Icosahedron Christmas Ornament

by rponda

21K9210

Intro: Icosahedron Christmas Ornament

This is a Christmas ornament or gift made out of a gift bag.

STEP 1:

First get yourself a medium to large size gift bag. I prefer to use metallic ones for this ornament, but any bag can be used.

STEP 2:

Cut down the side of the bag and around the bottom as shown in the photo.

STEP 3:

Make copies of 20 circles with equilateral triangles inscribed in the circle.

STEP 4:

Roughly cut out the circles.

STEP 5:

Using only a dot of glue in the center of the circle, glue all 20 circles onto the inside of the spread out bag.

STEP 6:

Cleanly cut out the circles. Then fold to create the triangles. Once the circles are folded carefully peel away the pattern Do this for all the circles.

STEP 7:

Now is the step where you start gluing the circles together. First make a train of 10 circles by gluing the folded edges together. Then make 2 'hats' of 5 circles each.

STEP 8:

Make a circle of the train and glue the ends together.

STEP 9:

Now take one of the 'hats' and glue each flap onto a flap on one side of the train. Let dry. Then glue the other 'hat' to the other side of the train.

STEP 10:

The is the completed Icosahedron. It can be used as a display, gift, or you can run a string through one of the flaps and hang it on your tree. You can make this ornament out of any size circle, but the larger the circle the easier it is to make.

Good luck and enjoy!

10 Comments

hasselhoph 9 years ago

Thank you for this great Instructable! I got gift bags from the dollar store, then I had a friend who has a Cricket tool cut the circles. Then I constructed two triangular folding guides from cardboard. I used glue sticks and some staples for difficult spots. Awesome!

khalaria 12 years ago

I have made these with children from old gretings cards. Once made the edges were touched with a little glue and dipped in glitter. They look great on the tree or larger ones can be strung from the ceiling. Must say these look good using shiny paper.

craftyv 13 years ago

Short cuts with only two templates of card. Cut one circle in card and one triangle in card.

Using the template cut each circle of shiny (bag) and lay card triangle on top of circle and simply fold up the edges and crease, then move on to next one.

The holographic paper is magnificant. We can get the bags here quite cheaply so I made some using different colours for each "side". As they spin they fluoress and flash in the light, especially spotlights.
Absolutely Fabulous.

lakergirl 14 years ago

I made these last year for Christmas for each of my two daughters and their husbands. Both weddings were that year, and I made the ornaments from the paper left over from their wedding stationery (also hand-made). I adorned one with pearls and the other with ribbon flowers, also used for their weddings. They treasure them!

0jack 14 years ago

 That is such a sweet idea.  You're an awesome mom!  

I think I will look through some cards I've kept over the years (I have an immense stack) for pictures that would suit this craft.  I think with a glaze of sparkly Mod Podge and a glossy Triple Thick seal, they'd look quite festive no matter the subject, and it'll let me actually look at them once in a while.  I should also have handmade paper around (my sister and I used to recycle everything just to keep from going crazy from too many kids and not enough money) that I could use.

0jack 14 years ago

 This might make it worth buying one of those big circle punches for scrapbooking, if you were into it.  You can get those quite large.  Or, I bet you could also make a stamp like a cookie cutter out of something around the house and stamp the back of the paper.

This could be one you do with a very little kid, too.  Let them scribble all over a brown paper bag or let them paint the inside of a cereal box and then make the ornament with their 'art' on it.  I bet they'd be pleased about that, if I remember that age correctly.

hishealer 14 years ago

And for the gaming geeks in my family, I can always paint numbers on the sides... ^^

bptakoma 15 years ago

My grandmother would make these out of holiday cards and then my dad made them into a mobile. You can construct them with the flaps in or out. You could make one circle template out of card stock and trace it onto whatever paper medium. Then cut the isoceles triangle out of a scrap of wood to fold the flaps quickly.

rponda 15 years ago

I really like the idea of folding the triangle around a piece of wood. That would make it a lot easier.