Craft: Angel or Fairy Yule Tree Hanging Ornament

Here's how to make an easy angel or fairy decoration from upcycled materials to hang from your Christmas tree. The main material is just corrugated cardboard, which you can reuse from a packing box. You also need red paper and wool or ribbon.

For the ones on the tree in my picture to the right, I used red paper from an on old greeting card envelope and ribbons that had previously tied up gifts I was given.

As well as cardboard, red paper and wool or ribbon, you will need scissors or a crafting knife and a cutting board, a pencil, glue, gold or silver paint and maybe some glitter.

You also need a template for your angel or fairy. A suitable cookie cutter can be used for the basic shape or you can design your own. To do that, fold a piece of paper in half and draw half of an angel or fairy shape against the fold. Cut that out so that when you open up the fold you get a symmetrical pattern.

In my pictures, I used a cookie cutter for the silver one and my own design for the gold one. (By the way, you can also see the gold angel in the photo of the cover of my book on poppets and magical dolls.)

Once you have a template you are happy with, place it on the cardboard, then draw around it with the pencil and cut that out. Repeat so that you have two identical angel or fairy shapes from the cardboard.

Paint them both gold or silver on one side. When the paint is dry you need to cut out a small heart shape in the centre of one of them. The best way to do that is to draw a heart shape on the reverse side, then carefully cut it out using fine scissors or a crafting knife on a cutting board.

From the red paper, cut out a heart shape that is slightly larger than the cut-out heart.

Coat the non-painted sides of the angel shapes in glue. Place the red heart behind the hole. Fold the ribbon or wool in two and the ends in the glue at the head. Glue the two angel shapes together with the red paper sandwiched in the middle so it shows through the heart-shaped hole and the ends of the ribbon or wool sandwiched at the top of the head.

When they are firmly stuck together, cover the outsides with some glitter or glittery paint, but be careful not to paint the heart.

When your angel or fairy is dry, hang her from your tree!

During the next few days I will be blogging about how to craft an easy angel or fairy tree topper and a visualisation to fill your creations - and your Yule tree - with the magic of the season.

You can also read more about crafting and enchanting seasonal dolls in my book Pagan Portals - Poppets and Magical Dolls, which was published this autumn. You can also view Poppets and Magical Dolls on Amazon.

Previous related posts:
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2018/12/tales-from-witch-room-my-real-yule-tree.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2018/11/magical-dolls-history-of-poppets-effigy.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2018/10/magical-dolls-poppet-of-protection-for.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2016/12/winter-solstice-tree-topper-sun-star.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2018/11/book-news-candles-poppets-every-day.html