Twelve Days of Christmas 2016 - Day Seven

Wow! This month is moving right along! It's already the 7th! I promise that I will be caught up tomorrow. I've been so busy that I couldn't seem to do two in one day until yesterday. So when I post tomorrow, it will actually BE tomorrow's post! Yay!  So, the project for Day 7 is paper pine cones. I found some pins on Pinterest for balls, so I made adjustments to make them more pine cone-y shaped. (Don't you just love my new word?)

Okay, first you need to pick some paper. I chose a brown paper because I'm too literal sometimes. Pine cones are brown, therefore brown paper, but they could really be any color. I can imagine them all in shades of blue hanging with blue lights. Wouldn't that be pretty? You need one 12"x12" piece of cardstock for each pine cone. You can fold now and cut later, or cut before you fold. I found it hard for my stiff fingers to fold the little, narrow strips, so I cut strips that were the combined width of two or more strips, folded them, and then cut them to the right widths. You will need two 1" strips, four 1 1/4" strips, two 1 1/5" strips and one 3/4" strip, maybe two.

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Your two 1" strips will stay 12" long. Cut the 1 1/4" strips to 9" long, the 1 1/2" strips to 11" long. and the 3/4" strip(s) will also stay 12" long. If you didn't fold before cutting, now is the time to fold. You're going to fold them like an accordian in 1/2" intervals. If you have some way to score them, that would make everything easier. I don't have a Score Pal or anything like that because they're too expensive for my miniscule budget, so I use a bone folder and my paper cutter. Place your paper strip in the paper cutter and run the bone folder down the cutting groove. Don't push too hard because it will go right through your paper! After you score all your strips, fold them accordian-style. In other words, up-down, up-down, up-down. If you folded before you cut, be very careful when you cut. You need to make sure that they are flat enough to cut straight. If you've never made a paper medallion before, here are the instructions from the 12 Days of Christmas 2013, when we made paper medallion Christmas trees.

Now you're going to glue some of the strips together. Take the two 1 1/5" strips and glue an up end to a down end, making a 20" strip, approximately. Glue two of the four 1 1/4" strips together, then glue the other two together. Now you should have 6 strips, 7 if you made two 3/4" strips. Now glue the other ends of them all to make a complete circle of each. Flatten each circle down into a medallion like the ones above and put hot glue in the middle to hold it. When all your circles are medallions, glue them together to make a pine cone in this order. From the top down--1", 1 1/4" ,1 1/5", 1 1/4", 1",  3/4" and if you think it needs to be a little longer, then glue the 2nd 3/4" to the very bottom.

The pine cones in the photos were made before I figured out the magic formula, and they have folds that are too big and because of that, they have fewer layers. Trust me, they look better with smaller folds and more layers.

So there you have it - paper pine cones. Hot glue a piece of jute twine to the top and then decorate them or just tie a ribbon around the hanger. Oh, and I forgot to tell you. The strips in the photos at the beginning weren't scored, and as I worked with them, they cracked on the folds and fell apart. That why you don't see a pine cone that looks like that in any of the finished photos. These pine cones would be cute hanging on the tree or tied to the tops of packages. You could make 5 or 6 of them in different sizes and hang them different lengths and tie them together with a big bow to hang on a door - there is endless things you can use them for!

This Christmas season is flying by so fast, that I think we need to slow down to appreciate what we already have. Putting our families first, especially at this time of year, will pay dividends for life, Like Peg Bracken, from RaisingFigureSkaters.com says, "Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truy merry Christmas," Enjoy your loved ones while you have them, because you never know when they will be taken from you. Love to all,