Minimalist Xmas decoration

December 19, 2008 at 12:14 pm | Posted in All Finished Crafts, Craft - How-to's | 1 Comment
Tags: paper, papercraft, recycled, snowflake

Have I mentioned Bec gave me a lot of great suggestion, inspiration and advice? Although I may not react to her words immediately, I always took it very seriously. When I was grumbling the unclear post-thesis days two months ago, she suggested me to think about Christmas decoration. “Maybe….that could be a good choice….” That was my response at that moment. I didn’t do anything in so many weeks (very long time, considering my average project time consumption is 2 days) for I am not a Christmas person. To be more general, I don’t like celebrating any kinds of holidays in any way. It became more and more obvious for me recent years. I easily get frustrated seeing people doing the same thing all over the world, or all over the universe. It would be even harder to get myself into the universal thing.

After all, I am convinced that Bec’s idea could be a good point to escape from whatever is strangling me. I started with what everyone is doing: cutting snowflakes. I like symmetric patterns like snowflakes. It is extremely important for me that snowflakes must be hexagonal but not rectangle or octagonal. I took some campus magazine pages to cut two snowflakes, but I didn’t feel like sticking them to the windows. The desire to be different is still bugging me. The instant approach is a hybrid one, namely 1+1=1, very typical in our group. Then, the two pieces are made into one. It is much more fun to hang it anywhere in the room. The snowflakes are more visible to people inside the house, rather than people from outside.  I was so excited because of this little trick. Thanks, Bec, for initiating this project. Even though it would be the only Christmas decoration this year, I am happier after I did this. 🙂

So, here is how you can make it.

You would need: (for making one such a 3D snowflake ornament)

2 pieces of paper, scissor, staple and a piece of thread

The color and the size of the paper do not really matter. Feel free to use any types of paper or even other materials as long as you can cut out snowflakes from it. I choose old magazine pages which I used several times in the past. As for the thread, I used white cotton strings.

1. Cut out two snowflakes in anyway you know. In case you don’t know how to cut them, you can check here and here. It would be better if the cut-outs have clear tips. The two pieces do not necessarily match with each other. They can be in different patterns or even in different sizes, but the number of tips of two flakes should be the same. I put the pieces into a dictionary so they are flatter. You can iron them if preferred.

2. Tie the two ends of the thread together to have a closed loop. Adjust the length if necessary.

3. Suppose the side to face outside on each piece is the right side and the other is the wrong side. At the end, the wrong side should face with the wrong side. Putting the pieces together by the staple. As shown in the following figure, start with both pieces facing up, two tips overlapped and staple the tips together.

4. Match the corresponding tips from two snowflakes. Stape each pair of tips together with both right sides up, that is one’s right side touching the other’s wrong side. One pair should stapled with the thread loop, so the piece can be hung up. Don’t fold the snowflakes, otherwise the result may not be as expected.

5. Find a good place to hang it. 😉

It is also possible to use the same technique to make stars. Try it out! And I’d better go back to work. 😀