This ornament is a perfect way to commemorate any special occasion. I like to make them for the bride and groom for all the weddings I attend, but I've also made them using baby announcements, birthday invitations, and other special occasions.

Step 1: Materials

For this instrucatble, you'll need

-an invitation

-a straight cutting tool (you can use the guillotine type or just scissors and a ruler if you like)

-a small, cylindrical object like a pen or pencil

-scissors

- ribbon and cardstock in colors taht coordinate with the invitation

- a Christmas ball (I bought mine at Michael's when they were in season, but you can get them on Amazon year round)

Depending on what you have on hand, this will cost between $5-$10 to make and takes about 30 minutes from start to finish.

Step 2: Cut the Paper

This part takes a while, so put on some good music or your favorite TV show.

I cut everything into rather thin strips. I try to vary the length and width of the strips of paper just a little bit to make the finished product look more interesting. The basic rule I use for how wide to make the strips is that I cut out lines of text from the invitation and make all the rest of the strips roughly and long and wide with a little bit of variation.

Step 3: Curl the Paper

This part also takes a while.

Wrap each strip of paper around the cylindrical object you chose. Slide the paper off the end of the object, tyring to keep the whole curl together (see photo). I like to spiral my paper strips just a little bit tighter after removing them from the object just by twisting the ends. You can see the same piece of paper before I tightened the curl and after.The thicker the object, the looser the spiral. You can see the difference in tightness in the comparison of the marker vs. pencil photo.

Once you're done, you'll have a nice pile of curly papers.

Step 4: Assemble Ornament

This ornament had 3 different types of paper: invitation, yellow, and purple. I put each spiral into the ornament by alternating a piece of the invitation with a piece of the colored paper to ensure everything was nicely distributed and that the whole invitation got into the ornament.

Reattach the top of the ornament (it just springs in and out) and shake the ornament to mix the papers even more and help them settle. Sometimes I add or remove pieced of paper after this step depending on what the ornament looks like at that point. I also tend to glue the top on the ornament for added stability, but it's up to you. I'd suggest something like E-6000.

Cut two lengths of ribbon to about 6 inches. Fold the ribbons in half and string them through the upper look of the ornament, Take the ends of the ribbon and thread them through the ribbon loop.