Wrapping Week 2013: Fa La La Felt Ornaments

Ever since I made these felt cookies for Beany and my niece last Christmas (which are holding up amazingly well and still favorite toys in our house), I’ve been toting around a ridiculously large supply of scrap felt. It’s like when you’re eating dinner at one of those gigantic-portions Italian restaurants, and no matter how much spaghetti you keep piling away, that magical bowl has no real end. Inevitably, after what feels like hours, you and at least someone else at the table raise the white flag and utter that oft-spoken line: “We really should have split this.” So, anyone care to share some felt?

Luckily, there are worse problems to have than a felt abundance, especially considering Pinterest’s dandy knack for turning any searchable term into an onslaught of DIY projects. The idea for this wrapping venture came from a quick shuffle through the felt drawer. A few cuts, a little twine and some quick gluing later, and someone’s getting a felt-happy gift box this year!

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What you’ll need:
• a few small scraps of felt in various colors
• matching pompoms for the ornament tops
• twine
• scissors
• hot glue
• a gift box and/or simple craft paper

How you do it:
Start with a plain gift box or fully wrapped gift. You’re basically just gluing the ornaments you’ll make to the outside, so it’s easier to start with the present already wrapped. Decide where you want the ornaments to be on the outside of the package, and carefully hot glue your pieces of twine in place, leaving a space for the ornaments to “hang” on the end.

Now it’s time to cut your felt scraps. For each ornament, you’ll need three equal-sized circles of felt (mine are each about 1 inch in diameter). Fold the first circle in half, and put a few dots of hot glue around one of the folded edges. Working quickly (but carefully! Hot glue is hot!), fold a second circle in half and press one of its folded sides firmly against the circle half you just glued. Make sure the edges are lined up, and hold in place until the glue is set. Repeat this step to attach the third felt circle to the other fold half of the second. When all is said and done, you should have three folded felt circles attached together (they should be able to open sort of like a folded-up fan), with one folded end of each outside circle still free.

Glue the two outside ends (the outside folded sides of the outside circles) flat to the gift box where you already glued your twine. When open, it should form a perfect fanned-out circle. Add a matching pompom to the top of each ornament.

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Hope your week is going well so far! We’re due for more snow here this afternoon. Yippee!!!

XO,
Katrina