My project for the month of December focuses on enjoying the holidays all month long. So much stress and money go into Christmas Day for most people. I wanted to find small simple ways of getting into the holiday spirit through out the month. This year is our first Christmas as a married couple. I thought it would be fun to start some of our own family traditions.
One holiday item from the list was make our own ornament. I found all sorts of DIY ornaments on Pinterest that were really cute. One of my husband’s Louis L’Amour books is falling apart and I love all things bookish so I wanted whatever we made to use that material. Plus traditionally the first year of marriage is celebrated with paper gifts so that’s a nice tie in.
We tried making two different kinds of ornaments with the book pages. I found a book page ornament tutorial for the sewn ornament and the other was inspired by this easy book page ornament article. Here are our results!
I’m proud that we drew our own shapes to trace the cut outs (neither of us is particularly skilled at drawing). We also stitched the pages together by hand. Whether you’re using a machine or hand sewing, I definitely recommend sewing the pages together first. That makes it so much easier the second time around. With the other ornament we doubled the center piece so there’s two pieces of paper glued together to make it sturdier. You can make the ornament bow out however much you’d like by making the center strip shorter for more bowing and longer for less.
I was so happy with how they turned out that we made several of each. Someday when we have a library, I want a tree for it decorated with ornaments like these!
Do you made your own ornaments? What are your favorite projects?
