52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - (almost) Anything Goes!

Hello!  I realize it seems strange to be talking about Christmas on the day before Easter, but really, is it wrong to be in the Christmas spirit of giving and love all year round?  I think not.

Since it’s the fifth Saturday of the month, this week’s theme at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown is “Anything BUT a Card, ATC or Tag Goes”.  This is your chance to create a 3-D project that can be used as a Christmas decoration or a Christmas gift.  Share it over on the 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown site by 1:00 pm eastern time Friday, April 5.

I have to admit that I tend to have a difficult time coming up with ideas for 3-D projects.  I’m so much more of a card maker than a project maker (does that make sense?).  I finally decided to try my hand at making a Christmas ornament.  Well, more like decorating a Christmas ornament.  I’d bought some glass ornaments on clearance at Michael’s after Christmas several years ago and tucked them away, thinking I’d do something with them, but never really knowing exactly what.  So I figured this was as good a time as any to try to work something out with them.  I browsed the internet looking for ideas.  This one seemed easy enough so I thought I’d give it a go.  Stuffing an ornament with strips of paper didn’t seem too difficult.

I originally thought I’d use designer paper for the strips of paper.  But I couldn’t decide which designer paper I wanted to use.  In searching around, I rediscovered this red and green paper that I’d bought years ago.  It’s actually copy paper weight, not cardstock nor designer paper.  But I figured I’d try out this ornament project with it.  I do think using the lightweight paper was a better idea than using designer paper would have been.  Because it’s thinner, it bends more easily to slip inside the ornament than designer paper would.  However, there were two small problems I encountered.  I knew I had to keep the strips pretty narrow so they’d fit inside the ornament, but I had no idea what length to make them.  I settled on 5.5″ long since that’s half the length of the sheet of paper.  For the size of this ornament (approximately 2″ tall), that turned out to be a good length.  The other problem was the shape of the ornament.  Mine is a cube shape.  I think the strips would have stayed against the side of the ornament better with a round ornament, like the directions show.  But I guess mine turned out all right.

I didn’t count how many strips of paper I used, but it was an equal number of red and green.  I just stuffed them in there until the ornament looked pretty full.  Some of them started bunching up inside instead of molding to the sides of the ornament.  But I like that the ornament isn’t solidly covered with the strips.  This way some of the lights from the tree may be able to shine through.

I debated adding a ribbon bow to the top of the ornament.  I decided against it because I couldn’t decide whether white or ivory would look better, and mainly because I stink at tying bows so that they look pretty.

So anyway, there it is.  Now it’s your turn to visit the rest of the design teams’ blogs and see what fantastic “anything but a card” things they have made.  Then share your own project with us – we’d love to see what you create!

Supplies:
Glass ornament: Michael’s
Paper: Array