3 Quick and Easy Holiday Decorations Made from Paper – GWC Mag

Decorating for the holidays is so much fun. You might have a bunch of heirlooms that you bring out year after year, or perhaps you enjoy foraging for greenery to deck your halls. Maybe you just like to change things up each holiday.

If this year you have found yourself wanting a little something more to trim the place up with, but don’t want to spend a bunch of money on pricy ornaments, why not have a go at making some really simple decorations from paper?

Paper ornaments don’t have to look cheap or tacky. Some look like a million Dollars and are made out of toilet tubes, old magazines, and junk mail! Take a look at some of these inspiring crafts that you can whip up in no time. You can even get the kids involved, too.

Toilet Paper Roll Snowflakes

Source: Day with DIY/YouTube

If you can get your hands on the cardboard tube from the center of a toilet or kitchen roll, you can be halfway to making a really pretty ornament that people will go crazy for.

First of all, take your cardboard tube and flatten it out, making sure the folds are nice and crisp. Then, cut the flattened tube in half so that you now have two shorter tubes. Now, cut each half into thirds so that you have six pieces. The pieces should open up into leaf or petal shapes.

Now glue the pieces together to make the beginnings of a snowflake. From a second tube, cut yourself another three pieces the same size, but this time cut each piece in half so that you have six little strips. From the strips, make small tear-drop shapes and glue one to the inside of each petal on the snowflake.

Now, cut 30 more pieces from other tubes. Take the pieces and fold them in half to make little ‘V’ shapes. Glue these, in stacks of five, between the indents of the six petals.

Use some natural twine or ribbon to hang your ornaments.

Paper Bauble

Source: SimplePaperMade/YouTube

For this craft, you can use light cardboard, or even recycled greeting cards or gift wrap. First of all, you need to cut out 30 circles with a little tab to act as the top of the bauble. Fold each of these circles in half through the tab.

Be sure to look at the video for this part (2:09)—next, glue each circle closed, but only in the middle. The top and the bottom remain open. Now take a half circle and apply glue to the top 1cm and the bottom 1cm, and glue another half circle to it. Repeat this with all of your half circles until you have a stack. Allow this to dry completely.

Once it is dry, your stack should open up to form a ball. Glue the last two sides together by the top and bottom 1cm. Use paper clips to secure the sides closed until it is dry. You can leave your ball as is or wrap a ribbon around it as shown in the video. Add some ribbon or string to hang your bauble up.

You can make these baubles any size—small enough to hang from your tree, or large enough to make a statement hanging from the ceiling.

Paper Wreath

Source: The Little Crafties/YouTube

To make a paper wreath you need a sheet of A4 paper. With the paper placed horizontally (landscape) on your desk, draw a line about 3 inches from the top across the paper and another line about 3 inches from the bottom across the paper. Next, draw lines at about 1/4 inch intervals vertically across the paper leaving the center section clear. Only the top and bottom 3-inch portions have lines.

Now, cut along all of the lines stopping at the 3-inch line. You will end up with a piece of paper that has a fringe on either of the longest sides. Next, glue each opposite ‘fringe’ strand together to ultimately form a tube. Glue the pieces at a slight angle to form ‘v’ shapes (see video). Leave the last three ‘fringe’ pieces on each side unglued and cut these off to form a tab.

Now bend your ‘tube’ into a wreath shape with the cut paper on the outside and glue it together with the tab. You can decorate your wreath with ribbons or red paper berries.

Related Content:

Easy Ways to Help the Planet:

• Eat Less Meat: Download Food Monster, the largest plant-based Recipe app on the App Store, to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy. You can also buy a hard or soft copy of our favorite vegan cookbooks.
• Reduce Your Fast Fashion Footprint: Take initiative by standing up against fast fashion Pollution and supporting sustainable and circular brands like Tiny Rescue that raise awareness around important issues through recycled zero-waste clothing designed to be returned and remade repeatedly.
• Support Independent Media: Being publicly funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!
• Sign a Petition: Your voice matters! Help turn petitions into victories by signing the latest list of must-sign petitions to help people, animals, and the planet.
• Stay Informed: Keep up with the latest news and important stories involving animals, the environment, sustainable living, food, health, and human interest topics by subscribing to our newsletter!
• Do What You Can: Reduce waste, plant trees, eat local, travel responsibly, reuse stuff, say no to single-use plastics, recycle, vote smart, switch to cold water laundry, divest from fossil fuels, save water, shop wisely, Donate if you can, grow your food, volunteer, conserve energy, compost, and don’t forget about the microplastics and microbeads lurking in common household and personal care products!