Merry Christmas to all!
Here at “Tangled Thoughts” we are trying to sort out…well, our tangled thoughts. And with Christmas sneaking up on us, we’re trying to make it work over and across the sea, in both Alaska and England. Wow. What a task! This must be how Santa feels, going all international. Since Christina is busy in Alaska with making gumdrop candies, I decided to do a post from England.
I’ve been obsessed with details this year…probably not a good thing and certainly not a smart thing, but I’ve found that details can be fun too. Details like folding paper into shapes -so much fun. You can make your own bows out of leftover paper, make your own ornaments…and make bows for topping the Christmas gifts. You could….do just about anything. 😀 I want to do a lot of DIY Christmas gifts and decorations this year, but will I have time? That is the question.
My lil helper, helping distract me with the ornaments
Anyways, here are a few of the designs that I liked, and am attempting to do. The pictures are property of the original posts, and I have linked to them.
image and idea property of wholeliving.com
Magazine Bows
http://www.wholeliving.com/133668/read-wrap-recycle-make-bows-magazines
These bows can be made out of old magazines I don’t actually have any magazines hanging around, so I will have to see if I can find a bundle for cheap at a charity shop. I made these from scrapbook paper, just to see if they’d work though, and sure enough they turned out great. The magazines would look better though because magazine pages are printed on both sides.
Image and idea property of papervinenz.com
Fabulous Folded Flowers
http://www.papervinenz.com/2011/06/map-folded-flowers-plus-tutorial.html
The flowers are made out of maps, which looks like a very nice idea. I used a paper shopping bag that had a blue butterfly on it. The first one is a bit tricky, but after that I found they came together very fast. I’d love to see these as ornaments, or taped onto some painted silver sticks -pretty arrangement!
Image and idea property of urbancomfort.typad.com
Stars Stars Stars
http://urbancomfort.typepad.com/urban_nest/2012/06/4th-of-july-cake-topper.html
The original post is for fourth of July stars, but I think this can be adapted to Christmas as well. These stars even come with a diagram that can be printed and traced, or you could traced it right on the screen. Then simply cut, fold, and you have a star that can be used as an ornaments, or glue cardboard to the back and put a bunch of them together on a wreath form to make a star wreath. I imagine you could cut one of these out of cardboard possibly, especially if you are planning to keep it indoors. I made stars out of pretty scrap book card-stock paper, and cut an assortment of two different sizes.
Tangled Thoughts 
YAY! You did a post! No wonder you’ve been busy…I should try those magazine bows here….you know how we have BOXES of magazines dating back to the 1900s…wait, did they have magazines then? Either way….cool! And YAY for a post!
Pretty cool. I think I will try the flowers too. I don’t have magazines – but – I have newspaper, mail catalogs & brown paper bags.