This year I've decided that I want to start making a lot of the bulbs on our tree. We normally have a blue, silver, and white theme but now that my little one is getting older I want to add personal ones to the tree that I can pass down to her. I also wanted to start the tradition of making one together every year. I have a more kid friendly one scheduled coming up, but I wanted to share an easy one first!
I'm a bit of a hoarder, so I still have a lot of our wedding (from 4 and a half years ago!) mementos and decor in boxes in the basement. I've been trying to find ways to use some of them. Remember my DIY Wedding Card Album?? Well, I have a bunch of wedding invites that were extra still sitting in a box and wanted to find a way to use them. So, I got the idea to make a cute bulb. This would also make a great Christmas present for a friend if you saved their wedding invite!
Supplies:
Wedding invite
Ribbon
Scissors
Pencil
Ruler
Clear glass bulb
Step One: Measure where you are going to cut the invitation
Flip the wedding invitation over and use your ruler to measure every half inch on top and bottom and make little dashes with your pencil. Connect your dashes by making a straight line across. This will be your guideline for the next step: cutting.
Step Two: Cut and Sort
Now you are going to cut out all of your little strips. If you have a paper cutter then use that, otherwise you can just use scissors like I did. After you finish cutting out all of your strips, you can start pulling out the ones that you want to use. I pulled out the pieces that captured the words that I wanted to see peaking through areas of the bulb. Unfortunately, I can't remember how many pieces I ended up using. Just use your own judgement. More pieces for a fuller bulb, less for a bulb that's not completely full.
Step Three: Curl the strips and start stuffing
Now that you have the pieces picked out that you want to use, you can start curling them. I simply winded them, with the print facing outward, around a pencil. Once you have it curled around the pencil, you can slide it off the end and start feeding it into the open end of you bulb. I would do this right away so you keep the tighter curl. Keep curling and stuffing until you have the desired amount of strips in your bulb.
Last Step: Finishing touches
Almost done! I cut a piece of ribbon and made a bow on the front of the bulb, and also at the top for hanging. And that's it! You did it! Really simple!
Optional extra touches:
You could add a little charm on the ribbon if you would like
At the very beginning you could paint the back of the wedding invite a pretty color (silver, gold, etc.) before cutting out your strips, to have the inside part have a little pop. (I didn't think of this until I was all done, Poo!! I bet it would look awesome!)
You could paint the silver cap at the top just to add a little something..
So what do you think?? Will you give it a shot?
