Papier Mache Christmas Baubles
Well.. I gave you a sneaky preview of these Christmas Baubles over on Life At The Zoo a week or so back. You gave it the thumbs up! So here is a quick how to for one our quirkier Christmas Ornament Ideas! They are made from papier mache, hence the wibbly wobbly shape. I love that they are made from papier mache, as it makes this a very cheap and inexpensive Christmas craft, with a bit of upcycling (of the newspaper) to boot. Brilliant.
Materials: old newspaper, flour, water, microwave, acrylic paint, glitter for decorating!
Easy Paper Mache Paste:
- 1 part flour, 2 parts water – mix.
- Place in the microwave and blast at full power for 40 seconds. Stir. Repeat. Stir. Repeat etc.. until you have a nice thick paste.
- Try and remove any lumps, they only get in the way later!
1) Make your paper mache paste, as per the above.
2) Tear up small ish pieces of paper – maybe 2cm width and 5-10cm length, ready for pasting.
3) Scrunch up a large sheet of paper and make it a tight a ball as possible. Then start layinger strips over the ball. Keep reshaping with your hands. (I am sorry I don’t have a photo, but my fingers were covered in paper mache paste!).
4) Then fold some newspaper into strips for the “bauble” hanging thingy (what do you call that) and secure it with strips of paper machied newspaper.
5) Let dry fully. This may take 2-3 days. And you *may* have a slight flat bit on one side, where your bauble was resting.
6) Paint with acrylics. We hung ours up to dry.
7) Once dry add glitter glue (and hang to dry) or decorate with sequins or any way you wish.
Done! Enjoy!!
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Category: christmas, How To's, Kids Craft, paper mache, recycling
Oooh, I think I’m going to do this for my Conquering Christmas blog project (will link back to you if/when I do, of course!). They look great and, with the 2 stages of making and painting, will knock off 2 days from my list!
Perfect!! Win win. “Good luck” and have fun!!
Do you HAVE TO use old newspapers? Do you think that old school papers would work? My Kindergartener & preschooler bring home SO MUCH paperwork & I hate to just trash it. Would the regular office paper be too thick? What do you think?
Mmmh a very good question. I guess if you made the paper really soggy with the mache paste it could work? I would try it as an experiment. But you would have to get it quite wet, which would also mean it takes a little longer to dry? But essentially it shouldn’t make a difference!
these look like they were a lot of fun to make.
I think these are wonderful and we’ll be making some over the next weeks
Fabulous! Have fun!!!
They look beautiful!
Awe thanks!
This is a great idea and seems really easy to do. I started yesterday and uploading pics as I go to my blog
) thanks for the idea!
Oooh wonderful, need to go and take a peak!!