Homemade Paper Christmas Ornament ~Tree~

I've always liked homemade paper.  It probably comes from my love of stationary.  So I was excited to learn how to make homemade paper ornaments-that even my little guy could make.

I came across this post that first told me about these paper ornaments.  A Faithful Journey let me know that by not reading my Family Fun magazine, I had missed out on this little craft.  I immediately went to my December issue and found this homemade paper ornament craft.

Photo from Family Fun
That very day my children and I went about making our own ornaments before naptime.  Even my two year old son made his own!  We decided to make tree ornaments.  I thought my newly acquired sequins would add a nice touch since we do not use glitter in our home.  Interested in your own?  These directions will make three 3 inch ornaments.

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.  Take 3 pieces of construction paper and tear them into domino-sized pieces.

2.  Place the torn paper in a blender with 1 1/2 cups hot water.  Stir a bit to make sure all the paper is wet.  Let it sit for five minutes. 

 3.  Pulse in the blender for about 30 seconds.  Be sure the lid on the blender is on securely, otherwise the heat will make the lid come off a bit.  Then you will listen to your son say, "Mess!  Mess!" to you.

4.  Place the paper pulp in a strainer and squeeze out the extra water.  Place a rag on top and push down to remove additional water.  

I would suggest dividing the paper pulp into thirds so you know how much pulp to put in each ornament.

5. On top of a plate, put a dish towel.  On the dishtowel place a paper towel and then your 3 inch ornament. 

 6.  Spoon paper pulp in the ornament and press down.  This is where more detail would have been nice from Family Fun.  I'm not sure how thick these ornaments are supposed to be.  I'm guessing about 5 mm?  

Be sure to get the corners really well.  Then place a rag on top to get the extra water out.  If you are using glitter, sprinkle now.

 7.  Gently press the cookie out of the cookie cutter.  

8.  Bake at 200 degrees for two hours, according to Family Fun.  We used parchment paper on cookie sheets.  If you are me, you will need to bake them for about 4 hours to remove all the moisture, which is important.  I'm not sure if ours were way too thick...but 2 hours was not nearly enough.  (Once again, I would suggest dividing the pulp into thirds.  We did not do that.  I wish we had thought to do that!)

9.  Since the sequins that we put on did not stay on, I used Mod Podge as a glue covering, which worked effectively.  You could wait until now until now to put the sequins on with glue or Mod Podge.  Instead of trying to  

10.  Finish by gluing a thin ribbon or yarn to the back of the ornament.

My 2 year old's tree.

 Interestingly enough, we tried to make a second batch of ornaments.  I thought it would be fun to add flecks of other colors to the tree ornament.  So in addition to the original three green pieces of paper, I added scraps  of other colors.  Well, you know what happens when you mix all the colors, right?  You get brown!

So our plan changed and we made gingerbread men.  Of course, these go well with our gingerbread children craft and our gingerbread house.

How about a little reading to go along with these lovely homemade paper ornaments?  

The Legend of the Christmas Tree or The Gingerbread Friends might be enjoyed by your family like they are by us!

This is linked to ABC and 123, stART, and Kids' Craft!