Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Easy Snowflake Ornaments


If you want a quick and easy Christmas craft, this is for you! These snowflakes would be perfect as gift tags/package toppers, too. I loved that they have a sort of vintage/Swedish vibe, which is so trendy this year.


The list of supplies is laughable:

-white spray paint
-a ruler
-hot glue gun
-and the secret ingredient...toilet paper tubes!

I photographed the ribbon, but I was inspired to add them to my fireplace garland, so I didn't end up using it.
Start by prepping your paper tubes. There were little bits of paper stuck all over them, but it is really easy to remove all that by rubbing the flat side of your scissors blade up and down the tube. That makes it nice and clean.

Then, take your tube and flatten it. Measure out half-inch increments. You don't need to mark all the way across, just make lines so you know where to cut. Then cut all the way across.



You will end up with a pile of  ovals. You can make one of either kind of snowflake with one tube. If you go through toilet paper like we do, however, you can probably make enough to trim an entire tree with what you save in a week! That is probably more information than you wanted.

Take your ovals and glue them together with a small dot at the bottom. If you want to make the eight pointed snowflake, glue four ovals together, then a separate four. Stack them, rotating the top section slightly, using a glob (professional word, by the way) of glue in the center to hold them together. For the five pointed ones, just glue five ovals together at the center.
Once the glue has set, you can spray paint them. If you wanted perfection, you could hand paint them with craft paint. I am too lazy for that. I put three coats of paint on, they dry at lightening speed. However, the cardboard sucks up paint, it wouldn't have hurt anything for me to have added a fourth coat. But I was in a hurry and not looking for perfection!
I was very pleased with how they turned out. You can see a little of the numbers they print on the inside of the tube, but you have to look at them pretty closely.

They are the perfect accent to my holiday garland! I didn't need hooks or anything to hang them, I just stuck them right on the garland. It might be fun to whip some of these up and hang them from the ceiling with some ribbon. I don't think anyone would guess their humble origins.

4 comments:

  1. These would be too cute suspended from the ceiling. I might have to make some with the girls and hang them in the school room. We hung snowflakes one year and left them up through January. They drove Cory nuts because he was always hitting his head on them, but we loved them.

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  2. I am so glad you shared the secret to getting all the TP remnants off the Cottonelle tubes! I have been saving mine for Co-op projects and wondering how I was going to de"fur" them:/ Your decor looks super cute! I love that you have nontraditional colors:)

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  3. These are so cute! I love how you put them in your garland, it looks gorgeous! I may have to start saving toilet paper rolls for a Christmas break craft! Thanks for sharing!

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  4. Very cute & humble origins indeed!! I could totally use these for a "quilling" project when discussing Sweden, for traditions around the world. I love your garland & hope to see you before Christmas.

    Promise not to get bitter over the music again!! :0)

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