Google+ House Revivals: Honeycomb Ornament Tutorial

Monday, December 19, 2011

Honeycomb Ornament Tutorial

It's taken a bit longer to pull together the tutorial for the honeycomb ornaments made from vintage book pages than I expected.

I was hoping to retake some photos, but my camera is on the fritz.   I'm freaking out just a little tiny bit, as I always have projects in the works, and it's Christmas time, and I need my camera!


Start by choosing the paper you want to use to create your ornaments.  I used pages from the same book used to create my woven stars.  These are nice big sheets that can be used whole, quartered, halved, or cut into thirds to create the desired size and shape of ornament. 


Here, I quartered the pages to create the size of paper that was needed.


The quartered sheets were then folded in half -- I folded several at a time.


Next, a pretty profile shape was drawn to create a template, and that template was used to trace the cutting pattern onto the folded paper -- again, I would cut out several at one time.


The folded shapes were then glued together, placing the leaves "back to back"....


...until I had a a stack of about two dozen pieces.  You really need at least that many pieces to create a successful honeycomb.  A few of mine were made with only eighteen pieces, and they are not as pretty as the ones created with a minimum of twenty-four pieces.  For very large ornaments, you will need even more pieces.  It is also important to have an even number of pieces.


When the glue has dried on your stack of folded leaves, bring the front and back leaves together to form your basic shape.  I clipped mine in place while the glue dried.


These ornaments look beautiful in their simple fan shape!


Seriously.  You could stop. right. here. and have a stunning display!


Or, you could create your honeycomb.  The more leaves you've used, the more detailed your honeycomb pattern can be.


Add some glitter, and add a pretty hanger, if you like, and you have these beautiful recycled ornaments.


They make lovely gifts, individually packaged in pretty gift boxes, or hang them all together from your mantel.


Be prepared for lots of oooohs and ahhhhhs, as these little ornaments are show stoppers!


Mine are displayed on my Christmas mantel, along with some mercury glass balls, and vintage frames.... wish I could show you all.  Hopefully the camera issues will be resolved in a few days:)



Love mixed media? You might like this post on how to make mixed media flowers.  Or click here for several easy art tutorials.



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Thanks so much for stopping by!
~Amanda