Christmas Countdown: Day 17!

The inspiration for this craft comes from my own childhood. I can remember being a little girl and making an ornament in one of my classes to take home to my parents. I very specifically remember wearing a shirt or dress with a white ruffly collar...and having a nosebleed. Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like an ornament with a picture of your kid's bloody nose!

So, when I was making my list of Christmas crafts to do with my own kids this year this craft popped into my head. It's somewhat incomplete because I had to order photos since our printer ran out of ink; but, you get the general idea. And there weren't even any nosebleeds involved!

Tissue Paper Wreath Ornament

What You Need:

Thin cardboard or stiff paper

Green paint

Green tissue paper

Red tissue paper

White glue

A pencil (unsharpened)

A large mug and a smaller cup

Xacto Knife

How to:

Use your large mug to trace a circle onto your cardboard. I had one mug that was the perfect size for this but you could make them larger or smaller depending on your preference.

Then, using your smaller cup, trace a second circle inside of the larger one.

Use an Xacto knife to cut out the inner most circle so that you are left with a wreath shaped ring.

Then, paint this circle green. While that dries, take your tissue paper and cut it into small squares or rectangles. They don't have to be exactly the same size but you don't want to vary them too much. We tried ripping them first but that made them too uneven. At first, I was going to do the "ornaments" on the wreath in different colours but decided I liked just the red best, so I didn't use the other ones I had cut out.

Once your rings are dry, squeeze some glue onto a scrap piece of paper or cardboard. Then, you just pick up a piece of your green tissue paper, place the pencil in the center and fold/wrap the tissue paper around it. Then, dip the end in the glue and press it onto your ring. 

We had some instances where the paper ripped or the pencil stuck but I just pushed the tissue paper into place with a toothpick when that happened. 

Add your green tissue paper to the entire wreath shape. It doesn't have to be totally filled because you'll be adding some red. You don't need to put the piece too close together, either, because they fluff out.

Once you have your green tissue paper placed you can add in some red, using the same method mentioned before.

Then, just let it dry! You can print a photo and glue it to the back of the wreath so the image shows through the middle of the wreath. Then, just add  some ribbon to the top and you have a lovely keepsake ornament! These are perfect to hand out as gifts, too, because you can add any image to the middle or no image at all.