If you’re looking for a last minute, but fun and easy, ornament to do with the kids, look no further than this paper holiday ornament from Instructables. I used their blank template and our Birdz of a Feather logo to create this polyhedral paper craft ornament. You need nothing more than a printer, some paper, a piece of string or ribbon and craft glue to make your own.

Since mine was slightly different – I wanted my logos to face ‘north and south’, if that makes sense – I’ll walk you through the steps I used. To make your own, head to Instructables to grab the free printed or blank pattern. There’s also a black and white version you can colour in!

Template

I opened up Instructable’s blank template in photoshop and imported our logo. I re-saved the file as a pdf and printed it out onto white paper.

For the 5 smaller logos, I was able to fold them into a strip and cut them out all at once.

They were cut into circles right away and folded into triangles along the lines provided on the pattern.

If you’re using a random pattern for your ornament, you can ignore the next steps. Follow the tutorial on Instructables by just cutting circles and folding triangles as above. This, however, is where my instructions diverge from Instructables.

Fold

To fold the remaining (large) logos, I cut out the folding template into a square shape instead of a circle. Then I folded along the lines to crease the triangle shape into the paper.

I also cut the 15 remaining logos into squares like the folding template.

Now that both the template and logos were square I was ready to fold.

I lined the triangle guide up with each logo and creased triangles into them one by one.

This keeps the alignment on each one consistent.

Crease

Here’s how it will look once creased.

Once all 15 of the large logos were folded, I cut each one into a circle.

Here’s the assembly line I had going right in front of my computer in the office; I didn’t bother doing this in the craft studio 🙂

From here forward, the instructions are once again the same as Instructables. You just stick them together by applying glue to the flap of a triangle and sticking it to the flap of another triangle. More specifically, to create your ornament you need to make:

2x – Hat shape (see bottom of picture)

• Glue five triangles together so that a single point of each triangle meets in the centre.
• These hat shapes will form the top and bottom of the ornament.

1x – Row/Hoop shape (see top of picture)

• Glue ten triangles together in a row so that the triangles alternate pointing up, then down, then up, then down… forming a long band.
• Once all ten triangles are glued in a band, connect the first and last triangle so that you form a round hoop.
• This hoop shape will form the center body of the ornament.

Glue

Before you glue the final pieces together, cut a piece of string or ribbon to your desired length (Instructables suggests 5″). Fold in half and then tie the ends into a knot. Feed the loop through the tiny opening in the middle of one of the ‘hats’. I used the end of a paper clip to help poke it through.

I felt like such a kid, that with a rush of anticipation I forgot to take pictures of the final assembly! To help you out, the picture below is from the Instructables site. Glue the flaps from one of the hats to one side of the hoop. Turn it over and glue on the remaining piece to close the ornament.

Here’s the final shape, all glued together:

All that’s left to do is to hang your own ornament on a tree and enjoy! Want more Christmas DIY ideas? Check out christmas craft ideas for adults.

Christmas is tomorrow. We wish everyone who’s celebrating a very Merry Christmas and a happy festivus to the rest-of-us!

Sustainable Sunday will be wrapping up on December 30th. We still don’t have a final confirmation on the start date of my Mom’s accessible bathroom renovation, but I’m pretty certain that we’ll be starting the new blogging year off with that transformation (see walk in shower remodel). If you’re interested in following the progression, subscribe to us here on Birdz of a Feather! You can also follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

For more craft ideas, be sure to check out our Craft Rehab Category.