It’s time to decorate your home for the holidays! Do you want a touch of something new in your decor this year? But buying new ornaments when you already have a lot of them is not the best idea…
So here is a creative and super economical idea to transform your plain Christmas balls into beautiful one-of-a-kind holiday ornaments!
Download Muumade’s Free Template:
US Letter version:
Printing Tips:
Muumade’s Free Template for a Decorative Christmas Ball Cover includes 2 pages, the first has a premade Pattern and the second is Blank. The patterned version allows you to simply cut out the shapes that are included in the template to make the decorative cover. The blank version is for you to create your own original designs. Please use whichever (or both!) version you prefer.
Muumade’s Free Template for a Decorative Christmas Ball Cover is designed for a 6-cm (2.36″) diameter ball. If your ball is that size, please set your printer’s scale to 100% to print out the template. If your ball is 4 cm (1.57″) in diameter, scale it down to 67% when printing.
If you Christmas ball is 8 cm (3.15″) in diameter, the enlarged template would not fit on a sheet of regular printing paper. In this case, I recommend that you print out the template at 100%, and then use a photocopier to make an enlarged copy (scale: 134%) onto a larger piece of paper.
Materials & Tools:
- Muumade’s Free Template for a Decorative Christmas Ball Cover (printed out as instructed above)
- 1 hanging Christmas ball
- Scissors
- Clear tape
- (Optional) Decorative paper of your choice to cover your Christmas ball with, such as wrapping paper or colored paper. (See Step 1 below.)
Let’s Begin!
Step 1.
Cut out the template. (Pictured here is the patterned version.)
Optional: If you prefer to use another type of paper for this project, trace the template onto that sheet of paper.
Step 2.
Fold the template in half as shown.
Fold it in half again.
These folds allow you to make a design that is horizontally symmetrical, as shown here.
(Note: To make a design that is symmetrical both horizontally and vertically, see the Optional Advanced Cutting Tips section below.)
Step 3.
Measure the diameter of the cap at the top of your Christmas ball. Let’s call it D. [In my case, D was approximately 1 cm (3/8″).]
Now a bit of math! Divide D in half. [In my case, 1 cm (3/8″) ÷ 2 = 5 mm (3/16″).]
Then add 1 mm (1/16″) to that measurement to get R. [In my case, 5 mm (3/16″) + 1mm (1/16″) = 6 mm (1/4″).]
R is how much you want to cut off from the tip of your folded leaves.
After cutting, your template should look like the piece in this image.
Step 4.
You are about to start cutting out the patterns. But here are some cutting tips before you begin, especially if you are making your own designs:
- First, practice! Fold a piece of scrap paper in half and practice making different cuts into it to see which shapes you like.
- Leave some space between the cuts; I recommend that this space be at least 2 mm (3/32″).
- Avoid making really big cut-outs; small cut-outs make more intricate patterns.
- Do NOT cut all the way across the folded leaves. (If you cut off a segment by accident, tape it back on.)
Make cuts into the two folded leaves at once. If you are using the patterned version, cut out the grey areas. If you are using the blank version, enjoy cutting out your original patterns!
Step 4b.
In the patterned version, there are a few parts of the pattern that require more folding of the paper to make those cuts.
This image shows you an example of one such cut.
To make that cut, fold the paper as shown here, so that the grey shape is folded in half. Then cut it out.
Step 5.
When done with the first set of leaves, unfold the template. As shown here, make sure to orient it so that the top and bottom leaves are uncut.
Fold the template in half again.
Repeat Steps 2 through 5 to make cut-outs on all 6 leaves of the template.
Ta-da! You now have a beautiful covering for your Christmas ball!
Step 6.
It’s time to wrap your Christmas ball with your covering!
Cut a 1-cm (3/8″) segment of clear tape into 6 little strips as shown here.
With one of the tiny strips, tape together the ends of two consecutive leaves. (Note: The tape should be on the inner side of the covering.)
Repeat once more to connect a third consecutive leaf to the first pair.
Step 7.
Insert the Christmas ball into your covering.
Continue to tape together the top edges of the rest of the leaves.
Here’s one decorative Christmas ball once you have finished!
Optional Advanced Cutting Tips: How to make a design that is symmetrical both horizontally and vertically
1. In Step 2 of the above instructions, first fold the center leaves in half horizontally. (Note: The brown that you can see in the picture is the reverse side of the silver wrapping paper that I used.)
2. Then fold the template in half vertically.
3. Now cut out the patterns.
(Note: Don’t forget to cut off the tips of the leaves, as shown in Step 3.)
4. When done, you will have a design that is symmetrical both horizontally and vertically!
In these examples I only included symmetrical patterns in my ornament covers, but you can be as creative as you’d like! For example, you can include initials or other holiday motifs into your designs to make them even more original. Upcycling used wrapping paper is also an interesting option, which is environmentally friendly, too! Lastly, you can also try using other materials in place of the paper, like colored plastic sheets or aluminum foil (although I must warn you that they are trickier to work with 😉).
Happy Handmade Holidays!
Here are a few more holiday craft ideas from Muumade:
