Fun Winter Crafting!
Paper Wishes customer Carol says: “I saw these balls made on your video and decided that they would make great gifts. I am on very limited income and have a large family. These were a great idea. I will fill with some candy and in some cases a small amount of money or a gift certificate as well. Thank you very much for taking a lot of worry about gifts from my mind.”
With the current economy, I think we’re all looking for ways to make fun and personalized gifts without breaking the budget. In fact, as Carol was emailing, I was actually making up some decorated balls myself and thought I’d share a couple of tips I discovered!
If you decide to fill the ball with candy, it’s a lot easier to put the candy (like these pepermuntballen—yum) in a lightweight plastic bag first. It also means the recipient doesn’t get a shower of candy when she opens it. I used very sheer sandwich bags from the grocery store, filled them, trimmed the top and used a twist-tie to secure them before putting them into the ornament. Heavier bags, like Ziploc, are a bit too thick and create extra bulk inside the ornament, which makes it harder to close. Make sure not to pack the bag too tightly, though, or it’s tough to fit into the ball. (You might have to eat some to make it fit!)
Metallic outline stickers make these ornaments super-quick to decorate. I found it was easier to first tie on the ribbon and tag (my tag has a tiny Zot™ holding it in place) before adding the stickers…just so I knew where to put the stickers so they show best. (And no—you haven’t seen these stickers before because you’re getting a sneak peek at Dazzles™, one of our new releases for this winter!)
If you want a sticker border to run across the front of the acrylic ball, be sure to cut it so it doesn’t go across the seam—which would make the gift a real puzzle for the person trying to get to the goodies inside! For this ornament, I tied the green ribbon through the loop at the top of the ornament, leaving the bottom portion of the ornament open. This way I could place the sticker across the front from one seam to the other and trim it at the second seam. Then I put the pepernoten inside (in its bag!) and snapped the ornie shut.
When using thick ribbon, like grosgrain, as a hanger, cut the end of the ribbon at an extreme angle like this…the tip acts like a needle and it’s waaaay easier to thread through the hole at the top of the ornament. I usually just put one ribbon through the hanger, then tie more ribbons through the base. The flowers are attached with a brad, and the brad goes through the hanger as well.
One last tip: Because these balls have a tendency to roll around on your work surface, I found it much easier to hold the ball in my lap while working. Wearing a skirt or apron, or just putting a small towel across your lap gives you a great surface to work on!
And these cute ornaments aren’t just limited to edible gifts. Carol has a great point when she says she’s using them for small gifts like gift certificates, jewelry and other tiny treasures.
Want to see more examples? Just click here to see the Weekly Webisode, or see some cute projects Tessa made, complete with step-by-step instructions in the Webisode Gallery. The papers I used to decorate the tags are from the Ultimate Christmas Cardmaking Book.
