Schlagwort: Kugeln

Check out our tutorial and learn how you can make your own vintage-style spun cotton doll heads from ø 30 mm spun cotton balls.

Vintage spun cotton doll heads are rare works of art and prized items among collectors. Their making is a tradition that started in Germany back in the late 19th century.

You can use the finished doll heads to fashion beautiful vintage angel figurines, elves and fairies ornaments, Christmas doll ornaments, pine cone fairies, tatted angels, and more.

Vintage Spun Cotton Doll Heads – Materials:

• ø 30 mm SPUNNYS spun cotton balls (about 1-3/16 inches).
• Paint for the desired skin tone (acrylic paint works particularly well).
• A few color pen (ballpoint or ultra fine markers) – black, red, and blue.
• Toothpicks or bamboo skewers to rest the balls while the paint dries.
• A pencil and an eraser to outline facial features before drawing permanently.

A simple ballpoint pen works fine to draw on spun cotton .

Step by Step Directions:

1: Make your „vintage color“ paint mix. Vintage spun cotton doll heads are often a pale brown, yellow or pink. You can easily obtain these colors by mixing a little white in your paints.

2: Paint the balls with the desired skin tone color. It helps to hold the balls on a toothpicks or bamboo skewers while painting them. Paint should only take about 10 min to dry.

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3: When dry, draw a face with a ball pen or ultra-fine marker. Use different colors.

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You are done :)

Things you can do with your vintage doll heads:

You can use your beautiful vintage inspired doll heads many different ways:

– Vintage spun cotton Christmas angel ornaments. The body can be made with lace, pipe cleaners, felt, tulle netting, crepe paper, fabric, crochet, knitting, tatting…

– Traditional spun cotton Christmas elves, santas, or snowmen ornaments.

– Retro style Chenille dolls (pipe cleaner dolls).

– Toothpick spun cotton heads or vintage party toppers.

– Japan-style vintage spun cotton ornaments…

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The doll face „decal“ technique

Your can make beautiful vintage spun cotton doll heads without having to draw faces by hand. To do so, you’ll just need a printer and a tissue.

The technique is simple. Tape a tissue onto a piece of printing paper. You may have to trim the tissue a little bit so that it fits within the sheet of paper. Make sure all the edges of the tissue are taped over (this is important). Search the internet for nice doll face images and print them on the sheet you just prepared as if it was a regular sheet of printing paper.

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Cut around your doll face prints. Only keep the upper most ply (the one that is printed on). Discard the other ones.

Brush some mod podge over a spun cotton ball and delicately position the face over the mod podge. Try to make as little wrinkles as possible (gently tap with your fingers).

Brush a second layer of mod podge over the edges of the tissue to remove all the last wrinkles. However, be careful not to brush directly over the ink because it may smear the ink.

Wait until the mod podge dries to a clear finish. You are done :)

I hope you enjoyed these tutorials. As always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to leave a comment. Happy crafting!

Check out our tutorial and learn how you can make beautiful Pipe Cleaner Animals by combining pipe cleaners and spun cotton balls.

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Pipe Cleaner Animals – project materials:

– A few pipe cleaners (chenille). Pipe cleaners come in many different styles: solid color pipe cleaners, glitter pipe cleaners, zebra marking pipe cleaners, „plush“ pipe cleaners….You can experiment with different colors and different styles.

– A pair of round nose pliers (useful to make perfectly round animal ears)

– Some thread to make the hanging loops.

– A pair of scissors.

– A ball pen, to draw the faces.

– A few ø 12mm small spun cotton balls to make the heads.

Step by Step instructions:

Start by gathering your materials. Bend the full length pipe cleaner in half.

Make a loop with the piece of thread. Tie a knot.

Cut off the excess thread to get a clean knot.

Insert the knot in the hole. Push the knot down into the hole with the round pair of pliers. It is not necessary to use any glue. The pipe cleaner will cover the hole.

Use the round pliers to make a loop in the middle of the pipe cleaner strand. Twist the loop a few times so it doesn’t get untied. This is the first ear.

Notice how the ear is in the center of the piece of pipe cleaner. This is important for later.

Following the same technique, create a second loop. Notice how the two strands have different lengths.

Position the ball between the two ears. The hole faces up.

With the pliers, twist the pipe cleaner under the ball. Make it tight.

Shape the arms. Have them go out horizontally and then down in an X pattern.

Start shaping the torso. Grab one of the two strands of pipe cleaner and fold it up and across.

Then fold the pipe cleaner strand down and across again, but behind the animal’s back this time. 

Repeat with the other strand. Except this time, go behind the back first and come back in front. When you are done with the torso, the two legs should have different lengths.

Shape the first leg by folding back the shortest strand.

Shape the second leg by folding back the other strand of pipe cleaner.

Notice how you have enough pipe cleaner left to make the tail. To make the tail, just bend the end of the pipe cleaner onto itself so the tail ends in a gentle loop. Draw a face.

You are done :)

More pipe cleaner animal DIY craft projects to get you inspired

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A few final thoughts

I hope you enjoyed this page and found some inspiration for your next DIY craft projects.

Pipe cleaner animals are great everyday projects because they are fun to make, they look cute, and they require only inexpensive materials.

Moreover, making pipe cleaner animals is a great way to work on our creative skills. You don’t have to twist and bend your pipe cleaners exactly the same way I did. You can create your own style of pipe cleaner animals.

As alway, do not hesitate to send us your questions, it’s always a pleasure to hear from you. Until then, happy crafting!

Follow our tutorial and learn how you can make a beautiful and comfortable Fabric Covered Bead Necklace using spun cotton balls are lightweight fillers.

Materials to make one fabric covered bead necklace

• 14 spun cotton balls, 1.18″ diameter (30mm).
• A long and narrow, 4.5″ x 90″ (7.5′) strip of silk fabric. You will have to stitch two 4.5″ x 45″ pieces together.
• Needle and some extra strong thread (or better, a sewing machine if you have one).
• A long ruler, pencil, scissors, or craft knife, paper clip.

Directions

Step 1: Cut a long and narrow strip of fabric (4.5 inches x  7.5 feet)

At the fabric store, you probably will not find a piece of fabric that is 7.5 feet long. Fabric comes on bolts and bolts are typically 36″, 44″-45″, or 54″ wide. So you may have to sew two pieces of fabric together.

The fabric I bought came on a 45″ wide bolt. So I ended up having to sew two long and narrow strips of fabric together to achieve the required length.

To cut the fabric, I used a long ruler and a craft knife over a piece of plywood. I cut two strips, each measuring 4.5″x 45″. It’s ok to use a pair of scissors if you don’t want to mess with a sharp knife. The cut doesn’t have to be exactly straight.

Before sewing the 2 strips together, I overlapped them by about an inch. [divider_flat]

Step 2: Fold the strip of fabric into a tube shape

Fold the long piece of fabric in half lengthwise and sew the long edges together. Try to sew small stitches for a more secure seam. This is easy to accomplish but time consuming without a sewing machine.

VERY IMPORTANT: For now, the „good“ side of the fabric goes inside the tube. We will turn the tube inside out once the sewing is done.

Once done with sewing, turn the tube inside out with a loop turner or a paper clip.

The paper clip method:  Start by solidly anchoring the paper clip to one end of the tube (it’s ok to poke a hole in the fabric with the paper clip). Then, just slide the clip through the tube from one end to the other. The tube will turn inside out very easily. [divider_flat]

Step 3: Slide in the spun cotton balls and tie the knots

Tie the first knot where you sewed the two strips of fabric together (to hide the stitches).

Slide a ball down one end of the tube until it reaches the middle of the necklace. Twist the fabric to push the ball as close to the middle as possible and tie a simple knot.

Slide a second ball down the other end of the tube, twist the fabric and tie a new knot.

Do the same with all the balls or until the desired necklace length has been reached.

Step 4: Adding finishing touches to your necklace

For the endings to look nice, fold the fabric to create a 45 degree angle. Sew along the edges.

Iron your fabric covered bead necklace on low heat to remove all the wrinkles. You are done :)

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. As always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to get in touch. Happy crafting!

Note: If you like this tutorial, you may also enjoy my other necklace tutorial: Paper bead necklace DIY.

Follow our detailed tutorial and learn how you can make beautiful and elegant crepe paper flowers out of streamers. We will use poppies as example and will provide plenty of pictures to help you along the way.

Crepe Paper Poppies – List of Materials

• Crepe paper streamers – 1 roll (1 – 3/4″ wide). You can make dozens of flowers with a single roll. I recommend white to start because glue spills don’t really show on white.
• Spun cotton balls – white – 15 mm diameter (.59 inches). 1 ball per flower.
• Sharp scissors.
• Pencil.
• Low temperature glue gun and glue sticks.
• Stem wire. The wire I used for these flowers is 18 gauge and 18″ long. I found it at Michaels.
• Floral tape.
• A small piece of cardboard to make your petal template. Or you can just print my template on regular paper and cut it out (link below).[/threecol_two_last] [divider_flat]

Directions

Note: I recommend a low temperature glue gun so you don’t burn your fingers.

Step 1: Gather all your materials.

Make sure to set up in a location where there is no air circulating (the petals fly off easily).

Step 2: Make one petal template for all your future crepe paper flowers

You can download the template (link below) or just copy from the picture. (It is not an exact science). My petals are 1-11/16″ wide and  1-1/2″ tall.

Click here to Download the petal template. When printing, make sure to set the scale at 100%. 

Step 3: Cut out 6 identical petals.

Fold the crepe streamer 6 times onto itself. Outline the shape of a petal on the top layer. Cut out all layers at once with a sharp pair of scissors.

Step 4: Glue the spun cotton ball onto the stem wire.

Pour a generous amount of glue over the hole and immediately insert the stem (all spun cotton balls have a little hole). Wait 5 seconds for the glue to become moldable. Quickly, shape the glue into a cone shape with your index and thumb fingers.

It is important to create a little „cone“ of glue under the ball.
It will make for a nice surface to glue the petals to. 

Step 5: Make the support cone a little bigger

Pour a little more glue all around the cone, wait 5 seconds for the glue to become moldable, press down with your thumb and index fingers to shape as a cone.

Step 6: Add petal #1.

Pour a horizontal bead of glue about 3/8″ long right at the junction between the spun cotton ball and the support cone. Line up the bottom of the petal with the bottom of the cone and press the petal against the glue. The petal should cup around the ball.

Step 7: Add petal #2.

Petal #2 needs to overlap petal #1 by a little bit (about 1/3 „).

Step 8: Add petal #3.

Petal #3 should fit right between petal #1 and petal #2, overlapping them a little bit on each side. Glue into place using the same technique as for petal #1 and 2. When done, your three first petals should look evenly distributed around the ball.

Step 9: Add petal #4.

Pour a 3/4″ horizontal bead of glue across petals #1 and 3. This glue line should be a little bit higher up (maybe 1/4″) than the first 3 petals glue lines. Position petal #4. Press down against the glue. Petal #4 should cup around the ball

Step 10: Add petal #5.

Following the same technique, glue petal #5 exactly between petals #2 and 3.

Step 11: Add petal #6.

Still with the same technique, glue petal #6 exactly between petals #3 and 1.

Step 12: Apply the first piece of floral tape.

We want to give the crepe paper flower a clean look by covering the very bottom of the petals and hiding all the imperfections. Cut a 5″ long piece of tape. Start twisting the tape around the stem at about 1/2″ below the flower. Go about 2 turns. Then work your way up the stem until the tape covers the very bottom of the petals. Stay up for about 3 turns. Work your way down until you run out of tape.

Step 13: Finish wrapping up the stem with floral tape.

Cut a 16″ long piece of tape, start where you ended, and work your way down. Maintain a sharp angle and moderate tension.

This is it
You made it! 

Try to make another crepe paper flower, you will be an expert in no time. For variety,  you can try different color crepe paper rolls. You can also paint the spun cotton balls.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and found some inspiration for your next projects. As usual, do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.

Crepe Paper Flowers – same technique, more project ideas:

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Follow our tutorial and learn how you can make Vintage Style Easter Ornaments from spun cotton balls and colored card stock.

The templates for the bunny and chicken silhouettes can be downloaded below.

PROJECT MATERIALS

• Colored stock paper or cardboard (make sure the two sides are colored).
• 40mm spun cotton balls. The downloadable silhouette templates below are just the right size to work with 40mm balls.
• A good pair of sharp scissors
• A pack of Christmas ornament hooks (see picture below). You could also make your own with small gauge metal wire.
• A few pieces of colored ribbon
• Paint and paintbrush.
• A glue gun or tacky glue.
• A rubber band.
• A bread knife.

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STEP BY STEP TUTORIAL

Step 1: Gather all your materials

40mm diameter spun cotton balls

A pack of hooks

Step 2: Paint the spun cotton balls. We created our own off-white color by mixing a little bit of yellow paint into white paint.

A toothpick comes in handy to hold the balls. 

Step 3: Outline the chicken and rabbit silhouettes onto the colored stock paper (you can download our silhouettes or create your own). Once the silhouettes are outlined, carefully cut them out with the pair of scissors.

Step 4: Draw ø 40 mm circles on the silhouettes to mark where the balls will ultimately be positioned. Then draw a second smaller circle within the larger circles. Finally draw a vertical line in the middle of your circles.

You can use a coffee pod to draw the inner circles.

Step 5: Cut each silhouette in half. Then cut out the inside part of the inner circles.

Step 6: Tie a rubber band around a ball so as to create two identical halves. Draw a pencil line along the rubber band, remove the rubber band, and with the bread knife, make a quarter inch incision along the line.

Repeat with the other ball.

Step 7: Pour a little glue in the holes and insert the metal loops. Hold the loops in position for about 15-30 seconds until the glue is dry. If you are using tacky glue, you will have to wait a couple hours for the glue to dry.

You can re-shape the metal loops a little bit so that they are easier to insert in the holes. 

Step 8: Simply slide the cardboard silhouettes into the incisions.

Step 9: Use little pieces of ribbon to hang your finished ornaments.

You are done :)

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and and as usual, do not hesitate to send us your questions or use the comment fields below.