Tag Archive for 'kusadama'

Our Annual Christmas Ornament


Yesterday Matt and I made our annual Christmas ornament. I like the idea of using recycled or repurposed papers to make such a beautiful thing. So far we’ve recycled paper 3 years, and purchased origami paper one year. This year I was fortunate enough to pick up some waste paper from a song book we were printing at work and it made for a beautiful ornament. This is the tutorial pattern I follow every year. This was also the first year we used hot glue and it is by far the sturdiest ornament yet. I highly recommend using hot glue. If you don’t have a glue gun you can find them at your typical marts and craft stores for under $10. Also, don’t make the same mistake we made, use small paper! Our first ornament ended up being the size of a soccer ball and will never make it to the tree. Now we use 3″ square and it works perfectly.

12.19 2011 ornament

I like this picture above with all the ornaments we’ve made so far. It’s our first year in our first home and this picture captures so much. It’s like an eye spy. There are four ornaments on our dining room table but can you see the a handmade table cloth that Matt’s great grandmother made? How about a nosey kitty, and a christmas tree, and don’t forget a tired Matt lounging on the couch?

12.20 christmas tree
And since we are on holiday decorations, here is a picture of our first full sized tree. Previously we had a little 3 foot tree that was more of a pain than anything. The cat was constantly trying to eat it and it was always falling over. This new tree was gifted to us by Matt’s parents. Please disregard the lack of a tree skirt. I’m working on it. The tree is covered in white lights (my preference), my handmade gold and silver garland, and a collection of both of our ornaments from since we were babies.

2010 Kusudama Ornament

The other day Matt and I created our third annual Kusudama Christmas ornament. This year, I’m proud to say, it’s actually size appropriate to fit on a tree, as an actual ornament.

year three

Here are all three years.

The first year I had a vision of making a bunch of them to cover an entire tree. Even though I reduced the size of the paper, it became obvious rather quickly that this was going to be too big and take too long to hang a bunch from a tree.

The second year, forgetting that I had reduced the paper size the first year, we made the ornament and it turned out GINORMOUS!
This year I used tiny origami paper (probably 3 inches squared?), while in previous years we used cut down old catalogs. Looking at previous years I realize we are getting better at this. The first year it took us 3 hours with both of us racing each other. It still took about an hour to make, but that is still much better than the first year.

If you would like to attempt one of these, the tutorial/pattern we used is here, and I also suggest a tape adhesive, rather than glue, like the tutorial suggests. If we had used a white glue, it would have taken about 6 hours and we would have thrown in the towel much earlier than that.

Recycled Kusadama Paper Ornament

Recycled Kusadama Ornament, originally uploaded by robayre.

Tonight Matt and I sat down to make our annual Christmas ornament. And eeep, if last year’s ornament was too big to hang on a tree well, check out this year’s (the larger of the two). My original vision last year was to make a whole bunch of these and cover a tree with them and white Christmas lights.

I followed this 2 stage pattern. Make sure you have lots of time, it takes about 3 hours with two people working at it. AND we use translucent double faced tape. I can’t imagine how long it would take if you used glue like the instruction say. This year I followed the directions for size and the instructions call for 60 7 inch square pieces of paper. It wasn’t until afterward I reread my post from last year and saw that I stated I used 4 inch square papers. Basically this year’s ornament is equal to a good sized globe in diameter.

Once again I cut apart an old art magazine with a good weight, luster and variety of colors. Next year I hope I return to this post and read it before creating the third ornament. Robyn, cut the paper down to 3 inch squares please. Not that it will make the process any faster, but perhaps one year we might actually make an ornament that can fit on the tree.