Pre-Christmas days and Christmas are wonderful “family times” and the cold, sometimes even snowy, winter in the Northern hemisphere helps a lot to fulfil the whole Christmas fairy-tale. It is also a very “DIY time”. Especially for me. I love all the opportunities to create warmth at home and to explore new things. And I also believe this is a great chance to give our children beautiful memories. So, I am offering you an idea on how to easily create a beautiful and unique decoration together as a family project. My idea is for Christmas paper animals, but you can make paper trees, cute little paper houses or paper gingerbread cookies…
Let’s start with the project
I started with my iPad, but it is not a “must have instrument”. You can draw your Christmas designs by hand, then scan or copy or take a photo of them. Or you can use my designs which you can download for free. Just click on the banner bellow:
My project includes 12 animals, but you can create a longer-term family challenge with a different theme every day.
Of course, every member of the family can draw their own version of the animal too. In the end of the day or the week you can organize the drawing and take photos…
The second step of the Christmas paper decoration
… is to mirror the images.
You can do it on your computer – there are free online programs, which are very helpful. For easy fast projects I use Pixlr (Pixlr.com), but there are many others. The idea is to use one which is easy for you to work with which will save you time and maintain your good mood.
The next step of your DIY Christmas animal decoration
When everything is ready, print the images. You will get a better result when using heavier paper, say at least than 200 g/m.
Then cut them out very carefully so that you have two perfect mirror image pieces of each animal.
In my case, I am following the black contour line, but maybe it is a better idea to leave 1mm white paper around the outer contour. This will create a more “snowy” feeling and also will give you space for fixing cutting mistakes.
How to hang?
I am using simple cotton string pieces, about 7.5’’ (approx. 20 cm) long. First, I make a loop with a knot as shown and then, I untwist the free parts, to make them soft and flat so they will be invisible between the paper layers.
Next, I put glue on one side one of the pictures and fix the cotton string with the knot slightly above where the string exits the paper and gluing the un-twisted parts to the paper.
Then, I cover the soft string parts with more glue and add the second piece of paper to fix the two sides together being careful to match their shapes as closely as possible.
If there are some white parts visible, I am carefully cutting them off too.
And my Christmas paper animal decoration is ready!
I hope you will have fun creating your own! And if you like mine, here again is the link where you will find my free designs for your personal use
I wish you merry and warm winter days!
This post may contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and buy something, I may get a portion of the sale at no cost to you. With these links I promote products and services that I am using and think are excellent. It also helps me make a living off of this site so I can keep creating content for you.
Thank you for helping me! ♥
If you like these animals, here you can find printable Christmas wrapping paper with the same designs:
For more Christmas decoration ideas, check this article:
