DIY Christmas tree toys made of cotton wool, felt, papier-mache, paper, beads, crochet. Master classes, video instructions

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The approaching New Year holidays give you a chance to show your talents and make New Year toys. There are a lot of Christmas tree decorations on sale, but making your own crafts is much more interesting.

New Year's toys made of felt

To make a craft from felt, you need to follow several step-by-step actions.

Bright flashes:

Using a ruler, mat and cutter, cut multi-colored felt strips measuring 8 x 0.5 cm.
Measure out a thread about 20 cm long.
Place the cut beige piping on the thread and place ribbons of other colors on top.
Pull the strips tightly with fiber and secure with a knot.
Fluff up the felt pieces into a ball shape and tie the two ends of the thread together.

Felt boot:

Draw the outline of a felt boot on cardboard and a long, narrow strip for the loop.
Transfer the pattern onto the fabric and cut out 2 identical pieces (preferably red).
Make snowflake and Christmas tree templates separately.
Sew decorative elements onto one of the large pieces and then sew it to the other cut out piece.
Attach the loop.

Christmas trees:

Cut out 2 identical triangles from green felt.
Sew multi-colored pieces of braid onto one of them, fold the ends and sew to the wrong side.
Sew the 2nd piece to the decorated part. Leave the bottom edge unsewn.
Stuff cotton wool inside and, sewing it up, insert the brown barrel.
Instead of ribbon, you can sew on sequins or colorful buttons.
Attach a loop of thin ribbon to the top.

From paper and cardboard

For paper decorations you can use any paper of different thickness, even unnecessary printed publications.

Cardboard balls:

Old thick magazines or brightly colored candy boxes are suitable for the material.
Draw 21 identical circles on cardboard using a compass, then cut them out.
Fold each circle in half 2 times in both directions.
Bend the workpiece, after which the center of the part will be visible.
Again, fold the circle in one direction so that its edge runs along the marked center.
Bend 2 edges in this way, you should get a triangle.

In 1 circle, cut out the resulting triangle, this will be a template.
The resulting stencil must be placed on the remaining round blanks, outlined and their edges bent outward along the contours.
10 cut out pieces should be glued into a strip in turn: 5 down - 5 up.
Form a ring from the resulting strip and glue it together. This will be the base.
Divide the remaining 10 molds into 5 pieces and glue them together into a circle. This will make 2 lids.
Glue the lower and upper caps to the base.
Attach the loop.

Corrugated Christmas tree:

For the base of the winter beauty, you need to make a cone rolled out of cardboard. Fasten its seam with glue or tape.
To ensure stability of the workpiece, the internal conical space should be filled with some material.
Cut 10x3 cm strips from green corrugated paper.
Twist each strip in the middle and form a loop by pressing with your finger.
Attach all prepared parts to the cone using glue, starting the process from the bottom tier.
The volume and fluffiness of the tree depends on the number of loops used.
The top of the tree can be decorated with a bow or a large bead.

Papier-mache Christmas tree decorations using different paper plastic techniques

DIY Christmas toys made using the machirovanie technology are presented below.

Example of a snowman:

As a base, you can use old balls or balloons of different sizes.
Use your hands to tear the newspaper into small strips.

The finished strips need to be moistened in water and pasted onto the ball, previously treated with a greasy cream.
Soak the 2nd and 3rd layers of newspaper with glue and let dry.
In total, 10-15 paper layers need to be applied, which should be periodically dried in a warm room. The entire drying process takes from 12 to 24 hours.
Glue the remaining balls.
Make handles for the snowman and a cone-shaped figure for the nose from plasticine, which are then similarly decorated with newspaper strips.
When the parts are completely dry, carefully cut them with a knife.
Glue the resulting halves together and secure the seam with 2-3 layers of newspaper.
Cut off the top of the 2 bottom spheres and join the whole piece together with glue.
Paint the papier-mâché with acrylic and let dry.

Draw eyes and a smile on the snowman.
Decorate the figure with a hat and scarf.

A bell made using the classic papier-mâché method:

Cut any paper (for example, toilet paper, newspaper or copier paper) into small pieces.
Pour hot water over the paper raw material and place it in a warm room for 24 hours.
After the specified time, bring the mixture to a boil, squeeze it out, then loosen and dry it.
Mix the resulting composition thoroughly with chalk.
Starch paste and wood glue are gradually added to the resulting mixture.
It must be stirred until an elastic, creamy dough is obtained.
From the formed raw material, a bell should be molded, after which it should be dried for 24 hours.
Finally, oil or acrylic paints are used to color the New Year's craft.
It is advisable to first prime the product with white gouache diluted with glue in a 1 to 1 ratio.

Made of cotton wool

Cotton wool is a suitable material for making Christmas tree decorations.

Snow Maiden:

Lightly sprinkle the cotton wool with water and sculpt the face. To do this, you need to form a tight oval and make small indentations for the mouth and eyes.
Uneven areas should be lubricated with a brush dipped in water. The doll's face should be left to dry.
Make a wire loop on the head, then create the Snow Maiden's frame from the wire.
Wrap the base with cotton wool, previously soaked in PVA.
Glue the finished head to the body.
When wrapping a toy figure, you should try to form the lower and upper limbs.
Place a cotton cloth on your head, giving it the desired shape.
Then the sheepskin coat and felt boots should be formed.
Then the drying process begins. First, the toy needs to be dried in the oven for 10-15 minutes, then left to dry naturally.
Finally, the figurine is covered with watercolor paints. The face is painted light beige, the cheeks need to be rosy, and the eyebrows, nose, mouth and eyes are best painted with acrylic paint.

Bunnies:

Take cotton pads, previously treated with paste, and draw small parts of a hare on them.
Each detail must be painted with paints of your choice, then cut out.
For the body, take a cotton ball and draw a muzzle on it.
Then glue the pre-prepared tail, paws and ears to the body.
Attach a loop of thin ribbon to each bunny.

Made of polystyrene foam

It is easy to make DIY New Year's toys from foam plastic.

For example, a sheep:

First, you need to cut out an oval from the foam for the body of the desired size.
Another piece of foam plastic should be crumbled and the resulting shavings should be glued over the entire area of the cut out part.
Sew the head of the sheep from a fabric scrap (or make it from cardboard). Its upper part also needs to be treated with shavings.
The legs are made from satin ribbons, which are attached to the inside with glue.
The eyes and nose should be drawn with a felt-tip pen or made from colored paper.
Cover the back of the figurine with cardboard or paper.
Finally, attach the loop to the sheep using a hairpin.

Funny snowman:

Make 3 foam balls of different sizes. To do this, crumble a piece of material and roll them up using glue.
Glue the prepared PVA balls together in descending order (from smallest to largest).
Attach rolled foam ears and arms to the figure.
Eyes and a smiling mouth should be drawn with a felt-tip pen or beads should be glued on.
Make a bucket for your head out of multi-colored paper or sew a hat and scarf out of fabric.

Various figures:

Cut out shapes from foam plastic in the form of a heart, bell, cube or oval.
Decorate to taste.
Rhinestones and beads will add sparkle and luxury to your tree.
Crystal half beads can be transparent or coated, and they will help the tree sparkle in the light.
Lace, bows, artificial flowers or flower blanks are attached to the toy using glue.

From scrap materials

Using your imagination, you can make unusual toys from unnecessary things.

Snowmen from bottle caps:

Paint the inside of the tires with white spray paint, after washing and drying them.
It is not advisable to paint indoors.
The paint should lie firmly on the surface; repeat painting if necessary.
Then form the snowman's body from beer caps.
After the parts have dried, they should be laid out 3 in a row, with the convex surface facing you.
Then you need to calculate how much narrow tape (up to 1 cm) you will need to connect all the parts together using hot glue.
Cut off the measured piece of tape, leaving some extra material to form the loop.
Glue the tape to the caps with hot glue, first grabbing the caps together to make them hold tighter.
To decorate, take a thin brush and draw a nose, mouth, eyes and buttons on the painted side.
For the broom, take a toothpick and crush the edge to create a mini broom.
Tie a scarf for the snowman from multi-colored ribbons and glue a button on top.

Penguins:

Used incandescent light bulbs need to be cleaned and degreased.
Then paint the back black and the belly and face white.
You can do a regular coloring or draw arcs above the eyes and flippers.
Then dry the lamps and use a thin brush to depict the eyes, nose and cheeks.
You can dress the penguins in doll outfits or knit a scarf and hat from leftover yarn.
To make a loop on top of the cartridge, attach a cord or ribbon with hot glue. If you are wearing a hat, you will need to leave a hole in it first to thread the loop through.

From beads

New Year's toys are made with your own hands from beads.

Easy to make Christmas tree:

Make a medium-sized cone out of cardboard.
Wrap the cardboard base in a spiral with thin and thick wire.
Bend the ends of the wire and string beads or seed beads on it, then remove the blank and give the product the shape of a Christmas tree.
If you don't make a base, then the metal thread with the decorations strung on it should be twisted into a spiral, then pulled by one end to form a Christmas tree.
Attach the ribbon to the loop.

Angel:

It is worth starting to make the toy from the head. On a small piece of wire you should string white beads. At the end, fix it by wrapping a ring from the wire and pressing it with pliers.
For the body you will need an elongated oval bead, which must be strung on a metal thread after the head.
At the beginning of making the arms, it is necessary to fix the wire between the upper part and the corset and put beads on each upper limb in turn: 1 round gold - 1 oblong white - 1 gold - 1 elongated milky - 1 gold. The end of the wire should be threaded through the last bead.
The skirt for the angel figurine can be made from pins, having previously strung various beads on them. Connect them together with thin wire.
It is advisable to make the wings separately from golden beads and attach them to the back.

From plastic bottles

To make figures of this type, plastic bottles of any size are suitable.

New Year's ball:

For large balls, plastic bottles with a capacity of 1.5-2 liters are suitable, and for small items, containers with a capacity of 0.5-1 liter will be useful.
The middle part of the flask needs to be cut out to eliminate any unevenness or bends.
The middle of the plastic container needs to be cut into rings. To do this, pierce the wall with an awl, and then cut with sharp scissors. Or preheat the flask in hot water, which will make the cutting process easier.
After this, you should put the plastic rings one inside the other to make a transparent ball. This will be the basis of the toy.
You can make several of these blanks at once and decorate them in different ways.
As an option for snowballs, PVA glue is applied to the surface, after which it is generously sprinkled with salt.
You can place colored tinsel, crushed old Christmas tree decorations or beads on the adhesive surface.

Christmas tree:

For work you will need 2-3 green plastic bottles.
Cut off the bottom of the container. The length of each cut container should be different. This is due to the future size of the tree. Each subsequent plastic tier will be slightly shorter than the previous one.
After adjusting the size, you should start cutting the needles. They are cut into thin strips, and then curled slightly upwards with scissors.
There are two methods to assemble the New Year's beauty. One of them involves gluing the elements together, and the second involves assembling the tree on a base and a rod. A straight branch or thick wire, which must be stuck into a container filled with plasticine, will do as a stick.
A ball or star should be glued to the top of the upper part.
You can put small beads or crushed foam balls on the Christmas tree needles.

Snowman:

Take a plastic bottle consisting of 2, or better yet 3 solid spheres.
Paint the container white with paint.
The hat and scarf should be made from felt of any shade. For the hat, the fabric rectangle should be sewn along the cut line, and the top part should be tightened with thread.
Then you need to glue the headdress to the bottle cork, and tighten the scarf around your neck - the narrow place between the spheres.
For the arms, it is advisable to mold tight balls of cotton wool, fix them with glue and stick them in the middle of the body. Instead of eyes, stick buttons, and depict the nose and mouth with dark paint.

From yarn

You can make your own New Year's toys from yarn, a clear example of this is the star:

Make a template of a star (Christmas tree, deer) from thick cardboard.
Take thick yarn of any color (beige, red, yellow).

Using hot glue, attach the end of the rope to the figure.
Applying a small amount of adhesive, you need to begin the process of wrapping the cardboard blank in a circle.
At the end of winding, secure the other end of the thread with a drop of glue.
Form a loop on one of the tops and wrap it with yarn as well.

Christmas tree:

First form a cone out of cardboard or foam.
The conical base is placed on a table or placed on a stand (leg, flower pot).

The cone should be tightly wrapped with green woolen thread until all the gaps disappear.
Carefully hide the end of the yarn between the wound threads.
After this, the tree needs to be decorated.
Glue pine cones or small Christmas balls in a straight line along the bottom of the product.
Alternatively, the tree can be decorated with sequins and small stones, and a satin scarlet bow can be attached to the top.

Christmas wreath:

Prepare the base: cardboard is suitable for a flat wreath, and for a three-dimensional product, lay out crumpled paper on the stencil and wrap the structure in foil.

You can choose the yarn color to match your interior or choose the classic green color.
Wrap the previously prepared template tightly with yarn.
Felt or fabric inflorescences, various natural elements (pine cones, pine branches, acorns), shiny New Year's toys, as well as figurines of holiday characters and animals are suitable for decoration.

From wire

If you have some wire around the house, you can create a beautiful New Year's decoration.

Wire ball:

Inflate a balloon the size of a Christmas tree decoration.
Take a skein of flexible wire and cut off a piece 1 m long.
String beads and stones of different sizes onto the wire. (40-50 pcs.).
Form a wire frame around the inflated balloon in one direction and the other, like meridians. Distribute the density of beads at your discretion.
When the wire is wound in the desired amount, it should be secured and a loop should be formed. To do this, something similar to a hook should be made from the remaining wires in the top area.
Finally, you need to pierce the inflatable balloon and pull it through the resulting structure. Then finally distribute the stones along the perimeter of the product.
Such toys are quite fragile, but any deformation can be easily corrected.

Spring:

Take a small medicine bottle and make 14 wire turns on it (the material should be 1 mm thick).
Remove the spiral from the bottle.
Stretch the spring slightly, carefully holding onto its ends.
Form the desired number of blanks in this way.
Insert pieces of wire into the foam piece according to the number of spirals.
Paint the items with spray paint.
Dry the springs, remove them from the model, and tie the suspension threads to them.

From bright scraps

To make a multi-colored decoration, you will need bright pieces of fabric:

Prepare the fabric scraps you like. They must be carefully smoothed and ironed.
Cut out 16 squares with a side of 9 cm. You can make all the details different colors, or arrange 4 pieces.

From fabric of any color (it will not be visible in the finished work) make 2 circles with a diameter of 8 cm.
Fold the squares in half to form a triangle and iron.
Then fold the resulting figure in half and iron it again.
Perform similar actions with all the remaining squares.
Sew 2 circles and leave a small opening for turning.
Fill the product with synthetic padding through the hole left, then sew it up.
Place a triangle around the resulting piece with its corners in the middle and sew it through.
Repeat the steps with all other parts.
Using a hot glue gun, attach a button to the center, this will hide the sewing place. Place a ribbon under it, on which you can hang the toy.

Bright figures:

You need to choose fabric with New Year patterns or another bright one.
Prepare different templates (star, hearts, boot).
Make patterns using stencils.
Sew the identical parts together in pairs, leaving a small gap to stuff the toy with cotton wool.
It is advisable to push the filler using a pencil.
If you are sewing crafts from thick fabric, then you should connect the parts with a decorative stitch along the edge.

Salt Dough Toys

It's easy to make New Year's toys from salt dough with your own hands.

To do this, you should prepare a mixture of the following products:

Ingredient	Quantity
Flour	1.5 tbsp.
Starch	½ tbsp.
Salt (Extra type)	1 tbsp.
Water	¾ st.
To make the mixture sticky, you can add PVA	3 tbsp.
For elasticity, vegetable oil	1 tbsp.

The dough ends up being elastic and does not stick to your hands. Then it needs to be rolled out to a thickness of 1 cm and formed into crafts using various molds. Alternatively, you can mold the toys yourself, like from plasticine. Then the products are dried, painted and varnished for durability.

When drying, please note that salted clay takes too long to dry. In the open air this process takes 2-3 days, and in a cool oven (no more than 50⁰C) with the door slightly ajar for 6 to 12 hours. If you heat the oven to 100⁰C, then the figures will acquire a golden hue. After drying, the products will become hard (stone-like).

The next step will be decorating the toys. The best option would be to use acrylic paints. If you make an ornament on clay blanks in silver, they will look like New Year's cookies. You can also use dry pigments or water-soluble dyes, which are used to color handmade soap.

Children decorate the crafts with gouache, felt-tip pens or gel pens. Decorative elements (ribbons, rhinestones, lace, yarn, twine) are also used for decoration.

Crochet toys with diagrams and descriptions

Craftswomen can easily make knitted jewelry that is also suitable as a gift to loved ones.

Skates:

For working with threads it is advisable to use medium density, hook No. 1.75, and for the runners use 2 large paper clips.
First, tie one side of the paper clip with 17 single crochet stitches, finish the row with 1 single crochet stitch.
From the 2nd to the 4th row, knit single crochet.
In row 5 make 1 cup less.
In row 6, skip 9 loops (knit with connecting columns). This is how the sock is formed.
In rows 7, 8 and 9 it is necessary to perform a rounded rise of the ridge by not knitting or skipping 1 column.
Then knit 4 more straight tiers.
The top of the finished skate is tied with yarn of a different shade and laced using a needle and thread.
Knit the second skate in a similar way. Connect the pair of shoes with a knitted chain, by which the craft should be hung on the Christmas tree.

Snowflake patterns:

Knitted ribbon:

Cast on a chain of air loops along the desired length of the ribbon.
In each of the loops, knit 1 double crochet.
You can knit rows with low columns.

The width of the tape should be no more than 2 cm.
The length will be enough to form 5 turns.
Roll the finished ribbon into a tiered pyramid shape.
Between the tiers you can insert small knitted balls or massive balls.

Bright and unusual New Year's toys, created with your own hands, will give the tree a unique look, and will also delight guests. If you involve children in the process of making decorations, their imagination will help to add creativity to the crafts, and joint creativity will bring a lot of positive emotions.

Article formatting:Natalie Podolskaya

Video about DIY Christmas tree decorations

Video on how to make Christmas toys with your own hands: