Anthology Blog + Christmas Bauble DIY

Hello to all of you clicking over from Anthology! It's such a beautiful magazine run by two lovely ladies and I've been a fan since the beginning. My LA home appeared in Anthology's Issue 3, back in the Spring of 2011, just before we moved to London, and now they've got my London home on their blog just in time for Christmas.

When my friend, photographer Sarah Hogan came to shoot the house, Johnny and I were getting ready to make some of our favourite Christmas baubles. It's such an easy and satisfying project, I thought I'd share a simple how-to today.

All you need:

*Styrofoam balls of any size. Ours were about 3" diameter and purchased at my local craft store for about 50p each. Balled up newspaper also works fine, your baubles just won't be as perfectly round.

*Strips of fabric about a 1/2 inch wide, torn right off if you like a frayed edge or cut with scissors if you prefer it neater. (Do you know that trick where you can snip into the fabric and easily tear off a strip? Test it by tugging a bit where you snipped. If it gives, you can tear all down the length).

*Hot glue or straight pins.

*Skinny ribbon.

How-To:

Using the styrofoam balls (or balled up newspaper) as a base, wrap long strips of fabric around and around until the bauble is covered. When your fabric strip is all used up, put a dot of hot glue on the bauble and push the end of the fabric strip down onto it. Don't be alarmed, the glue will melt the styrofoam a bit, just push the fabric down quick without burning your fingers! If you're using the styrofoam balls, rather than newspaper, you could also secure the fabric with a straight pin, pushed down into the foam. If your fabric strip runs out but you're not done, just overlap the start of a new strip with the end of the old strip, and continue wrapping.

When your last strip has been secured, wrap a thin piece of ribbon around, as shown in the photos below and tie in a bow. It helps to put a last pin or dot of glue to secure the ribbon. I usually do it right under where your bow will go. Finally, you can tie a little piece of ribbon on so you can hang it on the tree. I tie mine on where the bow is, just looping it under the ribbon that's around the bauble, and tying in a small knot. Alternatively you could attach an ornament hook directly under the ribbon bow and use that to hang it instead.

And that's it! I collect fabric so every year I make a few more depending on what colours I'm doing each Christmas.

Fabric Tip: Scour charity/thrift shops for shirts and skirts in interesting fabrics. I often buy things I wouldn't wear in a million years and add them to my fabric box for a future project. The first bauble pictured above is a Liberty print from a romper suit I bought at a charity shop (Can you picture me in a romper?!)

To see the full post by Anthology click here.

Photo credits:
Top images by Sarah Hogan for Anthology.
Bottom image by Yolanda Chiaramello.