Create and decorate your own Valentine’s themed octahedral ornaments, and string them together into a garland! Octahedrons are 8 sided shapes, and in this case, we’ll be making regular octahedrons, which means the sides are 8 equilateral triangles. Gemstones including diamonds, of course, have geometric shapes and make a unique alternative to heart shapes for Valentine's Day, or any holiday!
Supplies:
- Cardstock Warehouse Cardstock Papers in 65 lb cover
- Be My Valentine Multi-Pack Collection
- (or individual sheets will do; I used: Wild Cherry, Razzleberry, Cotton Candy, Bubblegum, Pink Lemonade)
- Spieglemom Scraps Gold Stardust Sequins
- Garland of Sparkly Gemstones Printable PDF: each print-out makes two ornaments
Tools:
- Papercutting blade (such as Excel or Exacto)
- Self-healing mat
- Metal ruler
- Small hole punch (optional)
- Detail scissors (optional)
- Scoring tool
- String (Bakers twine, cotton cording, thin yarn etc)
- Glue dots (I used Glue Dot Strips)
- Flat paintbrush
- Craft glue (I used Aileen’s Tacky Glue)
Cut out shapes using blade and ruler or scissors, and score along the dotted lines.
The dotted lines will be hidden on the inside of the shape.
Hole punch what will be the center of the ornament. A partial hole will do.
Fold along the scored lines.
Cut a 7” length of string, and tie the ends together in a knot.
Place the knotted string through the hole, so that the knot will be enclosed in the ornament, and the loop dangles outside.
Add glue dots to tab closest to knot and fold.
The knot should be enclosed within the ornament. One by one put glue dots on the tabs and adhere so that you form an octahedron.
Time to decorate! Brush glue onto the surface of your ornament. I envisioned the top end being dipped in star sequins, so I applied more glue to the top and thinner glue further down, leaving the bottom half plain, and then drizzled sequins over the glue.
To speed up drying, I put mine on the radiator. The cardstock doesn’t warp.
Repeat for more ornaments. Make as many as you like! I have a set of 9. These can be used individually as ornaments, or we can proceed to string them into a garland.
I cut the ornament loops and tied them at 4” intervals along a 40” length of string.
Voila, a garland of sparkly gemstones in a Valentine’s palette! This project can be adapted to different holidays of course, simply by changing the color scheme and sequins.
Thank you for joining me on this geometric adventure!
Follow me on Instagram @GinkgoMaker to see my print-making art. I am primarily a stamp designer and carver, but all aspects of paper arts call to me. Also, don't forget to follow Cardstock Warehouse on Facebook and Instagram!
Jennifer Zee