These paper balls are inspired on this design by Heather Bailey. I made it a bit easier by creating a printable PDF template, you can print directly on the stock paper.

I made two sizes: large for a ball with a diameter of approximately 17 cm and a small one for a ball with a diameter of approximately 12 cm. I wrote a how-to in English and Dutch.

Materials:

• A4 craft paper (Eline’s Winterhuis)
• Scissors
• Glue
• Rulers
• Beads, pompoms, bells, ribbon, yarn, robe etc. for decoration

First start with printing the template of your desired size on the backside of your selected craft paper, this is the template for the large size, and this is the template for the small size.
In total you need 20 paper rounds to make the ball, so for the large ball you need two sheets of paper and for the small one you only need one. But it’s nice to use different designs in one ball.

When you have printed the template on your craft paper, cut out the 20 rounds you want to use. Use the scissors and ruler to score the folding lines (the dotted lines in the circle) Fold all the lines, so you get triangles. Now glue first the top and bottom part together (see picture) use 5 circles and glue them together in a round.

For the middle part glue together the other 10 rounds, see picture how to put them together, then close the circle.

Before you put on the top and bottom part, first use some yarn, ribbon or robe to make a hanging loop and some decoration for the bottom of the ball.

Materiaal:

• A4 stevig hobbypapier (Eline’s Winterhuis)
• Schaar
• Lijm
• Lineaal
• Kralen, pompoms, belletjes, lint, garen, touw, etc. om de bal te versieren

Begin met het printen van de template op het hobbypapier, gebruik deze voor de grote bal en deze voor de kleine bal. Je hebt in totaal 20 cirkels van papier nodig, voor de grote bal zijn dat twee vellen en voor de kleine bal is dat een vel. Maar het is leuk om verschillende motieven in 1 bal te gebruiken.

Wanneer je de template op het papier geprint hebt, knip je de cirkels uit. Gebruik de schaar en liniaal om de vouwlijnen te rillen. Vouw langs de vouwlijnen zodat je driehoekjes krijgt.

Lijm eerst de cirkels voor de boven en onderkant aan elkaar (zie foto), gebruik hiervoor 5 cirkels. Lijm daarna het middenstuk aan elkaar met de resterende 10 cirkels (zie foto) sluit de cirkel.

Bevestig eerst een ophang lus van lint, touw of garen aan de bovenkant, en versier daarna de onderkant van de bal, voordat je de boven- en onderkant op het middenstuk lijmt.

I was inspired by the brilliant ideas of Yvonne (Yvestown): she made this wreath for her TV room and last year she shared this tutorial for making the pompom garland.

Pointy star pattern:

• Start with an adjustable ring
• Secure and add two more chain stitches
• Round 1: Two treble crochet in the ring, * chain 2, three treble crochet in the ring, repeat 3 more times from *, chain 2 and slipstitch in the top chain of the beginning chain 2
• Round 2: Slip stitch across to chain 2 corner space, chain 3, two treble crochet in the chain 2 corner space, chain 2, three treble crochet into same chain 2 space, * chain 1, three treble crochet in next chain 2 corner space, chain 2, three treble crochet in same chain 2 space, repeat 3 more times from * , chain 1, join with a slip stitch in top of beginning chain 3.
• Round 3: Slip stitch across to chain 2 corner space, chain 3, two treble crochet in the chain 2 corner space, chain 4, three treble crochet into same space, *1 dc into chain 1 space, three treble crochet in the chain 2 corner space, chain 4, three treble crochet into same space , repeat 3 more times from *, 1 dc into chain 1 space, join with a slip stitch in top of beginning chain 3.
• Fasten off.
• Work away all thread ends

Today I made our christmas cards, I want to keep them a surprise for the receivers, but didn’t want to withhold this idea for you. So you only get a sneak peak at the end result.

I hand stitched the decoration to the linnen and then scanned the fabric with a white paper behind it. The most left picture was my first try, but I didn’t like the result enough, so then the second version came to live.

This one I submitted to the ‘Verhuiskaarten service’ of the TNT, this is an online service to order your own postcards. Normaly used to order cards to let people know your new address, but hey why not use it for all kind of other purposes :-) If everything is going ok, I will receive the postcards coming tuesday, perfect on time to send the cards before christmas. I have never been this organised before with christmas cards :-)

Today was my first christmas themed workshop. All the girls wanted to make a fabric wreath. It’s so nice to have a fabric wreath that you can decorate to your own taste, and you can use every year again. Just a nice handmade piece made with love.

What I still have to learn, is how much time it will take to create the projects I select. I always think I made it in an hour, but then, for example, I totally forgot the time I have spend to create the felt heart I hung in the wreath…. So all the girls left with homework today :-)

I have been making these christmas decorations as examples for my coming workshops. The fabric wreath is inspired on the beautiful wreaths of Holland Fabric House, the star is a design from Jenny from Allsorts, all others are my own design.

If you would like to come to my Atelier in Amsterdam to make christmas decorations, you could on Sunday december 6th or 13th. From 13:00 till 16:00 you are welcome to come and work on one or more of the projects. The price is € 40,- per person, this price includes 0,5m fabric of your choice, 4 pieces of wool felt, all ribbon and other haberdasheries you use, tea and/or coffee. Everything of the fabric and felt you don’t use during the workshop, is to bring home to make more.

If you would like to subscribe for one of those dates, please go to my website.

The day after, on saturday, I had invited 7 friends on my birthday party. We had tea and self made cake and I treated them with a felt workshop, they could make felt christmas ornaments, the ones designed by Jenny from Allsorts.

The week before I created the examples, I have put them together on a garland, I love it!

On christmas day the family joined at our place for dinner. It was nice to have them all over. My sister created the desert, it looked very festive and christmas:

After christmas day I did some crafting, I had to work on an order of party banners and a felt covered photo album:

And yesterday it was my mothers birthday. We went ice skating on the ‘pond’ at the Museumplein in Amsterdam (? I’m not sure if that’s the correct word for it…) Every year they freeze the pond and you can go ice skating with your own skates and it’s for free.

Pictures from: ‘Country Living – British edition – December 2008′