Craft: How to Make a Festive Paper Cut Bauble
Add a personal touch to your Christmas tree this year with this pretty handmade decoration
Create your own tree decoration this year with a design cut out of paper and tucked inside a clear glass bauble. You could personalise it with a word, name or phrase, or choose a pretty design like the one below. This paper cut is made with white paper, but it could equally be in another festive colour, such as gold or berry red. Hang it on your own tree, or why not give one as a gift for a loved one to treasure year after year?
1 Sketch your design onto some scrap paper. Simple designs will work best on this scale.
Once your paper cut is inside the bauble it will be able to curve and twist, but don’t make the paper cut much more than a few centimetres longer than the diameter of your bauble.
You may want to practise with different designs and roughly cut them to see how they will look once inside the bauble.
Once your paper cut is inside the bauble it will be able to curve and twist, but don’t make the paper cut much more than a few centimetres longer than the diameter of your bauble.
You may want to practise with different designs and roughly cut them to see how they will look once inside the bauble.
2 Once you have created the design, copy it onto tracing paper.
At this stage, you can be creative with your design, for example making a symmetrical pattern by simply retracing elements of your drawing. The tracing paper is also important in the cutting out of any numbers or letters, which will need to be cut in reverse later (so the clean flip-side will read the right way round).
3 Draw over the final design on one side of the tracing paper. Turn it over and tack it down onto the clean paper with sticky tape. Re-trace over the pencil line to transfer the design onto your paper.
4 Remove the tracing paper to reveal your design ready to cut. The design will be in reverse. This will mean any numbers or writing in your design will be the right way round on the clean side of the paper.
With paper cutting on such a small scale, it’s hard to avoid showing some pencil lines on the underside of the design. Try to keep the transfer pencil line faint – clear enough to guide you but not so heavy as to spoil the final paper cut. (On a greater-scale paper-cut project, you can simply cut through the tracing paper and the paper at the same time, avoiding transferring any lines onto the paper at all.)
Watercolour paper works well, as it’s strong yet easy to cut and remains stiff once inside your bauble.
With paper cutting on such a small scale, it’s hard to avoid showing some pencil lines on the underside of the design. Try to keep the transfer pencil line faint – clear enough to guide you but not so heavy as to spoil the final paper cut. (On a greater-scale paper-cut project, you can simply cut through the tracing paper and the paper at the same time, avoiding transferring any lines onto the paper at all.)
Watercolour paper works well, as it’s strong yet easy to cut and remains stiff once inside your bauble.
5 With a new blade in your scalpel, begin to cut away the unwanted paper in-between your lines to reveal your design. To cut very curved lines and text, it can be easier to hold the scalpel in place and move the paper, rather than make the blade travel along the line. Allow a little extra paper at the top of your design to attach to the neck of the bauble.
6 You may want to alter the design as you cut, simplifying details or adding things in as you see fit.
Be prepared to alter your design once it’s cut, too. Although pretty at this stage, too much detail can look confused and hard to see once it’s inside the bauble.
See other simple ways to add festive cheer to your home
See other simple ways to add festive cheer to your home
7 Small details can make this paper cut really special. Use a needle to make small holes, like this pearl necklace around the bird’s neck. The feather details are made with the very tip of the scalpel blade held vertically as I cut.
8 Take the top off the bauble.
9 Place your design carefully inside the bauble. This will be a little fiddly, so feed it in bit by bit. I used a pair of tweezers to help ease it in, followed by a knitting needle to help work it into position and stop it twisting and tangling inside the bauble. Ensure a short length of the paper is left outside of the bauble top to secure it in place.
10 Once your paper is in position inside, sticky tape the ends to the top of the opening to secure them in place. Replace the bauble top and tie a ribbon through the loop for hanging.
Learn how to make your own wrapping paper
Learn how to make your own wrapping paper
11 Hang your unique bauble on your tree or in a window as a beautiful decoration, or wrap it in pretty tissue paper and give it to a loved one as a special gift.
TELL US…
Do you have any special baubles? We’d love to know their history and see a photo in the Comments below.
TELL US…
Do you have any special baubles? We’d love to know their history and see a photo in the Comments below.
Clear glass bauble with a removable top
Cutting matt
Scalpel (10A blade recommended)
Tracing paper
Pencil
Scissors
Sticky tape
Ribbon
Tweezers and a knitting needle or skewer (optional)