What to do with all the christmas cards once they were taken down was always a favourite ‘make’ dilemma when I was a child. You could always rely on Blue Peter to come up with something, though the most common solution was to take mum’s dressmaking pinking shears (of which I scream in horror now, sorry mum) and cut out shapes to make your present tags for next year, which of course when next year came around said tags were usually long gone!
Anyway this got me thinking. What to do with all those catalogues you pick up in the run up to christmas?
I’ve run some origami workshops recently where the focus was on creating christmas decorations. I discuss types of papers and which would work best for each decoration they would be making. So going through my pile of christmas catalogues I found the Aldi catalogue printed on lovely thick, non-glossy paper with great images. Perfect for the origami wreath!
So here are some images of my Aldi food and wine christmas wreath decorations.
I cut out my papers carefully selecting the best images and trying to avoid any text. Each wreath is constructed of 8 pieces of paper, the size I used was 10cm x 5cm. I found I was even cutting the sheets so that each decoration became themed. Cheese and Wine. Smoked Salmon Starters. Christmas Spice and so on!
This is a modular origami decoration, in other words all 8 pieces are folded the same and then slotted together to make the wreath. It will hold together without glue but you can add a spot to give it extra stability. I finished mine off with some lovely satin ribbon in beautiful rich contrasting colours.
So why not give it a go? The step by step instructions are below
Once you’ve got the hang of it, why not try different size’s and other types of paper. I’ve made them before using old sheet music and wallpaper. Smaller wreaths look lovely added to presents with a tag attached or given as a card. Go really big and hang it on a door!
Keep them somewhere safe ready for next christmas, in a place you’ll remember!
Create, Escape, Relax, Smile!
