DIY Xmas Gifting Series: Personalised Papercut Baubles
My DIY Xmas Gifting Series continues with these personalised baubles. I love making these for friends who have kids – I'll put their child's name inside, and they absolutely love it - and it's a gift that keeps giving – as they remember you fondly each year when they get the Christmas decorations out. So if you're looking for some serious gifting kudos this year, I strongly recommend that you make some of these!
And it's not just for parents, you could add any message you like – a marriage proposal at Christmas perhaps?
Once you have all the materials together, these are so easy to make. You can easily buy a wide variety of little charms in packs on Ebay and Amazon.
Here are the step-by-step instructions.
Gather your materials
You'll need:
Glass Baubles for craft (I got these 80mm ones from christmastimeuk.com)
Small Scissors and a scalpel (nail scissors re really good for cutting out the small details)
A needle – for threading the nylon string through the papercut name and charms
Various charms in gold or silver dependent on your colour theme
Shaped table confetti dependent on your theme (I used stars)
Ribbon or string to form the hanging loop
You'll also need a small piece of metallic card to cut the name out of.
Step One. Cut out the name.
This is the trickiest bit, so once you have this nailed, the rest is pretty easy.
If you have a lovely handwriting, you can do this free-hand, but I don't, so I find an easy way to do this is to:
Go on your computer ( a programme like Word),
Find a nice font that has the letters close together (or allows you to adjust the letters to be close together).
Type the name and then print out.. I add a rectangle, which touches the name and that will act as the hanging tab – before I print it out - but you can easily just draw this on once printed. Remember to measure the name when printed (and before it is cut out) to make sure that it fits inside the bauble.
Place your printout on top of the metallic card, then using a pen or pencil trace around the name firmly, leaving an impression on the card.
Then cut carefully around the name with the nail scissors. Use the scalpel or craft knife to cut out the holes in the 'e's and 'a's' for example.
The impression left on the card will make cutting out easier. You'll need to leave a tab to the left of the name to hang it from.
Step Two. String it all together.
Remove the metal cap from the glass bauble - you'll see there is a hole in the top of the cap. Thread the needle with the nylon thread and pierce it through the top of the tab on the name cut-out, then pass it through the hole in the metal cap, from bottom to top, then tie the threads in a knot to the metal loop at the top of the cap to secure.
Continue to do the same with the charms, remembering to keep the name and charms you want inside the bauble, underneath the cap, and any charms you want outside the bauble, tied to the top metal loop of the cap.
Threading the name and charms to the metal cap.
Step Three. Assemble.
Place some confetti inside the glass bauble, then very carefully ease the papercut name into the bauble and refix the cap onto the bauble.
Tie on a length of ribbon or string to form the hanging loop.
The fully assembled bauble. You can see that I've placed a small star charm inside the bauble as well.
And you're done!
These really are one of my favourite DIY gifts to give. Your friends will not believe you made it yourself!
You can make these baubles even simpler – if you feel the cutting out is too tricky, you could use letter stamps or stickers to create the name onto a strip of card, or you could even just use an initial letter charm to make it super easy!