Twelve Hexagon Shaped Christmas Ornaments

Christmas tree with twelve hexagon shaped ornaments

 Christmas Ornaments

Every year I like to add more paper ornaments to my Christmas tree.  This year I made twelve hexagon shaped ornaments in remembrance of the twelve days of Advent.  Of the twelve ornaments, I made six religious ones. The twelve days of Advent 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.

Here is the PDF.  I used 65 lb. white paper and foil cardstock from Michaels.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zht498CKQa5rlo_dieIcrzzeSn09Kl-l/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file for the ornament.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19YjqiNa6k7CvTjYJM0sHgZEffBdGDRXb/view?usp=sharing

Here is the SVG.  The file extends beyond the viewable area.  Zoom out to see the entire file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mjcr_0-cv9RVLDPvnTD1kE-9yJ6zlzRl/view?usp=sharing

Glue and adhere the scalloped edge strip at the tab.

Glue the frame around the design. Apply glue to the tabs of the two hexagons, front and back panel, shown on the right.

Splay the hanger tabs.  Insert the front panel with the design.  Move the panel around so that there is an overhang with the scallops. Repeat for the back panel.  I inserted a pencil from the from of the panel to help align the back panel's scallops.

Insert the hanger tabs into the decorative strip.

Apply glue to the tab and the bottom of the scalloped hexagon and adhere.

Insert a 7 inch piece of thread through the two holes and make a knot for the hanger.

Santa's Helpers Making Toys - A ZigZag Card

 

Santa's Helpers Making Toys - A ZigZag Card

This zigzag card is like a diorama.  

There are five sections, which when folded together, create a three dimensional scene. Notice the zigzag that is formed when the sections are glued together.  This card fits into an A7 envelope.

Here is the PDF file. I used Neenah brand 65 lb White Gold metallic cardstock from Office Depot.  I used Echo Park "Santa Claus Lane" paper.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E9xDNTuMFWICJTmzzXnQpLbhnOymrWGT/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rQCX-lieiao-JdzrUdvAynzxtbyWVQoR/view?usp=sharing

Here is the SVG. The file goes beyond the viewable area.  Zoom out to see the entire file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GMtviaTAEFOUd-cJf2hsaeReuPvcHaFf/view?usp=sharing

Making the Zigzag Card

When cutting out the design, I recommend using overcut as the intricate pieces might not cut out correctly and also cutting the design with two passes. 

The five sections are glued together by a tab.  Each section is numbered in the file to help with the placement. Look at the photos for placement of the embellishments.

The back panel is a sandwich.

Make the one side of the panel and then glue the backing to the other side(this backing is the center of the pretty paper as the pad of paper only has two pieces of paper of the same type.)

Glue tabs to the back of the pretty paper (the pretty paper was two sided, you can skip this step if your paper is the same on both sides).

Front of card

Back of card

An Appliquéd Gingerbread Man Gift Bag Using a TurtleStitch Embroidered Design

An Appliquéd Gingerbread Man Gift Bag

Today I want to showcase my latest TurtleStitch project.  It is an appliquéd Gingerbread man gift bag. Turtlestitch does not have a fill pattern.  A good replacement is to use fabric as a fill pattern. When programming in TurtleStitch, the outline of the design is coded twice - once as a running stitch and the second time as a satin stitch. (Directions on how to embroider the design follow.)

I designed the gingerbread man using the Silhouette software. I tried to use only straight lines, circles and arcs so that the coding in TurtleStitch would be easy. My inspiration cam from a previous posting https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2021/12/25-days-of-christmas-decorations-day-4.html

I saved the Silhouette design as a JPEG and imported the image as a background to trace in TurtleStitch. I moved the turtle with a lot of turns and move spaces and arcleft/arcright to create the gingerbread man.

Here is the code to the project in TurtleStitch. I coded the gingerbread man to be resized so that it could be made in different sizes.

https://www.turtlestitch.org/users/Elaine/projects/A%20Resizable%20Gingerbread%20Man%20To%20Be%20Appliqued

I embroidered the design first and then made the bag using this YouTube video. https://youtu.be/OQoTA9pe-bA?si=wk2o7CoyydFbHB2b

I glued on some beads as eyes and buttons because the circles that I embroidered were not distinct enough and their addition made the eyes and buttons pop with interest.

To Applique on your embroidery machine.

Attach a backing fabric with a stabilizer to your hoop. Float another piece of fabric on top of the backing fabric on your hoop. This top layer will be the fabric for the Gingerbread man. It will be sewn down with a running stitch. Once the running stitch is complete, the embroidery machine will stop because of the "set color" command. Remove the hoop from the machine (do not remove the fabric from the hoop) and cut away the outer edge of the gingerbread man fabric with scissors. Try to get as close to the edge of the gingerbread man without cutting the running stitch. Reattach the hoop. Satin stitch the remaining stitches.

P.S.  The snowflake ornaments and the Koch snowflake ballerina in the photo were also done in TurtleStitch. 😊 https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2023/07/a-stem-project-beauty-of-coding.html

and https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2023/06/a-stem-project-beauty-of-coding-koch.html

A North Pole Diorama With Elves

 

A North Pole Diorama With Elves

The diorama looks wonderful amongst my other Christmas decorations for the tea party for my granddaughters. The tea party was a complete success. The girls were thrilled with the festivities.  They hugged the American Girl dolls while they were conversing together and enjoying their food.

I made the tablecloth, napkins and the scones basket for the party.  The potholder design was coded with TurtleStitch and embroidered on my embroidery machine. Here is the code if you would like to make one too. https://www.turtlestitch.org/users/Elaine/projects/Christmas%20Tree%20Arcs

Here is the PDF file for the elf diorama.  I used 65 lb. cardstock. I  used Neenah brand 65 lb White Gold metallic cardstock from Office Depot.  I recommend using overcut to cut out this design as the intricate pieces might not cut out correctly.  I also used 65 lb. foil cardstock from Michaels.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k36Yx7qukGY7OkscrAcch7xeNtNuYenu/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KNidikaAFGOAiIF2tSgS-5v4AUkRof_U/view?usp=sharing

Here is the SVG. Zoom out to see the entire file as it goes beyond the visible area.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VeMb8C5fiY8TTK2S2n3wlrjfoga8I-M8/view?usp=sharing

Eight double thickness tabs keep the diorama scenes together.

The tabs slide into the sides of the scenes.

An Elf Rubber Band Pop-Up Card

 

An Elf Rubber Band Pop-Up Card makes a fun surprise for the recipient as the figure pops up out of the envelope when it is removed. The stored energy in the rubber band, when the rubber band was stretched and placed in the envelope, causes the figure to pop-up.

Here is a video of the elf rubber band pop-up in action.

The base of this design is a triamond triangular bicupola from from my blog post https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2020/02/a-stem-project-rubber-band-polyhedron.html

Using this as the base, I embellished it to create this pop-up. 

Refer to this blog post for instructions on how to make the rubber band pop-up.

https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2020/04/easter-bunny-rubber-band-pop-up-with.html

Here is the PDF. I used 65 lb. foil cardstock from Michaels and copy paper for the envelope. This elf pop-up can fit in an A4 envelope.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19LO9t6vCji9s7P3wbSuLgXZKuRFW3uxH/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wYrSecp12NgHjGy9WYm3H3Gb4VAtDnrO/view?usp=sharing

Here is the SVG file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VlwoFopwDSRKGcYF5u9paYRBvlol3kCB/view?usp=sharing

 

A Boy and Girl Elf Christmas Tree Ornament

  

A Boy and Girl Elf ChristmasTree Ornaments

These cute ornaments are easy to make to adorn your Christmas tree.

Here is the PDF file.  I used 65lb. foil cardstock from Michaels.  I used a 6 inch piece of thread that was knotted and I taped  it to the back of the ornament to hang them up on the tree.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12pZSxtZvCTGppfUmc1YjIhKTix18RWB1/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MfDzCKtlbCqDeH3Nm2PYnw5zdxkMgKpO/view?usp=sharing

Here is the SVG.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LIbezP3d7jB7xHgxyCo0dg01_PQs8PYn/view?usp=sharing

These designs are simple to make as they are layered pieces of paper. 

Look at the photos for embellishment placement.

A STEM Project: Converting a Silhouette Studio File Into a 3D Print File In Tinkercad and Making a Slide Together Race Car

Converting a Silhouette Studio File Into a 3D Print File In Tinkercad and Making a Slide Together Race Car

Using my Silhouette software, I created a race car body and then added tabs to the sides so that the pieces could slide into one another to be 3D printed.  Each tab was 2 mm and then the slot that it slides into needs to be 2.5 mm for tolerance. I did this by using the Offset window. The Offset should be .25 mm with a corner offset and then apply the offset.  The result is the tolerance needed to slide into one another.  (In Preferences, I changed the unit of measurement  to millimeters. I found it easier to manipulate in millimeters to be consistent with the 3D printer unit of measurement.

I am only offering the SVG file of this model because Tinkercad requires an SVG file.

Here is the SVG. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11MtGur9Dv97mJhZBB4vRWEUQ3QyPyu-Q/view?usp=sharing

 Here are the three links in Tinkercad for the race car model. https://www.tinkercad.com/things/iQIfN7ftP6W-race-car-model-part-1-of-3

 https://www.tinkercad.com/things/7m2pJrhWw6p-race-car-model-part-2-of-3

 https://www.tinkercad.com/things/lGl9vPTDRZd-race-car-model-part-3-of-3

Race Car Part 1 of 3 and Race Car Part 2 of 3 are parts that were copied from my Silhouette file and then converted to a 3D print file. I found that it is easier to print a file with a lot of space between the parts so I broke up the file into two files. 

Race Car Part 3 of 3 are wheels for the race car which were designed by a Tinkercad user.  I also modified the hood of the race car to have a slant at the front edge of the hood. 

The model can be glued together if so desired.  I think it is more interesting to using Glue Dots so that the model can be taken apart later.

Slide the side pieces together onto the base platform. 

And the wheel/axles.

Pull the sides apart slightly and slide the trunk pieces together one at a time. 

Add the spoiler.

Slide the front fender on and then slide the locking U piece into place.  Slide on the hood to complete the race car.