How To: Wedding Invitation Xmas Ornament

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Since we're in the holiday spirit of making our own tree ornaments, here's another inspired by SomethingTurquoise's Wedding Invitation Ornament. They tend to use more embellishments (glitter, colorful papers, etc.), whereas I prefer to just stuff the plastic ornament balls with curlicues of wedding-relevant papers. The pink/silver exemplar includes the wedding invitation & envelope, rehearsal brunch invite, wedding program, and a thank you card. The green ornaments is just a pile of mis-addressed wedding postcards, fussy cut for important details. The pink/silver has lots of strips that serve only a decorative purpose, whereas I had about ~9 copies of the same green/white postcard to choosily cut-up for the other one.

You could, of course, use different papers as the medium - birthday invitations from every year of a child's life, drawings/doodles, family holiday cards, your undergraduate diploma when you've achieved a higher degree, a paper tablecloth from a particularly delicious meal,... The options are endless!

1. Supplies: Plastic DIY ornament, Xacto knife, ruler, cutting mat, (optional embellishments: ribbon, glitter, colorful paper, veil material, ...).
   
   Main filler is: Wedding Papers (invites, Save The Dates, Rehearsal Invites, Envelopes, Thank you cards, Ceremony Program, etc.) - Can also be non-wedding paper (Birthday cards/invites?)
   
   
2. Cut papers into differently-sized strips, preserving important words.
   
   
3. If no words to preserve, cut into random sizes (I like 1/4" and 1/8", but 1/2" also works)
   
   
4. You can even cut pretty envelopes, if you cut around the creases & glue
   
   
5. I like to cut enough strips to completely fill the ornament bulb, but you could also use decorative filler (ribbons, veil, scrapbook paper, etc.). Just intermittently add embellishment in the middle of adding invite paper strips.
   
   
6. Most wedding papers are cardstock, I find it's easiest to just roll it into a spiral with my hands, and then shape a bit afterwards
   
   
7. Curlicue strips as in previous step, and place into ornament bulb.
   
   
8. You may need to selectively place/move strips to show important information. A crochet hook is useful for this.
   
   
9. Cut some hemp cord, knot it, and pass the knot through the ornament loop & cord loop, can now hang on tree, or...
   
   
10. Alternative: Fill an ornament bulb with copies of the same invitation (this is about ~8 postcards) - no problem showing names/important dates
    
    
11. Tie ribbons to the cord/hanger.