Day 1 at Beccy's Place - A is for Accordion Fold

I'm playing along with the

Ninth Annual Month Of Holiday Cards

at

Beccy's Place

I'm not colouring at the moment but I am working on Christmas craft projects for creative little hands around our neighbourhood ... the endless months of Covid-19 lockdowns has brought our community much closer and I look forward to sharing more crafty adventures with them over the coming weekends and school holidays now that restrictions have eased.

Beccy's prompt for Day 1 is the letter "A"

(Beccy's post with "A" inspiration words and

a snow angel card to inspire is HERE)

My "A" kids Christmas activity kit is for Accordion fold Christmas Tree cards and ornaments.  This wasn't the project that I originally planned for "A" but I have a new toy and felt the need to test my Crop-A-Dile!

One sheet of pretty patterned paper makes four of these fabulous accordion fold Christmas trees.  I started by scoring the sheet every 1/2" on the scoreboard, this is something that I haven't shown little hands before but I'm sure they will be interested and keen to give it a try.  I cut the sheet into four panels and folded the mountains-valleys-mountains of the accordion fold.  I squashed the folds together then punched a 1/8" hole in all twelve layers at once with my handy-dandy new Crop-A-Dile, so that all the holes were perfectly aligned.  I threaded a thin ribbon through the holes then tied the layers tightly together to make the accordion fold tree shape, so quick, easy and fun.  I know this part will be popular, as we used these plastic round tip needles to sew cobwebs for Halloween.

To make the ornament, take a length of ribbon, tie the top of the accordion folds tightly, knotting firmly, then take the ends and tie to make a loop for hanging the ornament.  Glue a star at the top to finish it off.

To make the card, do the same steps for making the ornament, cutting the ends off the ribbon after knotting the folds together (no hanging loops needed) then glue a star at the top of the tree.  Run a thin line of liquid adhesive along the edge of the folds at the back of the tree, place it on to the front of the card base and the card is finished.  I have several packs of blank card bases for these kits in assorted colours and sizes, DL (10cmx21cm), square (14cm) and A6 (10.5cmx14.8cm), so we're sure to see an wonderful variety of cards made.  ... I confess, I have a pretty big variety of patterned papers too.

 

Here is a completed card and ornament.

   

The bonus with using double-sided paper is that you can choose the design you want for the front of your card / ornament, or, in the case of the ornaments, you can enjoy both sides of the pattern.

The accordion fold trees are just over 1/2" thick, as the score lines for the folds are 1/2" apart.  The patterned paper I used had a real bonus, because one side has a patterned accent strip along the bottom, so it looks like the tree has already been trimmed.

*** INGREDIENTS ***

card bases

patterned paper - for Christmas Tree

scoreboard and bone folder

brown cardstock - for tree trunk

crop-a-dile (or hole punch) - to punch holes at along the top of the folds

to make the top of the tree

ribbon / string / cord - to tie the top of the tree

and make hanging loop for the ornament

star punch + glitter cardstock - for star on top of tree

or pre-cut foam stickers

adhesive

optional - assorted adhesive gems

*** REFERENCE ***

This project was inspired by the "Easy Accordion Tree Ornaments Craft" post on the "Mom On Time Out" blog HERE.