It pays to be more efficient with time over the holiday period. I don’t know why we are all of a sudden so much busier, but I for one seem to have a catch up with everyone I know crammed in before Christmas. So to kill two birds with one stone, I promised to show you my design for a Christmas Shirt for 2012. Here is E getting into the Christmas Spirit AND the tshirt (because trying to explain the joy of giving only goes so far with a 3 yr old I thought a tshirt was the next best thing!).
And now to confuse my photoblog followers!
DIY Rainbow Ball Christmas Decorations
With Christmas around the corner as a mum I am looking for things that my 3 year old can make with some level of ownership. These Christmas decorations are so easy to make and look pretty effective.
You could also make them larger by using A3 card and could even make them outdoor proof by laminating the card used. You could make them elegant by limiting your colour palette and adding subtle sparkle or design. You could light them by running solar fairy lights onto them. The options are endless. This is the toddler craft version.
Here’s the How To:
First Things First, To make a medium sized ball
You will need:
Instructions
1. Let your child loose on the strips of card. I asked my 3 year old to first colour in, then stick stickers on the strips. Depending on your child’s capability level you can decorate these in any way you like. If your child is young remember to REMOVE the strips from them before they colour right through the paper or destroy them in another way! (wink)
2. Unfortunately from here the construction is an adult thing. Take the 8 strips of card and arrange them in an order that is pleasing to you in a pile. (don’t do like I did and forget that I had a green on the top AND bottom of the pile so that when they were fanned out they were together!) Using something sharp poke through all eight pieces of card to make sure that the holes are in the same place. As a guide, about 1cm in from the end and centred from either side. Repeat at the other end.
3. Starting on the coloured in side push a split pin through all eight cards. This is the bottom of your ball. Open the split slightly, but not fully yet.
4. Tie the end of the string tight around the slightly open pin and trim the end.
5. Completely and firmly open the pin over the knot securing it. At this point I cut the string at about 20cm long (a generous allowance, but you could also do it by leaving a long string (half a metre) and tying knots or using clamps at the other end, I will leave that to you.) This tutorial will cover what I did in this instance.
6. Take the new end of string and tie it around the other split pin. This is FIDDLY you may need to tie it, then slip it on and tighten it.
7. Poke the split pin with the knot through the card at the other end starting from the decorated side and push it tight to secure your knot. Then take the string from the first split pin and tie it around the slightly open split in the same way that you did before. This string should now pull taut and the card should form an arc. You can estimate how long you want the string by how you want your arc to look. Once you have tied your knot, completely and firmly open the pin to secure the knot. Trim both loose ends of the two strings neatly. You should now be able to hold your decoration by the hanging string.
8. Fan out the card pieces evenly to form a ball shape. (Note: you may notice as you start to fan that the card forms a teardrop shape, once fully fanned out this will disappear and become a ball.)
9. Take a minute to admire your handywork.
10. To hang the tinsel on the inside, just attach either end with stickytape. Move the card pieces slightly if you can’t fit your hand through and readjust them afterward.
You could also add a hanging ‘tail’ by cutting similar width, but longer strips of crepe paper to blow in the breeze. To do this you would first poke your bottom split pin through the tail before the card strips.
11. Hang them where ever you like. My son liked to watch them spin. I hope your kids do too.
Merry Christmas!
If you make these, consider leaving me a link in the comments to your photo so I can see them.
NOTE: This is the first tutorial I have written. If you have any questions or I have forgotten to add something please let me know so I can update it.
Learning the Light 