Sunday, January 30, 2011

Purdy Paper Polyhedrons

I don't remember where I saw these originally, but I know I clicked on a link and ended up at the Heather Bailey blog:
When I see something like this, I have to make it immediately. If I were to see this at 3 a.m. I would get pretty annoyed that no craft stores would be open to satisfy these late-night cravings. So I headed straight to AC Moore to load up on Valentiney papers (which were on mega-sale--WOOT!). And a glue stick. I printed out the pattern from here, and set to work. I ended up using a cup to trace all those circles. Cutting them all out may be the least fun thing I've ever done. And I had a claw hand for a little bit until my scissors muscles relaxed. You know how I overdo things? Yeah....I cut out enough circles for eight of these in one sitting. That's 160 circles. Plus I had extra...a lot extra. I recommend smaller doses of these because by the time I got to the end I was just feeling done with it. But they did turn out cute:
  
I didn't add any little dangly things to the bottom (obviously) because I was just too excited to make one I didn't even want to consider embellishments (although they would have been cuter). My edges are a little...not as neat as they should be, but you can't really tell. I strung them up on some red ribbon, and now they are hanging in front of the kitchen windows.
I showed one of these to the nephew, and I prefaced it with "Do you want to see a shape I made that has twenty faces?" Math is his second language and it's a foreign one to me so I thought he'd be excited. I showed it to him, he looked at it, and went "Mmmm-hmmmm." I said "Don't you think that's awesome? It's made of paper and it has twenty faces!" The response: "It's okaaaayy...you're always trying to amaze me with things like that. It's not that amazing."

But I like them. I think their construction was pretty interesting, too. They look much brighter in person, but this is the worst window to take pictures near. It's always flooded with light so unless I climb onto the windowsill the pictures will be blah. I wouldn't make this many again, though. I think one would be cute at Christmas with some felt mistletoe or something--kind of like a kissing ball without the poisonous berries. If you choose to make any of these here's a tip on the link: it downloads a zip file to your computer. When you go to unzip it there are two pdf files in the folder. The second one (the larger of the two) is the one that contains the instructions. So if you click on the first file and get nowhere don't despair.

That's all I've got for now. Hopefully my nesting-doll project will be blog ready this week. Which is Bee-speak for "I'm going to start tomorrow." Have a deeee-lightful Monday! And can I get a collective "Reaallllyyyyy????" on the fact that January is already over? Where the h-e-double hockey sticks did it go?

19 comments:

  1. Oh these are fun! I remember making these for a Christmas school-wide parade back in college. We actually placed a candle inside each ball. A few burned down, yes. :D But our group won so yay. :)

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  2. "Reaallllyyyyy????" :-) They're lovely and must have taken ages to make. Where do you find all that time?! Have a lovely February week and don't worry, it'll be Tuesday tomorrow ;-) Love from London xo

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  3. These are s cute. I remember making these in geometry class back in high school.

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  4. OK, these are also super awesome!! THanks for sharing. :)

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  5. How pretty! I made a few of these a couple of years ago using Heather's tutorial too. I call them "kissing balls." I've got one hanging from my chandalier in the dining room right now. They just brighten up a whole room don't they?

    I just found your happy blog today and signed up immediately! It's very nice to meet you!

    Sherry @ A Happy Valentine

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  6. I've seen something like this done with old Christmas cards but never though to do it for other holidays. What a great idea. They're really cute!

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  7. what a very cute blog you have. I've been looking around... Will visit again.
    Linda

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  8. These are so totally cute! And I love your valentiney background! So stinkin' festive!!!

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  9. These are really cute. It's a nice change from the millions of felt balls I have been making. (I have a surplus of red felt). I'm your newest follower. I'd love for you to follow back!

    http://theloops13.blogspot.com

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  10. These are so much fun! :) I love your paper choices! :) I'd love for you to link up to my new linky party, Tute {Yourself} Tuesday!
    LittleEme.blogspot.com
    The linky will be open until Wednesday evening. :)

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  11. Would love for you to join us at the Hugs and Kisses Valentine's Party!
    http://itsablogparty.com/

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  12. Noticed your kissing balls on between you and me. I LOVE them. I was thinking of making them with my son.

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  13. HI! I'm hosting a link up this week -- It's a Keeper Thursdays! I hope you can come over and link up!

    Thanks!
    It's a Keeper
    http://www.everydaytastes.com/
    http://twitter.com/itsakeeperblog
    http://www.facebook.com/ItsAKeeper

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  14. So pretty and fun. My mom made ornaments like this with old Christmas cards. I love them with heart day themes.

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  15. Love it! My kids would have a 'ball' making some of these!!

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  16. Ok, so I tried to do these without the instructions, and I did ok with it. I did have a idea to put a twist on it. How about taking an exacto knife and cutting a small triangle within the triangle, and then pasting a piece of tissues paper on the backside. You could do this with all of the pieces or just some of them. Then you could insert an led light and it would make a super cute lantern. :)
    Cheers!
    Jen

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  17. I love this - definitely something to make! Thanks for linking up to Fantastic Friday!

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  18. Hi, friend! I'm admiring all your creative posts here so can you please share them with us at the Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop? Hope to see you there at the party :)

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