Foldable Christmas Ornaments

 These exploding, foldable paper ornaments are just so fun to make! Once you have it down, they go very quickly and before you know it you have a couple dozen of them. It's the perfect project to do while watching a movie in the evening. 

 We have 21 young cousins on my side of the family so anything I want to make them for Christmas has to be quick and easy. These exploding ornaments were my project this year. We celebrated yesterday, so I was able to snap a few pictures of the action. The ornaments were all hung on the tree and I challenged the kids to find which one was theirs. 

Once you slide the bead up the string, the ornament unfolds and you see the message inside. One side has the cousin's name, and the other side has the date. They had so much fun trying to find their ornament, and teaching the other cousins how to work it. Well worth the effort!

Here's a closer look...

You can completely customize the ornaments by the papers you pick. For many of the ornaments, I didn't use Christmas paper. Any colorful, fun paper will work. This one has cute aliens. Use what you have on hand, no need to buy anything new.

 

This one is from the same striped alien paper, but I've used a different section of the paper, and folded all my circles along the same solid blue line. It looks completely different than the previous ornament. No aliens, but you can see UFOs in the green stripe. 

There's quite a mix ... floral, graphic circles, dots, gears, football helmets, glittered holly leaves.

Here they are from the side, you can get a feel for how dimensional they are.

Then when Christmas is over, slide the bead down the string, flip the ornament over, fold it up, and slide the bead back down the string. It's not going to get smashed in storage! I also appreciate that it doesn't take up much space (our ornament box is overflowing!) You could even attach it to a present in this form as a gift tag.

Interested? I have a tutorial in my last post HERE.

How about some varieties?

 Alternate the patterns. Or use all different papers. 

Vary the number of folded sections. This ornament has six folded sections so it has a slightly different shape and depth on the side than the previous ornaments with five sections.

Double up on the layers. For this neon ornament I started with the green base, and in the center of each section I glued another folded pink layer. Also, on this one I embossed the papers for some interest since there is no pattern. You could also stamp something in the middle before you fold the layers.

Change the shape. This one is a snowflake (silver with script on the inside).

I hope you give them a try! Or come up with your own version. I'd love to know what you do.

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Submitting these in the Knotty or Nice CASual Fridays Challenge. They all have knots at the end to keep the bead from sliding off.

The neon ornament is inspired by the Moxie Fab Keen on Neon Challenge.

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