

Here is the  PDF.  I used 65 lb. cardstock.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LvkFb8YMQ6v8Y8KyEF3YemP2SRHuhkvK/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file.  I did not include a different file for the ribbon.  It is included in this file.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YnvOnOYqrAvnZDg11zh-mx2Rpd6hP-Cw/view?usp=sharing

Happy Hanukkah to all of my Jewish friends!

Saturday, December 21, 2019

The Twelve Days of Christmas Ornaments

Twelve Days of Christmas Ornaments

The Christmas season is upon us and I am decorating my tree with paper ornaments.  I made ornaments depicting the twelve days of Christmas. The twelve days of Christmas begins with the birth of Christ on December 25 and ends on the Feast of Ephiphany, January 6.  This is the day that the three wise men of the East (Magi) follow the Star of Bethlehem to worship him and give him gifts.

The song the "Twelve Days of Christmas" was the inspiration for these ornaments.  The scenes shown in the three dimensional star are: 

A Partridge in a Pear Tree 
Two Turtle Doves
Three French Hens

Four Calling Birds
Five Golden Rings
Six Geese a Laying
Seven Swans a Swimming
Eight Maids a Milking

Nine Ladies Dancing
Ten Lords a Leaping
Eleven Pipers Piping
Twelve Drummers Drumming

The ornaments have 3/8 inch wide ribbons which were Foil Quilled with the words of the scene.

Here is the PDF.  I used a Christmas paper pad for the star and 65 lb. white paper for the scenery insert.


Here is the .Studio file for the ornament.

Here is the .Studio file for the Foil Quilled ribbon.


Cut out 12 strips and fold them all into a pentagon.

Bend the tabs of the scene and apply glue to the inner edges.

Adhere the scene to the pentagon. Repeat for the remaining scenes.

Completed scenery inserts.

Bend the star as shown above.

Apply glue to the triangle without a tab as shown above. Adhere to form a pyramid.

Apply glue to the pyramid tab and adhere it to the adjacent triangle.

Repeat the process of glueing the triangle tab.

And the pyramid tab until the star is completed.

Put glue on the back of the pentagon piece on the right.

Adhere this scene to the back of the star.

Insert the scene into the star by aligning the scene with the hole in the star at the top. You might need to crimp the pentagon a little and use a knife to guide the scene into the star.

Completed stars with their scenery inserted.

Cut an eight inch piece of string.

Using a needle thread the string through the hole at the top.

Tie a knot at the top of the string to make a loop.

Using the Ribbon file for the Foil Quill, follow the directions in the file.  The blue lines are the cut lines and the red lines are the sketch lines when you Send the file for action to be performed.
Insert a piece of cardstock into your Cameo and send the file to cut out the blue lines(uncheck the red lines).  Do not unload the paper when the machine has completed the cut. Above you will see that the paper is still loaded and the six areas where the cut was made, have been removed.

Here is the 3/8 inch ribbon that I used.

Using the removed cut outs, cut six ribbons and adhere each one to the mat.

Tape on the foil. (The foil in the photo above is not correct...it was taped on the wrong side.) The gold foil must be showing.  (I forgot to take another photo once I corrected my mistake.) Insert your Foil Quill to the pen holder as per the manufacturers instructions, send the file to sketch the red lines in the file to Foil Quill the ribbon(uncheck the blue lines).

Foil Quilled ribbons. You can now unload the machine. Keep the foil as you will be using it for the second half of the ribbons.

Repeat for the next six ribbons. Load the machine and cut out the second half of the spots.

Do not unload the machine.  Adhere the ribbons.

Attach the foil.  Make sure that clean foil is aligned to the ribbon areas.  Foil Quill the ribbons.

Cut out a fourteen inch piece of ribbon for the bow.

Bend the ribbon at 4 1/2 inches and begin to make the bow. Do not pull it tight yet.

Insert the Foil Quilled ribbon into the knot and then make the knot tighter.

Apply a drop of glue under the knot.

Apply a substantial amount of glue to the top of the ornament as shown above.

Adhere the bow to the glue.

Completed ornaments.

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Christmas Angel Ornament

Origami Paper Angel and Plain Copy Paper Angel

This Christmas Angel ornament is very easy to make.  I designed this as an assisted living activity for people with limited dexterity. The paper is folded and minimal gluing is required.

I have included two versions of this ornament.  One using 6 x 6 origami paper.  This origami paper is made from rice paper. The other version is with regular copy paper.

Here is the PDF.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mNmH7J9WA2YhlGGMF0_Bnn5PhZCwU3UV/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XD76I7G9E5VjYWRtb78izow-k-FXMq9q/view?usp=sharing

Cut an eight inch piece of thread for the hangar. 

Fold the perforations as shown above.

Bend the wings as shown above.

Curve the smaller face tab inward and glue the tab down.

 Repeat for the larger halo tab. This tab will be glued on at the opposite side.

 Bend the bodice piece in half and bend it around the body of the angel.  

  Put a drop of glue on the back of the bodice piece.

Thread the hangar through the hole in the back with a needle. Tie the thread into a knot. (The residents could not do this part so I did it.)

Origami Paper Angel


Sunday, December 8, 2019

An Ice Skating Scene Card

Ice Skating Scene Card

This ice skating card is like a diorama.  There are five sections which when folded together create a three dimensional scene.  The five sections are glued together by a tab.  Each section is numbered in the file to help with the placement.

Here is the PDF.  I used 65 lb. metallic cardstock for the card.  The cover is glitter cardstock with the inner circle glued to the center back.
Here is the .Studio file.

The construction of this card is the same as the nativity card.  https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2018/11/nativity-card-for-christmas.html The exception is that there is a cover glued to the first scene and the last scene is glued to a backing with a glittered circle glued to the center.

Top view of the card. Notice the zigzag that is formed when the sections are glued together.

This card would be a beautiful accompaniment to the slice form ice skating snow globe which I made in the previous blog post.  https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2019/11/a-sliceform-snow-globe-with-ice-skating.html


Wednesday, December 4, 2019

2019 White House Christmas Stars - A Five Point Star, An Eight Point Star And A 3-D Star

I saw a video of the the White House decorated for Christmas and I saw three stars that I wanted to recreate...a five point star, an eight point star and a 3-D star.  Above is a photo of these stars on my Christmas tree.


The first star is a traditional five point star. This White House star looks like it was made out of glass.  My star, of course, is made out of white cardstock.

The second star is an eight point star with two sizes of points. Here is a screen shot of the eight point stars hanging from the ceiling at the White House.

I love how the eight point stars adorn the White House hallway.  My version has been resized so that you can put it on your Christmas tree. The third star is a 3-D star.

The 3-D star is hung over the fireplace at the White House.  My version is for a Christmas ornament.  However, you can resize my design to make it bigger if you want to hang the star over your fireplace. 

Here is what the three stars look like up close.

Five Point Star

Eight Point Star

3-D Star

Please note, the five point and eight point stars are hard to make.  They require patience and good gluing skills. The 3-D star is very easy to make.

Here is the PDF for the 5-point and 8-point stars.  I used 65 lb. white cardstock.

Here is the .Studio file for the 5-point and 8-point stars.

Here is the PDF for the 3-D star.

Here is the .Studio file for the 3-D star.


Instructions to make the five point star:

Fold all five points and apply glue to the tab as shown above.

Adhere the tab.  Make three more points.  Do not glue the fifth point together.

Apply glue to the underside of the tab on one side.

Adhere the tab to the inside of second point. First on one side.

And then apply glue on the other tab and adhere to the other side of the second point. 

Picture of the inside of two points that were glued together.

These two points can be folded down.

Adhere the third and fourth points in the same manner.

Four points glued together and the fifth point.

Slide and glue the fifth point to the tabs as shown.

Fold the fifth point together and apply glue to all of the tabs.  This is the tricky part. Make sure everything is aligned and hold the star until the glue dries successfully.  You might have to reapply a small bead of glue to the edges to get everything to stick together.

I added a string to the star using thread and a sewing needle to pierce the paper.  I tied a knot to make the hanger for the Christmas tree.

Completed five point star


Instructions to make the eight point star.  The procedure to make the eight point star is exactly the same as the five point star with the additional points added alternating the big and small points.  Leave the smallest point to be glued in last.

Fold all eight points. Set aside one of the small points. This will be the last point glued to the star.

Glue all of the points except for the small point.

Glue and adhere a tab from one large point to the other small point.

Glue and adhere the other tab.


Continue glueing and adhering the two tabs of each point to the next successive point.

The points can be folded down.

All the point have been added except for the smallest point.

Glue the tab of the large point to this small point.

Apply glue to all of the tabs remaining on the small point and adhere into a small point.  This is the tricky part. Make sure everything is aligned and hold the star until the glue dries successfully.  You might have to reapply a small bead of glue to the edges to get everything to stick together.

I added a string to the star using thread and a sewing needle to pierce the paper.  I tied a knot to make the hanger for the Christmas tree.

Completed Eight Point Star. 

Instructions to make the 3-D star. Crease the star as shown above.

Using an eight inch piece of string, thread it throw a spot near the end of a star point to make a hangar  for the ornament.

Tie a knot at the end of the string.  The 3-D star looks very pretty at this point even without the bow.

To make the bow. Cut a four inch ribbon

Cut a one inch ribbon.

Apply glue to the center back of the four inch ribbon.  Fold the ends to the middle of the glue spot.

Wrap the one inch ribbon around the bow and adhere the ends to the back of the bow. Glue the bow to the star point where the string is located.

Completed 3-D Star Ornament

3-D Ornaments with and without the bow.  Both look beautiful!