Beautiful toys for the New Year with your own hands. DIY New Year's toys: original ideas

Everyone wants to give a surprise to their loved ones on Christmas and New Year. And you can bring the celebration closer with your creative powers. Take note of the original ideas that we have collected in the selection below, and then the upcoming winter holidays will sparkle with completely new colors. Don’t be afraid to create, involve everyone at home in the process - this will bring the family closer, and maybe even become the beginning of a new tradition.

Winter flowers

It’s not difficult to make a beautiful New Year’s tree bloom. In order to make such Christmas and New Year toys with your own hands on the eve of 2018, you don’t even need to use special colored paper, opting for old books or newspapers. Such buds will look original, and you will pay tribute to the currently fashionable eco-trend. So let's get started:

• cut out a perfect square from paper;
• fold it in the same way as shown in the photo;
• repeat this with the remaining 4 sheets of paper;
• glue the resulting blanks together to form a flower;
• We decorate the middle with tinsel, beads, in a word, anything that seems suitable to you.

Ice shards

Who would have thought that old CDs could be used to create such creative balloons? Yes, in most cases, making New Year's Christmas tree decorations will not require either serious material expenditure or the skills of a professional designer. This is what the next master class proves.
To work, you will need transparent (in principle, you can use colored) plastic or glass balls, an unnecessary CD, scissors, and a glue gun.

• using scissors, cut the CD into pieces of arbitrary shape and size;
• Apply droplets of glue to the surface of the ball and fix the “mirror” fragments in the desired order, evenly covering the ball on all sides and leaving no empty spaces.

The result is a wonderful toy, no different from expensive designer works. Their soft shine will perfectly complement the overall impression of a magnificent Christmas tree.

Cute snowflakes

A simple but wonderful decoration in its laconism is snowflakes. Backing material... rolls left over from using toilet paper or kitchen towels. Also stock up on scissors, glue, decorative elements in the form of large rhinestones and thin fishing line. The whole process looks like this step by step:

• we crush the sleeve, pressing it well from the edges;
• cut the bushing into strips of equal width. The resulting elements are visually reminiscent of flower petals;
• glue the resulting blanks together in the center so that you get a flower;
• decorate the middle with rhinestones;
• We thread a fishing line through one of the petals. That's it, the snowflake is ready to float near the branches of your Christmas tree.

Felt fantasy

Here are some more fun DIY crafts. The toy can become either an independent element of holiday decor or act as an integral part of an entire garland.

• Cut out a square from felt of the desired color;
• draw it out as shown in the photo;
• cut along the lines with a stationery knife, not reaching the center;
• glue the strips together, folding the corners on top of each other;
• we alternate actions alternately from one side to the other;
• We hang the finished toy on a fishing line, decorating it with beads.

If desired, you can create a whole vertical garland from several similar parts, interspersing them with beads. The toy can be hung on the Christmas tree or placed in the interior.

Snowball game

It’s very easy to make fluffy lumps of snow that won’t melt no matter how warm it is in your house. We use foam blanks in the form of balls, mother-of-pearl beads, sewing pins, glue, scissors, and braid. The process of making such a toy comes down to the following steps:

• string beads onto pins;
• Having coated the end of the pins with glue for better fixation, we stick them into the ball;
• We continue this way until we cover the entire surface of the toy with beads;
• We attach a braid or ribbon to the ball, using which we will hang the decoration on the Christmas tree.

Funny ninjas

Small ninja toys with cute moving eyes will save your home’s beautiful Christmas tree from being too formal. After all, looking at such New Year's decorations, you involuntarily want to smile.

To work, you will need very few materials: dark opaque balls (they can even be made of plastic), narrow ribbons of different colors, toy eyes (a pair for each ninja).

• We wrap each ball with two turns of ribbon, securing the improvised fighter’s bandage to a knot at the back. For greater reliability, the tape can be placed on glue.
• Glue the eyes to the ribbon on the front, that’s it – decorations for the New Year can be hung on the Christmas tree.

Beauty cone

An ordinary pine cone will fit perfectly into the New Year's decor. It would seem how unpretentious an accessory it is, and what wonderful toys can be made from it and how many ideas can be realized. The cone can simply be hung by a coarse twine, and the top can be decorated with a beautifully tied bow made of satin ribbon to match the overall color scheme. Or make New Year trees from pine cones, crowning them with numerous multi-colored plasticine balls. It seems simple, but it looks really unusual and creative.

Snowflakes made from... pasta

For a thrifty and creative housewife, even pasta can become the basis for creating amazingly beautiful decorations in the New Year 2018. You can give free rein to your imagination here - after all, each new snowflake can be completely different from the previous one. All you need to do is stock up on as many different types of pasta as possible in the nearest supermarket (flowers, Christmas trees, spirals, shells, etc.). You also cannot do without glue, white paint and braid (ribbon, fishing line, thread) for hanging.

We form the pattern starting from the center, maintaining symmetry. How the toys turn out depends only on your imagination. We glue the parts of the decoration together with glue. At the end of the work, paint the snowflake white, additionally decorating the decor with sparkles to your liking.

New Year's toys with sequins - festive glamor

You can surprise your loved ones on Christmas and New Year's Eve by making unusual, shiny decorations for the Christmas tree with your own hands. The special beauty of creating such balls is the process itself, which is addictive and very simple. So, we stock up on a small foam ball that fits easily in your hand, sequins of any color, and sewing pins.

We fix the sequins to the ball with pins, as shown in the photo, proceed sequentially, placing the shiny elements close to each other, avoiding gaps. When the ball is ready, all that remains is to place an element in its upper part to fix the decoration on the tree.

Who wants some ice cream?

Do you like ice cream? Why not decorate the Christmas tree with your favorite delicacy for the New Year, especially since you don’t need a lot of materials for this. It is enough to find thick paper to imitate waffle cones and colored napkins or small pieces of compressed paper, a needle, and thin fishing line. Having formed a cone from thick paper, we make ice cream balls from colored paper, the number of which depends on your desire. Then we form a loop from the fishing line, by which our sweets will be hung on the tree, and we thread it through our balls, as was done in the photo.

Rooster on the Christmas tree

It will look good made of paper or other materials. You can make a lot of these cockerels and collect the pendants into a garland to decorate your home. If you are going to make a paper cockerel, use cardboard as a base, which you will cover on both sides.

1. You will need multi-colored sheets of colored paper (you can use colored cardboard) and a sheet of cardboard. Draw the silhouette of a rooster on cardboard and cut it out.
2. Using a cardboard blank as a template where necessary, draw the details on colored paper (cardboard): head, torso, wings and tail - first fold the sheets in half so as not to waste time preparing blanks for the second side.
3. The next stage: we cut out our blanks.
4. Now we glue the parts made of colored paper (cardboard) onto the cardboard blank. After the cockerel has assembled into a whole picture, you can decorate it with sparkles, beads - whatever comes to mind.
5. Make a hole in the blank, thread a ribbon and hang it on the tree.

You can make a similar toy from felt and also use it to decorate a Christmas tree.

Draw the pattern by hand or use any ready-made one, for example, this one:

Homemade cockerels made using the origami technique will look original.

pillow toy

A difficult, but very exciting activity in making toys is creating a pillow in the form of a symbol of the year, which will delight you not only in the year of the Rooster, but much longer. You will need a pattern, fabric, filler, felt (depending on the chosen model), thread and needles. Here it's a matter of small things, we trace the pattern, sew the parts together, leaving a hole to fill the pillow with filler. We turn it inside out, put the filling inside the toy, and sew it up until the end.

There is also a more complex plan with fabric painting - this is batik, thanks to which the pillow will acquire a bright color. After you have traced the cockerel on the fabric, paint it using special paints; they can be replaced with gouache if you mix it with PVA glue. We leave it for a day so that the paint dries and continue to finish the pillow in the shape of a rooster.

From salt dough

Children are often asked to bring some New Year's crafts to school competitions. Make it from salt dough. A craft made from bioceramics can also be an excellent gift from children to grandparents. Moreover, this activity is so exciting that it quite claims to be a hobby.

Before you make a toy from salt dough, you need to prepare the dough itself. To prepare the dough, use fine table salt, regular wheat flour and water in a ratio of 2:4:2, respectively. First, mix flour and salt, and then add warm water, kneading the dough thoroughly for at least 10 minutes.

There is another recipe for making dough. In this case, take flour and salt in the same proportions, only the flour is pre-sifted. You need to take a little less than 1 1/3 cups of water. The cooking method will vary. According to this recipe, water must be brought to a boil and salt dissolved in it. Only then is flour added.

When the dough is ready, start making crafts. If you are making crafts with your child, simplify the task by using cookie cutters, for example, in the shape of Christmas trees or bunnies - you will get wonderful Christmas tree decorations. Make a toy (you can use beads or seed beads for decoration), don’t forget to make a hole at the top. To harden the toy, it is left for 24 hours or baked in the oven. After the toy has hardened, it is painted with acrylic paints, gouache, watercolors, allowed to dry thoroughly and coated with either colorless nail polish or nitro varnish for wood. Thread a thread or ribbon through the hole. So the New Year's gift is ready.

Photo ideas for crafts made from salt dough

Soap figures

Soap is always useful. A little unexpectedly, soap can also be used to decorate a Christmas tree. Soap toys for the Christmas tree are made by hand. The process is simple. First, we grate the baby soap on a coarse grater, melt it in a hot bath (make sure no bubbles form), pour the liquid into a mold and leave until it hardens.

1. If you want to make colored soap with a pleasant aroma, then add dyes to the base - these can be either food coloring or the juice of berries or vegetables, for example, cherries, beets, carrots. Smell can be added using perfumes or flavorings.
2. If you use a ready-made transparent soap base instead of baby soap, you can make soap with a “filler”. After you fill the mold halfway with melted soap, let it sit for 20-30 minutes, place a slice of lemon or orange on top, coffee beans and fill the mold completely with soapy liquid.
3. In order for the soap to also have a beneficial cosmetic effect, ground coffee is added to the base, which will work as a scrub, various oils, lemon zest, and ground oatmeal. Such a toy, which doubles as an excellent gift, will definitely not go unnoticed.

Big toys

Using threads, you can also create wonderful jewelry of rather large size - giants. Just inflate the balloon, wrap it with a thread soaked in PVA glue and leave it for 24 hours. After drying, the ball is burst, leaving an airy New Year's toy made of threads, which, for decorative purposes, can be coated with silver or gold paint, decorated with beads, seed beads, sequins, and ribbons. Thread the ribbon and the accessory is ready. If you prepare two or three balls of different sizes, you can make a snowman.

Christmas trees are made from threads using the same principle. Use a Whatman paper cone as the base on which you will wind the thread. You can make such a toy in miniature if you take a simple sheet of cardboard instead of whatman paper. Light beads and ribbon bows are useful for decoration.

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Contents

The New Year is getting closer, and for those who know how to do DIY Christmas toys, the time for fruitful work is coming. Making toys is a tradition that arose at a time when mass production of Christmas tree decorations had not yet been established. Today, there are plenty of factory-made toys in stores, but the tradition of making them yourself has not disappeared. This is explained simply - handmade jewelry and toys give off a special warmth; they look homely and cozy. A nice bonus is that you can be proud that the toy you made yourself exists in a single copy.

How to make New Year's toys with your own hands?

New Year's outfits for the green beauty have undergone changes many times during the existence of the tradition of decorating the Christmas tree. In stores you can still buy standard decorations - glass balls of various colors and sizes, stars reminiscent of the Soviet past, glass cones, fruits and other traditional products. You can also add an element of creativity to the Christmas and New Year holidays and try to make New Year's toys for 2017 with your own hands.

DIY New Year's toys from scrap materials

The choice for work is almost limitless - any available material can be used. Christmas tree decorations are sometimes made from the most unexpected materials. New Year’s creativity also has its own “leaders” - materials that are used most often:

• Wood, plywood;
• Paper;
• Beads;
• Felt;
• Textile;
• Beads;
• Natural materials - branches, vines, cones, etc.

Christmas tree toys made from salt dough

You can even make DIY New Year's toys for the New Year 2017 from flour. One of the simplest and most inexpensive materials for making New Year's toys is salt dough. There is flour in every home, the process is interesting (especially for children), and the result is a completely worthy replacement for ceramic and glass toys.

To work you will need:

• Wheat flour;
• Water;
• Salt (fine);
• Paints;
• Varnish (optional);
• Leg-split;
• Oil;
• PVA glue.

Important! To make the dough more flexible, you can add a little baby oil (can be replaced with vegetable oil or olive oil).

Dissolve salt in warm water, add flour, knead the dough. To get a variety of figures, you can use dough molds. The lack of shapes is not a problem; figures from salt dough can be sculpted by hand. To add texture, you can use anything - pencils, plastic bottle caps, lace. While the dough is still wet, you need to make holes for the rope holder.

After drying (1-3 days, depending on the thickness of the product), the toy can be painted, a pattern applied, small photos pasted and coated with acrylic varnish.

Christmas decorations made from branches

DIY New Year's toys are often made from scrap materials. A simple but effective way to decorate a Christmas tree or home for the New Year is to make toys from natural materials - for example, from branches. To make a stylish toy “Ball in eco-style” you will need wire and branches.

Lifehack! It is better to collect branches in October or November, when they still contain a sufficient amount of moisture. Later collected vines and branches may be brittle and unsuitable for making toys.

Make several (5-6) circles from the wire. Form a ball “skeleton” from them, fasten the circles together with hot glue or wire. Carefully twist small diameter branches or vines over the base. To keep the branches tightly, they can also be secured with hot glue. It is easy to thread a ring of twine or ribbon into the finished ball. The stylish eco-ball is ready!

New Year toys made of beads

You can also make spectacular New Year's toys from beads. It will not be easy for beginners to make jewelry that is massive or has a complex shape. But without any problems you can make hearts, Christmas trees, and stars. To make such a toy you will need wire and beads. First you need to string the beads onto the wire, and then form the desired shape, tightly securing the ends of the wire. You can use ribbons for hanging.

New Year's toys made from light bulbs

For those who are still puzzling over the question “How to make New Year’s toys with your own hands?” An option using items that previously had a utilitarian function is perfect. New Year is coming soon, so don’t rush to throw away burnt out light bulbs. They make charming Christmas tree decorations. A little imagination, and you won’t have to settle for the usual glass balls.

Attention! For the first (background) layer, it is better to use spray paint. It is easier to apply, and this paint goes on evenly. It is much more difficult to create an even coating with a brush or sponge.

DIY New Year's toys: patterns and diagrams

DIY New Year's toys made of paper

Paper is a universal material, and Christmas tree toys and decorations made from it are cheap, practical and simple. To begin with, you can choose flat (not voluminous) jewelry. These can be snowflakes, Christmas trees, and other themed figures.

Important! You should not take too thick paper or high-density cardboard: when cutting, the edges of these materials become “shaggy” and the product does not look neat.

Another accessible method is to use paper to decorate ready-made toys - for example, balls. An ordinary glass ball will look much more original if you stick decorations cut out of paper on it. Or, for example, a small collage of photos.

A more complex way is to make toys using the origami technique. Using separate paper blocks, you can assemble a variety of decorations - for example, a Christmas tree.

Even children can make New Year's toys out of paper with their own hands. Most of the diagrams and patterns are simple; it will not be difficult for a child to cut out a snowflake, a Christmas tree or the silhouette of a bird. And from individual paper figures and silhouettes you can make a New Year's garland to decorate a Christmas tree or room. To do this, you can use a ready-made diagram from the Internet or come up with a design yourself. Christmas garlands can be decorated with snowmen, balls, patterns, Christmas trees, and animals.

From felt

Felt is a soft, fairly dense felt. This material is perfect for making New Year's toys. It’s easy to work with – you don’t need to process the edges; you can buy felt in almost any color and shade in the store. To make a stylish New Year's toy, only two or three colors of felt are enough. For example, a combination of red and white - classic New Year's colors - is perfect for creating simple decorations. It is not necessary to choose complex patterns; it is enough to cut out simplified silhouettes from paper. For example, these:

More ideas for New Year's toys for handicrafts -

You can transfer the pattern to felt using chalk or a bar of soap. Then each type of figurine must be cut out in duplicate. Large DIY New Year's toys can also be made from felt, as it is sold in sheets of different formats.

Attention! Felt lends itself well to cutting, but you need to choose sharp scissors for the job. It is better to secure the pattern on the fabric with pins to get a neat silhouette.

In the photo: DIY felt Christmas toys:

It is better to sew felt parts with contrasting threads - if the toy is red, then you can use white or beige threads. If the toy is white, the decoration with red, green, and brown threads will look harmonious.

Small felt toys can be used both to decorate the Christmas tree and to make interior garlands. Bright ribbons, regular white clothesline, and twine can be used as a base.

Christmas trees, hearts and houses are traditional details of New Year's design. Recently, toys in the form of animals with which the New Year is associated - deer and elk - have become increasingly popular.

DIY felt Christmas toys look bright and festive without any additional decor. If desired, you can give them additional flavor by decorating them with buttons, sequins, ribbons, or, for example, embroidery.

The advantage of a homemade garland is that it can be made taking into account the size and color scheme of the room that needs to be decorated. To make a garland you do not need a sewing machine - the felt parts are sewn by hand.

Thanks to the pliability and softness of the material, making toys takes very little time - about half an hour for each. If there is a need to make the toy voluminous, it is stuffed with cotton wool or holofiber.

Important! For stuffing, you can use either cotton wool or holofiber, but you need to take into account that when washed, the cotton wool inside the toy gets knocked down and the product loses its shape. If you are going to use toys in the future, it is advisable to use holofiber for stuffing - it tolerates moisture well and the product does not lose its shape.

From fabric

To make a New Year's toy from fabric with your own hands, it is not at all necessary to have sewing skills. For example, such a ball can be made using scraps of fabric. An ordinary Christmas ball or a foam blank is used as a base.

New Year is a special, spiritual holiday. And in the pre-New Year bustle, the second most powerful thing, after the desire to sit down at the table as quickly as possible, is the desire to make unique New Year's toys with your own hands. It is not customary to take into account expenses for the New Year; The holiday industry, we must give it its due, strives to satisfy demand in every possible way and does not impose crazy markups: the product is in demand, the profit will be there. But the variety is so great that you don’t expect originality from your purchase; somewhere the same thing is still on sale. So I want something from my own hands and with a piece of my soul.

This article contains a part, however quite extensive, of the endless sea: how to make and decorate Christmas tree decorations with your own hands. Let's touch a little on the very popular door wreath and Christmas tree decoration styles. Of course, there are more than enough New Year's themes for home craftsmen and their little helpers: decorating a room, a festive table, a homemade Christmas tree, and much more. Making a lush and fragrant Christmas tree on your own, for example, is not difficult, and living trees remain standing and do not go under the ax. But you can’t immediately grasp the immensity. Therefore, for now we will limit ourselves to Christmas tree toys. But! Take a look at fig. Part, and a large part, of all these Christmas tree decorations are homemade. Including the bell at the top right next to the red apple. Do you see? It was once a cup of yogurt. Like? Then, as they say, this is the place for you. We will do no worse.

The material is designed primarily for New Year's DIYers who do not master complex technologies and do not have a home workshop at their disposal. To make the New Year's decorations described below, you will need scissors, an awl, a sharp knife with a thin blade (scalpel or pruning knife), thread, sewing needle, nail clippers or side cutters and tweezers or small pliers. Also - PVA glue, superglue (instant cyanoacrylate) and, in some cases, “Moment” or its analogues. For certain types of toys - some other small household tool or household utensil. What other materials will be needed, simple and accessible, we’ll see as we go. All work can be done on the table, covering it with film or covering it with cardboard.

Various tricks and cunning differences

No workflow is possible without the right technology. We don’t need workshops with robots; we need to make do with what we have at hand. In order for homemade New Year's crafts to delight both your hands in the work and the eyes when they are ready, you need to learn several simple ways of preparing blanks and materials for Christmas tree decorations and the rules for their use.

Shine

Now for some reason almost everything shiny for the New Year is called glitter; in Russian - shine. When reading manuals, sometimes, even with considerable personal experience, it is difficult to figure out what is meant: glitter, colored laminated paper, thin shiny plastic film, metallic paint, or some new product altogether.

We'll start with the glitter; There is no way to do without them. Glitter for Christmas tree decorations is inexpensive, but in the outback they may simply not be available for sale. In this case, a manual noodle cutter (see picture on the right) and a foil baking sleeve will help out. A manual noodle cutter is needed; The powerful motor of a food processor does not sense unusual material, and the attachment will immediately become clogged or even break. Manually, the process goes well:

• A section approximately 10-12 cm wide is cut off from the sleeve roll with a knife.
• Gradually unwinding the aluminum tape, pass it through the machine.
• Then, or as the work progresses, if you have an assistant, they chop the “noodles” finely and finely with scissors. The kids like it, if there aren’t enough scissors for everyone, it’s not far from a fight.

Instead of foil, you can also use glitter, which is a shiny colored plastic film. And one more note: do not try to replace assistant shredders with mechanization in the form of a meat grinder. The “noodles” will turn into pellets instead of glitter, and you won’t be able to clean the meat grinder later.

Toys usually “shine” by sprinkling a surface covered with undried PVA, varnish or paint. But you can also “shine” with spots; if there are multi-colored sparkles, multi-colored. To do this, take a portion of glitter into a straw of the required diameter, from a very thin one for juice to a hose with a 2 cm diameter for a smoothie or shrimp cocktail, and carefully blow the glitter onto the desired area. Once you get used to blowing, you can draw patterns. In any case, to blow out the stripes (see fig.), long training is not required.

Colored varnish

Transparent colored varnish is prepared on the basis of nitro solvents 646, 647, etc. Dye – paste for ballpoint pens. OK. 50 ml of solvent is poured into a glass cup (in a ventilated room!), the writing tip is pulled out of the rod using pliers (be careful not to get dirty!), and the paste is blown into the solvent. The tone of the paste is very dense, so more than 1 rod is unlikely to be needed. The finished varnish is poured into a bottle with a gas-tight stopper and lid. Pharmacy vials of hydrogen peroxide work well; they do not need to be washed. The glass (beaker) is washed from varnish residues with the same solvent.

Blanks for balls

In the shops and departments “Skillful Hands”, “Everything for Creativity”, art, and on New Year’s Eve and in gift shops, foam and transparent plastic blanks for balls are sold. Transparent balls are most often filled with something colorful, see fig. on right. For decoration, it is better to take plain, ready-made balloons; they are cheaper and are sold everywhere. We'll see what we can do with them.

In the meantime, let's see where to get them away from centers with a large trade turnover and how to prepare very convenient foam balls for work; we will also deal with them for the Christmas tree. The first question can be solved simply: there will probably be some kind of fishing and hunting shop within reach. And it contains cheap floats for fishing rods and nets made from the same foam balls of different sizes. Are they perforated? So what, it will be easier to attach the hanging loop.

However, polystyrene foam is corroded by almost any paint and varnish. Almost the only thing that definitely doesn’t spoil it is PVA. So you need to coat the foam blanks with PVA before using them further. It’s better to do it twice, with the first layer completely dry before applying the next one. PVA film is quite resistant and will take painting well.

Note: It is also advisable to treat inflatable gel balls with PVA in the places where the pattern will be applied. And if you drew with a gel pen, then it would be a good idea to protect the drawing in the same way from accidental smearing with wet hands.

Papier mache

1. The leaf is passed through a noodle cutter or finely cut with scissors.
2. Place the trimmings into a glass, crushing them tightly.
3. Pour boiling water over a full glass and leave for 3 hours. The absorbed boiling water must be immediately added to the top of the settled paper!
4. Pour the mixture from the glass into a bowl and knead until the dough or plasticine becomes thick, gradually adding PVA; It should take about 2 tbsp. spoons of glue.
5. The finished papier-mâché is placed in a jar with a tightly screwed lid; Shelf life in a jar of canned vegetables remains up to 6 months.

Old light bulbs

Burnt out incandescent light bulbs are an excellent basis for Christmas decorations. However, if you want to fill the flask with something (see figure) or cover it with a transparent varnish, the question arises: how to separate the flask from the base, open it and remove the stem with internal fittings?

The base is separated by boiling: place the bulbs in a saucepan with cold water, heat over low heat until low boiling, and boil for up to 10 minutes. The base that has fallen off will not fall to the bottom; it will hang on the wires. After the lamp has cooled, they are bitten off with side cutters, the tips of scissors or manicure tongs, inserting them deeper into the socket of the rod.

Next, place an emery block in a large bowl or small basin and add enough water to cover it. Then, with light pressure and smooth circular movements, erase the side of the flask until the stem falls out; takes up to 5 minutes for 1 lamp. The base, if needed, is glued back with superglue.

Note: When working with light bulbs, you need to wear cotton household gloves, such as are used, for example, when cutting fish. Glass is a hazardous material! The second thing that is important is that you can only disassemble incandescent lamps! There is mercury vapor in the light tubes of the housekeepers! An insignificant amount, but still - mercury is mercury, it is not excreted from the body.

Salty dough

Excellent Christmas tree decorations can be made from salt dough, see fig. From its thin layers, figures are cut out with cookie stamps (pos. 1, 2), cut out with a thin sharp knife by hand (pos. 3) or using templates (pos. 4, 5). Salt dough is inedible, but it perfectly accepts any painting and varnishing and will allow you to cut out very thin contours.

The composition and method of preparation are as follows:

• White wheat flour – 200 g.
• Fine table salt – 200 g.
• Refined sunflower oil – 3 tbsp. spoons.
• Water – 125 ml (a little more than half a glass).

Salt is mixed with flour, then butter is gradually added, stirring all the time. Next, water is added, also with continuous kneading until the consistency of clay or plasticine. Place the mixture in a plastic bag, place it in a jar with a tight lid and store it in the refrigerator in the vegetable compartment for up to six months.

Roll out the dough into a layer 3-4 mm thick with a round rolling pin. The cut-out figures are placed on a baking sheet, a sheet of tin, galvanized iron, etc., and dried on a radiator. You can’t dry it quickly in the oven or just on the table without heating! Drying takes several days; completely dry figures are painted, painted with gel pens, and varnished. If stored carefully, they will last for more than one New Year; salt dough is a fairly durable material.

Note: You can learn more about Christmas tree toys made from dough from the video below:

Video: Christmas tree toys made from dough

Decoupage

Decoupage, simply known as decals, is widely used in New Year's decor. However, not everyone is suitable for Christmas tree decorations. Christmas tree decorations need to be decorated with plastic decoupage, which fits onto curved surfaces without wrinkles. It can be distinguished (sellers do not always know what they are selling) from the usual one by its protective coating: in this case it is not a film, but a porous napkin. It is moistened and removed before use. The picture is placed on the base, unlike flat transfers, in the center, and carefully, with smooth circular movements, smoothed out to the edges. The best base is a slightly rough layer of PVA applied with a foam pad, or the same layer of white nitro paint.

Note: Children decouple most carefully - their fingers have not yet become rough.

Popcorn

Small popcorn glued with PVA or superglue can replace papier-mâché in many cases. It, like the latter, before use, it is advisable to treat it with PVA in the same way as polystyrene foam, and for the same purpose.

Christmas tree decorations

Snowflakes

The first and simplest thing you can use to decorate both the Christmas tree and the whole house is snowflakes. Probably everyone knows how to cut them; Just in case, we provide a diagram (Fig. below) of how to cut out snowflakes with gaps in the rays.

However, in reality, water crystallizes in a hexagonal pattern, i.e. Real snowflakes have 6 rays. Cutting them out in the same way will not work: if the sheet is folded in three, it will not unfold into a snowflake, but if folded six times, it will turn out to be 12 rays. Therefore, if you don’t mind the effort of making real snowflakes, we provide a diagram of water crystallization, see Fig. on right. You can use it to create countless figures, and for inspiration, or as samples for templates, in Fig. Below are photographs under a microscope of real snowflakes from real snowfall. Is it true that human imagination is far from nature? Experts say that no two identical snowflakes have been spotted yet.

A word about boxes...

When preparing for the New Year in advance, do not throw away small warranty boxes that are no longer under warranty. They make excellent toys, see fig. And you can even do it with surprises. It’s interesting to then observe what kind of barter negotiations the “high contracting parties” then start when they discover that he got a baby doll, and she got a model car.

...about eggs...

Also excellent toys come from bird eggs, see fig. below. It is best to take goose or turkey eggs, they are large and strong. In the poles of the egg, holes are carefully turned with a gypsy needle or awl and the contents are blown into a cup or bowl; for omelet or scrambled eggs, in dough, cream, etc. it is quite suitable. And the shell is treated with PVA, like polystyrene foam, painted, varnished, sprinkled with glitter, rag fragments are glued on, etc. The pink “bump” in the center, for example, is covered with dyed popcorn.

...and about nuts

One of the oldest types of Christmas tree decorations is walnuts wrapped in foil. The thread of the pendant loop was threaded along the seam between the shells; Now you can just glue it on. Both are not a hindrance to eating. Especially for this purpose, they placed the Nutcracker under the Christmas tree, about which P. Tchaikovsky wrote ballet music, which was later used as an opera.

Balls

New Year's balls are a vast world in the vast world of New Year's decorations. And in the vast world of Christmas tree balls there is an immense world of paper balls, if we consider a ball to be a body of rotation in a smoothly curved surface and regular polyhedra. We will now deal with all this immensity within the immensity within the immensity, remembering: everything should be within the power of a child, and it should be possible to do it at home on the table.

From blanks

First, let's try to change the monotonous ready-made balls in our own way. The technique is simple, see figure:

1. We select cheaper plastic balls, with a dull matte surface;
2. Paint with white nitro paint;
3. Once completely dry, decouple;
4. So how? How much does this cost in the store? On New Year's Eve?

Note: and if you don’t mind spending money on a glue gun, and have nowhere to put old beads, glass beads, artificial pearls, then here’s another option in the picture:

Now let's get down to the foam. The options here are much more varied, see fig. below. Pos. 1 – you will need a figured hole punch from the same crafts store. If from the Internet, then order ahead of time; It is known how parcels arrive on New Year's Eve. Next - pins with beaded heads, pos. 2 and you're done. The hanging loop is secured with a piece of toothpick or a match and a drop of PVA.

Suddenly there is no figured stamp for paper, but there are pins and beads, you get a colored hedgehog ball, pos. 3. The beads are strung on pins, and the tip of each, to make it sit tighter, is dipped in PVA before inserting. A pos. 4? Guess what! Chupa-chups with chopsticks bitten obliquely (to make it easier to stick in). You can eat it straight from the tree if the adults don’t mind. Or quietly, from the other side.

For pos. 4 and 5 require a glue gun and a workpiece protected with dried PVA. Finishing materials – cord and glass beads or artificial pearls.

From light bulbs

Light bulbs, as mentioned above, preparations for New Year’s decorations are difficult, but rewarding, see fig. Low-power lamps with a narrow “minion” base and a matte embossed bulb, pos. 1; consider these as ready-made balls. “Candle” light bulbs are also not bad, but if you do not remove the stem, after painting/varnishing they should be immediately, before the paint/varnish has dried, thickly sprinkled with glitter, pos. 2. Burnt-out low-power housekeepers in double “cone” flasks were made especially for the New Year: all that remains is to decoupage, tie a loop on the base, cover it with papier-mâché, and you’re done (item 3).

You can also create a lot of New Year's creations using ordinary light bulbs. The easiest way to make penguins (pos. 4): here you don’t need to be able to draw at all. Barbosov-Shrekov can also be made without art education - the shades on the background are punched out with a small foam pad, and the line drawing is drawn out with gel pens. In the same way, they create toys that require, in addition to talent, sufficient skill, poses. 5 and 6. In general, it is a matter of taste and imagination.

Spider balls

Thread web balls are all the rage right now, and in this case she wasn't going crazy. There are several varieties of them. The first (item 1 in the figure) is an ordinary cheap ball, on which a plastic mesh is stretched, the kind in which garlic and other small items are packaged in supermarkets. Let's add a ribbon bow - that's something. Just like the same cheap balls, decorated with scraps of tulle or organza, pos. 2.

“Real” spider web balls are made from glued colored threads, pos. 3, 4. It is best to take threads for satin stitch embroidery, but simple ones will also work with additional decor. The technique is simple: the thread is pulled through PVA and immediately wound onto an inflatable template, lubricated with Vaseline. After the glue has dried, the template is blown off or simply pierced and removed.

For small Christmas tree balls-webs, the template can be inflated, perhaps, only from a medical fingertip: it has a roller that allows you to hold the blank to the lips while inflating; Without a roller nothing will work. Gel and latex balloons are not suitable: so that they do not sag under the thread, they need to be inflated to too large a size.

There are plenty of devices for pulling thread through glue; one of the simplest ones is shown in Fig. The glass allows you to use glue sparingly, and the tray does not let excess glue onto the table. The glass is pierced with a needle and thread, glue is poured, pulled, and wound. It is only necessary for an assistant to hold the “broach”, otherwise, if the thread gets caught, the glue may spill onto the table, lap or chair upholstery. An alternative to a helper is a piece of double-sided tape, which is used to attach the tray to the countertop. You need to wind it with dexterity, because... PVA-impregnated thread dries quickly.

More about balls of thread

Beautiful thread balls can be made not only using the “spider web” technique. The method of making one of the oldest Christmas tree decorations from threads - a pom-pom ball - is shown in Fig. To pos. 5: cut the thread along the rim with a sharp knife or safety razor blade. Pom-pom balls look especially impressive if the ends of the threads are tinted with silver, bronze or metallic paint in a contrasting color.

Paper balls and more

Let’s now move on to the immensity within the immensity—Christmas tree decorations made of paper. It's a whole big world; for example, masters of modular origami create creations from it that clearly confirm: paper is one of the most wonderful materials invented by man, see fig. But we will leave these difficulties for later, and let’s move on to what can be done, as they say, right off the bat, and which also looks impressive.

How to make a simple paper ball for a Christmas tree is shown in Fig. Material – thick colored paper, PVA. Painting, varnishing, sprinkling with glitter is not forbidden. If the ball is made of glitter (laminated paper, plastic), you need to glue it with “Moment” or superglue.

Openwork

Next in ease of manufacture, but not in appearance, are openwork paper balls; These, in addition to the Christmas tree, make for excellent room decor. The larger the openwork ball, the easier it is to make and the better it looks. The technique is simple, an example is shown in Fig. a very rough one was deliberately chosen to show how tolerant the openwork balls are to neglect of the material and flaws in the work:

1. Paper circles are quilted with thread or (even worse) stapled along the diameter. Their even or odd number is taken depending on the gluing scheme, see below;
2. They are glued together in pairs in a checkerboard pattern until the entire “book” is closed into a ball;
3. A loop is glued;
4. The ball is decorated.

And now about what can be achieved from an openwork ball if you do it carefully, patiently and with understanding. Firstly, the generating figure can be any body of rotation. The main thing is that the workpiece is bilateral, i.e. its right and left halves should be a mirror image of each other; quilt a stack of blanks along the axis of symmetry.

Secondly, the places of gluing need to be precisely marked on the “book” by scratching with pens along the edge of the foot. With pens - because the places of alternating gluing are marked with 2 different colors. And finally, you need to glue carefully, putting a drop of glue on each joint. Squeeze until it sets, not with paper clips, but with your fingers through plastic film. What can be achieved in this way can be seen in Fig. on right.

A little stereometry...

Regular polyhedrons are often taken as the basis for a Christmas ball: with skillful decoration, they look great, and gluing them together from paper is not difficult if you know how. The polyhedra themselves, suitable for the Christmas tree, without “admixtures” of other flat figures, are made up of equilateral triangles and pentagons. Since not everyone knows the basics of stereometry and planimetry, we provide their templates inscribed in circles, see Fig. The segments (wings) of the circumscribing circles are not cut off, but folded back and glued together. The balls are glued with their wings facing outward, and the lampshades of the lanterns are glued inward (see below, about garlands).

The simplest regular polyhedron is a tetrahedron, a trihedral pyramid. However, the ball, which is already a ball, is an octahedron: two 4-sided pyramids glued together at the bases without bottoms. How to assemble it can be seen above in Fig. Even more impressive are the regular 20-sided triangles, the icosahedron, and the regular 12-sided dodecahedron, made from 5-gons. Many methods for gluing icosahedral spheres have been described; For some reason dodecahedrons are ignored. However, if you have templates inscribed in circles and printed in the required size, it is easiest and most accurate to glue according to patterns, below in Fig. Coloring, decoration, of course - to your taste.

Note: from regular 3- and 5-gons you can create polyhedra with any number of sides, up to infinity.

... and topologies

Curved figures of complex shape are dealt with by another science - topology. It could not be done without applying it to Christmas tree toys. Most “topological” decorations, however, are quite difficult to make, so we give only 1, but very beautiful ball, which can be woven without special knowledge and experience. First, you will need to print out the pattern of the blanks on colored paper (see figure) and cut them out.

The next stage is the layout for gluing according to the template, see next. rice. It is better to draw the template yourself (radii - every 30 degrees), using a compass and protractor, and a larger size so that you can make balls of different sizes. The sidewall blanks are laid out so that their noses touch the center and the corresponding radius.

Then, on the center of the “octopus”, or more precisely, the twelve-legged one, carefully, so as not to disturb the layout, glue a circle, pos. 1 on next rice. Glue the second centipede in exactly the same way, turn it over, place the first one on it and intertwine the “tentacles”, pos. 2 and 3. The result is a ball like in pos. 4.

Note: if the “centipedes” are assembled not in one color, but from blanks of alternating colors, then the finished ball will turn out not from rhombuses, but from spiral stripes.

Hedgehog and vice versa

A compass and protractor will also be needed to make a papillot ball. It is called that because its “horns” are similar to the paper curlers that were used to curl the styles of the past. In fact, this ball looks like a hedgehog. How to do it is shown in Fig:

• Cut out 10 circles and divide them into 2 equal piles, 5 in each.
• The circles of each pile are cut into 8 radii at 45 degrees, pos. 1 in Fig: 1st half, last 5/6 of the radius; intermediate - gradually increasing the depth of the cut. You need to cut accurately, so it’s better to immediately draw smaller circles on the circles - markers.
• The petals are rolled into papillot cones and glued along the seam.
• Each pile is folded in order of increasing incision depth, with the “needles” shifted around the circumference, pos. 3, and pull it together with a thread in the center so that the “needles” puff up.
• The two halves of the “hedgehog” are folded with their bottoms and finally tied together with thread, pos. 4.
• The ball is painted, the ends of the needles are gilded, silvered, sprinkled with sparkles, etc.

Using the same principle, you can get good balls in a simpler way. To do this, roll up many curl-papers from circles separately; better - from silver or golden plastic film. The diameter of the blanks may vary. Then they are placed on the table and leveled in height, trimming the ends. The next step is gluing it to the base (large bead, foam ball or ping pong ball) with the points inward. It turns out to be an “inside-out hedgehog”, or an anti-papillote ball, see fig. on right. The paper one can still be decorated, but the shiny one is good enough.

More paper

The basis of the next series of Christmas tree decorations is an accordion or a paper fan. A small part of what can be done with them is shown in Fig:

The craft on the top row will need old buttons and a little help from an ordinary stationery hole punch, and for the one below, you will also need a ring of tape, etc. However, the ring can also be glued together from several layers of paper on a mandrel from a bottle, can, etc. In this case, the mandrel must first be wrapped in plastic film so that the ring does not stick. And to make it easier to remove, the paper tape needs to be wound onto the mandrel not tightly and closer to the bottom or neck.

Note: the ring with small additions and coloring will be used as jewelry on its own, see fig. on right:

You can also use paper to make Chinese lanterns for the Christmas tree and for the whole house. This theme is also an immensity within an immensity; For example, we give the simplest one, see fig. below. These look best when made from multi-colored glitter, which in this case is colored glossy paper or plastic film.

Cones, icicles, bells

It is often recommended to turn spruce and pine cones into Christmas tree decorations by painting and pendants, on the left in the figure:

But traditional New Year’s decorations made from pine cones look much more impressive: the edges of the scales are tinted with bronze or aluminum powder (silver) and a bow, beads or small balls are added, right there. Such decorations, in addition, according to all beliefs, are a complete replacement for the bells on the New Year's wreath, see below.

Good icicle toys are made from salted dough painted with silver. The blanks are cut from the seam straight or slightly swollen in the middle, with pointed ends, or in the form of an elongated spear tip. Then they are twisted into a spiral; hung to dry.

Bells, in addition to plastic cups, are made from small PET bottles, for example, ketchup bottles. In Fig. on the right is the original product, a blank for decoration from it, and how the tongue of the bell works. The “spindle” (satin thread) is pulled through the dispensing spout of the cork and secured with a standard cap. You can pierce it with a needle, but the cap is deliberately made to look like a face from papier-mâché. The entire body of the bell hangs freely on the top button. Of course, a bead would have been better for the beater, but I didn’t have one at hand.

Garlands and beads

The simplest of New Year's garlands is the so-called. English, see fig. It still requires the same paper accordion. The desired figure is drawn on it, with some protrusion beyond the edges. First, use a scalpel (better) or a mounting knife to cut out the internal holes. To tear the paper, holes are punched in their corners and, at some intervals, on the sides, and the jumpers are cut with a knife. Let's unfold the accordion - we get a ribbon like the one on the top right in Fig. Below it are several templates suitable for an English garland of stars.

The simplest of glued garlands is a chain of rings, above in Fig. on right. But glued garlands made of paper fans, two poses, look much more magnificent. under it, double (interception in the middle of the accordion) and single. It is better to make fan garlands from corrugated thin paper, and from thick paper - chain ones, two positions. at the bottom. It clearly shows that the blanks for them should be bilaterally symmetrical (bilateral). They are cut out from a sheet folded in half; this is like 1 element of an English garland.

Corrugated paper is also perfect for “shaggy” garlands. How to do them is clear from the poses. below: the roll is unwound, stretched (stretch), folded into an accordion stack (fold), then one side is cut with scissors along the corrugation almost to half (cut halfway through fold), turned over and the other side is cut in the same way (flip + cut halfway on the other side). Then the accordion is unfolded and rolled into a spiral. In order for the “corkscrew” to hold, you can, after securing its ends, sprinkle a little, literally just a little, with water from a perfume spray bottle. Once it dries, it stays that way. But if you give it water, it will spread.

There are also stringed garlands. One of the simplest ones can be assembled from small booklet balls like openwork ones, only without gluing the sheets together. How is clear from Fig.

A strung garland in the quilling style is also simple and effective, see next. rice.:

Christmas tree garlands, as you know, can also be luminous. Modern microbulbs allow you to equip yourself with lampshades. The simplest ones are made from ping-pong balls: holes are turned with the tip of a knife and light bulbs are inserted inside. Fix by inserting a sliver or piece of toothpick between the wires. This work is quite safe, unless the garlands are homemade for 220 V. Then let the master manufacturer refine it.

Very beautiful lampshades are made from polygonal balls, but glued with wings inside. For what? And from the wings, fancy shadows will fall on the sides of the lampshade from the inside. Finally, lampshades for a glowing garland can also be made using the classic origami technique. By the way, many Japanese do not recognize modular origami with gluing elements, considering it an invention of armless Euro-Americans. Real origami, they say, should only be folded from paper. How to make origami lampshades is shown in Fig. below.

Translation of explanations:

• Repeat on the opposite side – repeat on the opposite side.
• Repeat on the other 3 corners – repeat on the remaining 3 corners.
• Repeat steps 11-13 on remaining 3 flaps – repeat steps 11-13 on 3 flaps where required.
• Blow in the opening to inflate - inflate into the hole to inflate.

Beads for the Christmas tree, which look just like the factory ones (on the left in the picture), can be made from aluminum foil, salt dough and painted plastic tubes.

First, the foil is cut into squares from 10x10 to 20x20 cm, depending on the desired size of the beads. The bead blanks are rolled into balls between the palms, on the right in Fig. Next, cut out circles from the salt dough with a diameter slightly larger than the size of the beads, stick them around the workpieces and smooth them out. The beads are dried on newspaper and painted with bronze or silver, or colored metallic. All that remains is to string it mixed with tubes, and you’re done.

Rain and tinsel

The old Testament silvery rain on the Christmas tree can be made using the same manual noodle cutter as glitter, but you no longer need to cut the “noodles” with scissors. The rain will be less tangled and will last longer if it is covered not with a baking sleeve, but with silver or golden, or simply colored, shiny plastic.

But the “shaggy” homemade tinsel is made from an aluminum baking sleeve, like a garland of corrugated paper. Then the tapes twisted into a spiral will not unfold on their own. As for the “sausage” tinsel, it’s still better to buy it. Without special equipment you can’t make long pieces; thin strips interlock and stick together. You can make short sections for the branches of a tabletop Christmas tree, but this is another vast thing in the vast.

Wreath

The New Year and Christmas wreath are older than the New Year holiday and older than any of the current calendars. His ancestry is lost in Druidic antiquity; it is only known that the ancestor was made from mistletoe and holly branches with red berries, and the meaning of the Druid wreath was such that it would not be said by night.

In Russia, the New Year is celebrated relatively recently. Before Peter the Great, years were counted “from the creation of the world” (now according to the Orthodox Slavic calendar it is 7524 years old, there is also the Orthodox Byzantine calendar; according to the Jewish calendar it is 5775. Whatever); the beginning of the new year fell on March 1 and this day did not stand out in any way. For the first time, according to Peter’s decree, “with great noise and revelry” and “decorations from branches and trees of pine, spruce and juniper,” the year 1700 from the Nativity of Christ was celebrated on January 1.

The Christmas wreath came into Russian holiday usage just a few years ago. None of the world religions attach sacred significance to the branches of coniferous trees; all beliefs associated with the New Year's wreath are pure folk art. In general, it is believed that the wreath should contain small red balls (a hint of holly berries), and it should be crowned with a bow with bells, see fig. higher. 2 bells - for the family, 1 - for bachelors and unmarried people (who, nevertheless, can celebrate the New Year by no means alone); a pair of different sizes - for divorced and single mothers.

All this, of course, is pure convention. What New Year's wreaths are not made from, see fig. below. It is not forbidden to use a wreath in the most frivolous way, see fig. on the left above, and the goblins with the kikimors of the swamp against actions do not seem to be happy.

As for a real wreath-amulet and talisman, it’s not difficult to make it with your own hands: spruce branches, natural or artificial, pine cones, wire frame, balls, bells, bow, and - go ahead, see the picture:

Learn more about how to make a wreath from fir branches in the video below:

Video: wreath of pine cones and fir branches

If the wreath is large, with many symbols of abundance and happiness, then a light frame may not be enough, and a more substantial piece is needed. In such a case, see the video:

Video: preparations for New Year's wreaths

An original and popular craft for the New Year is a wreath made of pine cones. It’s also easy to make, see next. rice. The tinted cones are provided with loops, pos. 1. Special kits are also sold for this, pos. 2, but you can get by with paper clips bitten off by side cutters. The holes under their legs are pricked with an awl, and after inserting a loop, superglue is dripped under them. All that remains is to string it on a cord or wire, pos. 3, roll the thread into a ring, pos. 4 and decorate the wreath with a bow, pos. 5.

About Christmas tree styles

Designers, of course, do not pass by a decorated Christmas tree. But the stylistics are a complete mess. Obviously, everyone calls the same style in their own way, or exactly different ones call them by the same name. However, there is still something in common; especially for small artificial trees on a conical base. They are very dense, so they are decorated in a minimalist style: 3-4 types of toys of approximately the same size. The canons of style do not concern decorations; they can be as pretentious as you like. There are 2 trends in Christmas tree minimalism: “warm”, in Fig. on the left, and “cold”, in the same place on the right. The choice of one or the other is determined by the overall design style of the room; finally, simply the taste of the owner or customer.

The New Year is getting closer, and for those who know how to do DIY Christmas toys, the time for fruitful work is coming. Making toys is a tradition that arose at a time when mass production of Christmas tree decorations had not yet been established. Today, there are plenty of factory-made toys in stores, but the tradition of making them yourself has not disappeared. This is explained simply - handmade jewelry and toys give off a special warmth; they look homely and cozy. A nice bonus is that you can be proud that the toy you made yourself exists in a single copy.

How to make New Year's toys with your own hands?

New Year's outfits for the green beauty have undergone changes many times during the existence of the tradition of decorating the Christmas tree. In stores you can still buy standard decorations - glass balls of various colors and sizes, stars reminiscent of the Soviet past, glass cones, fruits and other traditional products. You can also add an element of creativity to the Christmas and New Year holidays and try to make New Year's toys for 2017 with your own hands.

DIY New Year's toys from scrap materials

The choice for work is almost limitless - any available material can be used. Christmas tree decorations are sometimes made from the most unexpected materials. New Year’s creativity also has its own “leaders” - materials that are used most often:

• Wood, plywood;
• Paper;
• Beads;
• Felt;
• Textile;
• Beads;
• Natural materials - branches, vines, cones, etc.

Christmas tree toys made from salt dough

You can even make DIY New Year's toys for the New Year 2017 from flour. One of the simplest and most inexpensive materials for making New Year's toys is salt dough. There is flour in every home, the process is interesting (especially for children), and the result is a completely worthy replacement for ceramic and glass toys.

To work you will need:

• Wheat flour;
• Water;
• Salt (fine);
• Paints;
• Varnish (optional);
• Leg-split;
• Oil;
• PVA glue.

Important! To make the dough more flexible, you can add a little baby oil (can be replaced with vegetable oil or olive oil).

Dissolve salt in warm water, add flour, knead the dough. To get a variety of figures, you can use dough molds. The lack of shapes is not a problem; figures from salt dough can be sculpted by hand. To add texture, you can use anything - pencils, plastic bottle caps, lace. While the dough is still wet, you need to make holes for the rope holder.

After drying (1-3 days, depending on the thickness of the product), the toy can be painted, a pattern applied, small photos pasted and coated with acrylic varnish.

Christmas decorations made from branches

DIY New Year's toys are often made from scrap materials. A simple but effective way to decorate a Christmas tree or home for the New Year is to make toys from natural materials - for example, from branches. To make a stylish toy “Ball in eco-style” you will need wire and branches.

Lifehack! It is better to collect branches in October or November, when they still contain a sufficient amount of moisture. Later collected vines and branches may be brittle and unsuitable for making toys.

Make several (5-6) circles from the wire. Form a ball “skeleton” from them, fasten the circles together with hot glue or wire. Carefully twist small diameter branches or vines over the base. To keep the branches tightly, they can also be secured with hot glue. It is easy to thread a ring of twine or ribbon into the finished ball. The stylish eco-ball is ready!

New Year toys made of beads

You can also make spectacular New Year's toys from beads. It will not be easy for beginners to make jewelry that is massive or has a complex shape. But without any problems you can make hearts, Christmas trees, and stars. To make such a toy you will need wire and beads. First you need to string the beads onto the wire, and then form the desired shape, tightly securing the ends of the wire. You can use ribbons for hanging.

New Year's toys made from light bulbs

For those who are still puzzling over the question “How to make New Year’s toys with your own hands?” An option using items that previously had a utilitarian function is perfect. New Year is coming soon, so don’t rush to throw away burnt out light bulbs. They make charming Christmas tree decorations. A little imagination, and you won’t have to settle for the usual glass balls.

Attention! For the first (background) layer, it is better to use spray paint. It is easier to apply, and this paint goes on evenly. It is much more difficult to create an even coating with a brush or sponge.

DIY New Year's toys made of paper

Paper is a universal material, and Christmas tree toys and decorations made from it are cheap, practical and simple. To begin with, you can choose flat (not voluminous) jewelry. These can be snowflakes, Christmas trees, and other themed figures.

Important! You should not take too thick paper or high-density cardboard: when cutting, the edges of these materials become “shaggy” and the product does not look neat.

Another accessible method is to use paper to decorate ready-made toys - for example, balls. An ordinary glass ball will look much more original if you stick decorations cut out of paper on it. Or, for example, a small collage of photos.

A more complex way is to make toys using the origami technique. Using separate paper blocks, you can assemble a variety of decorations - for example, a Christmas tree.

Even children can make New Year's toys out of paper with their own hands. Most of the diagrams and patterns are simple; it will not be difficult for a child to cut out a snowflake, a Christmas tree or the silhouette of a bird. And from individual paper figures and silhouettes you can make a New Year's garland to decorate a Christmas tree or room. To do this, you can use a ready-made diagram from the Internet or come up with a design yourself. Christmas garlands can be decorated with snowmen, balls, patterns, Christmas trees, and animals.

From felt

Felt is a soft, fairly dense felt. This material is perfect for making New Year's toys. It’s easy to work with – you don’t need to process the edges; you can buy felt in almost any color and shade in the store. To make a stylish New Year's toy, only two or three colors of felt are enough. For example, a combination of red and white - classic New Year's colors - is perfect for creating simple decorations. It is not necessary to choose complex patterns; it is enough to cut out simplified silhouettes from paper. For example, these:

You can transfer the pattern to felt using chalk or a bar of soap. Then each type of figurine must be cut out in duplicate. Large DIY New Year's toys can also be made from felt, as it is sold in sheets of different formats.

Attention! Felt lends itself well to cutting, but you need to choose sharp scissors for the job. It is better to secure the pattern on the fabric with pins to get a neat silhouette.

In the photo: DIY felt Christmas toys:

It is better to sew felt parts with contrasting threads - if the toy is red, then you can use white or beige threads. If the toy is white, the decoration with red, green, and brown threads will look harmonious.

And don't forget the buttons!

Small felt toys can be used both to decorate the Christmas tree and to make interior garlands. Bright ribbons, regular white clothesline, and twine can be used as a base.

Christmas trees, hearts and houses are traditional details of New Year's design. Recently, toys in the form of animals with which the New Year is associated - deer and elk - have become increasingly popular.

DIY felt Christmas toys look bright and festive without any additional decor. If desired, you can give them additional flavor by decorating them with buttons, sequins, ribbons, or, for example, embroidery.

The advantage of a homemade garland is that it can be made taking into account the size and color scheme of the room that needs to be decorated. To make a garland you do not need a sewing machine - the felt parts are sewn by hand.

Thanks to the pliability and softness of the material, making toys takes very little time - about half an hour for each. If there is a need to make the toy voluminous, it is stuffed with cotton wool or holofiber.

Important! For stuffing, you can use either cotton wool or holofiber, but you need to take into account that when washed, the cotton wool inside the toy gets knocked down and the product loses its shape. If you are going to use toys in the future, it is advisable to use holofiber for stuffing - it tolerates moisture well and the product does not lose its shape.

From fabric

To make a New Year's toy from fabric with your own hands, it is not at all necessary to have sewing skills. For example, such a ball can be made using scraps of fabric. An ordinary Christmas ball or a foam blank is used as a base.

The fabric can be tightly wrapped around the base or glued. To work with fabric, you can use any glue available, but:

Important! When drying, PVA can leave a yellowish mark on light-colored fabric. The craft glue will hold the fabric to the backing, but since it is not designed to work with textiles, the product may not last long. Hot melt adhesive is a good option for working with fabric, but it must be applied in as thin a layer as possible.

DIY New Year's toy Cockerel

The coming 2017 is the year of the Fire Rooster, so toys in the shape of birds will be especially relevant. A DIY rooster Christmas tree toy is easy to make - just draw or copy your favorite sketch from the Internet.

The easiest way is to make a rooster out of felt or paper. To do this you will need a piece of felt, a pattern, threads, and scissors. The toy can be flat or voluminous. From thick felt you can make parts for a garland, or toys - pendants.

You can use beads for decoration, and suede or waxed cord or twine to make a pendant.

There are many manufacturing options, and the approach of the New Year is the best way to inspire creativity. It is advisable to start preparing for this holiday in a good mood - toys made with a positive attitude emit special warmth.

New Year's time is an extraordinary time for families. Pre-holiday chores are an excellent reason to spend time together; they bring loved ones together. The Christmas tree is especially important, a symbol of the holiday on the threshold. Children love decorating the Christmas tree and look forward to this moment. Imagine how delighted they will be with the idea of ​​making Christmas tree decorations with their own hands!

So it is possible to “reanimate” old, favorite Christmas tree balls or create new ones using scrap materials and a little imagination. By investing in your soul, you will make every holiday special and memorable, and your children happy.

Soft Christmas trees

List of what you need:

• cardboard, pencil, scissors and glue;
• pieces of beautiful fabric;
• loop tape;
• decor to taste - rhinestones, buttons, lace, curly beads, seed beads, etc.

Draw a Christmas tree template on cardboard, cut it out and cover it with fabric on both sides. Then it's time for imagination! Involve your child in decorating a soft Christmas tree - sew on beads, stick on sparkles, feathers, sequins, scraps of braid and lace. You can sew knitted flowers, ready-made or purchased, onto the toy.

Idea: use acrylic paints on fabric to draw a pattern on the Christmas tree.

Finally, you need to sew a loop to the top of the work to hang it on the Christmas tree or decorate the house.

You can do it differently: cut out two “mirror” parts in the shape of a Christmas tree from fabric, sew them and turn them inside out. Stuff your Christmas tree and once again give free rein to your imagination and creativity in decorating.

Lace fantasy

Required:

• balloon, thread;
• petrolatum;
• knitted lace;
• plastic cup, water, PVA glue;
• brush.

The technique is similar to making a spider web ball.

Mix glue and some water in a container. Inflate the balloon, tie it tightly so that it does not deflate ahead of time, and the creation does not deteriorate during drying. Lightly coat the ball with Vaseline so that the lace will come off later. Knitted lace needs to be covered with a mixture of water and glue using a brush and row by row wrapped around the ball.

Then the toy is dried for 24 hours. When finished, you need to do the same as with regular papier-mâché: untie the ball, deflate it and carefully pull it out.

The finished product will turn out beautiful and “airy”.

Pompom decorations

Knitted pom-poms are a great thing, as individual toys or even as whole garlands. A variety of colorful ones will make a cheerful, colorful caterpillar on a Christmas tree. Turn single white pom-poms into angels or hares by sewing on eyes, ears, wings, and paws.

Tools and materials:

• cardboard, scissors, pencil;
• thick yarn of the desired color, synthetic or wool, so as not to fray.

Cut out two identical circles from cardboard. Take a glass or use a compass as a template. The diameter of the circle determines how large the pompom will be. Cut a 3 cm hole in the middle. Place the resulting rings together and begin wrapping them with thread. The more yarn is wound, the fluffier the pompom. Use different threads to create a multi-colored pompom.

Next, along the outer contour of the circle, you need to cut the knitted yarn with scissors, move the rings apart, wrap tightly and tie the threads between them so that the product does not fall apart. When finished, remove the rings and save them as a blank for future use. If the pom pom is uneven, “cut” the yarn with scissors.

You can make many crochet pom poms to make a garland or use them individually.

Another interesting idea for a textile garland: you need to collect beautiful vintage scraps and string them on a rope. You will get a knitted garland of flags, ideally matched by color.

Felt Christmas decorations

Felt is thin colored felt. It is dense, so the toys are durable and practical, especially if children often touch them. Making felt crafts is simple: cut out the blanks and sew them together.

There are some simple and beautiful ideas for felt Christmas tree decorations.

They will need:

• felt sheets of different colors - you can buy them in craft stores;
• ribbons for loops;
• decorative items - buttons, wooden and plastic beads, seed beads, etc.;
• padding polyester;
• pencil, scissors, thread, needle.

Any shape is acceptable - heart, bird, circle, star, your choice. You can make several different Christmas tree decorations. Fold two sheets of felt together, draw the desired shape and cut it out. It is interesting to use sheets of different colors for both sides. You can sew it so that the seam is visible - a visible stitch with bright floss thread on felt looks beautiful.

Loosely stuff the finished toy to make it voluminous and decorate it as you wish. Decoration ideas - embroidery with beads and sequins, embroidery with threads, ribbons.

Sew a ribbon loop and hang it ceremoniously on the tree.

Paper toys for the Christmas tree

The face of Santa Claus

On the eve of the New Year, many things magically transform... Even paper plates! Thanks to the hands of home craftsmen and women, paper containers can become the smiling faces of Father Frost, Snow Maiden, and favorite fairy-tale characters. Below is a master class using the example of Santa Claus.

You will need:

• packaging of paper plates;
• colored paper;
• cotton wool for beard;
• felt-tip pens, paints, pencils;
• glue;
• acrylic primer or white acrylic paint;
• scissors.

The paper plate needs to be painted with white acrylic on the front side. This is the base so that the paints can be applied neatly and look bright. When the base is dry, mix paint (gouache or watercolor) to create a flesh color and cover the previous layer with it. The plate should dry again.

Now let's get to the face. Eyes, mouth, nose. For them, you can use felt-tip pens and pencils, and also look at a picture of Santa Claus on the Internet to choose or match a color. The next stage is the beard. Pieces of cotton wool are glued along the edge of the plate.

The last one is the hat. Cut it out of red colored paper and glue it onto a plate. You can make a cotton edging or a pompom on the hat, it will come out beautifully. Using the same principle, you can make another favorite fairy tale character.

Paper stars

This decor is a simple origami product, which is also called “wishing stars”. You can put them in a transparent Christmas ball or make a beautiful garland by stringing stars on a string.

Required:

• colored paper, cut into strips 1.1 × 29 cm;
• patience and perseverance.

Process of creation:

1. Take the prepared strip and fold it into a loop.
2. Fold the short end of the paper into a knot.
3. Careful not to tear, tighten the knot and press with your fingernail - the result looks like a pentagon.
4. Wrap the tip to the other side of the workpiece. The shorter it is, the better - the free end should not look beyond the pentagon.
5. Turn the future star over; if the tip of the paper strip is still too long, it needs to be trimmed or tucked and hidden inside the pentagon.
6. With a long strip, without pressing on the product itself, wrap the entire pentagon at least ten times (2 on each side).
7. You need to do the same with the free end: tuck it in and hide it.
8. Now take the workpiece with two fingers of one hand and with the nail of the other hand press on any face of the pentagon towards the middle. Repeat with all edges. Ready!

Paper ice cream

For this inedible beauty you need:

• cardboard, glue, scissors;
• needle and thread;
• corrugated colored paper.

Cut a circle with a diameter of 10-11 cm from cardboard, cut it in half and roll the resulting parts into cones. Secure with a paper clip to make it more convenient, and coat with glue. Let it dry.

Form corrugated paper of different colors into balls, coat the bottom with glue and insert into cardboard cones with the glue facing down. Using a needle and thread, make a loop in the Christmas tree decoration by piercing the top “ice cream ball”.

You can make knitted balls instead of paper ones.

Use edible materials

New Year's tree decorations made from peanuts

Materials:

• acrylic paints;
• brushes, jar of water;
• peanut;
• glue;
• lace for loop;
• items for small decor - colored paper, cotton wool, etc.

Painting on peanuts is almost miniature painting; most of the work here is for adults, and children will offer creative ideas.

Paint the peanuts the color you want and let dry. After drying, use a thin brush (brushes for nail art are good), paint faces on the blanks - eyes, mouth, etc. Peanuts can be “dressed” - a cap made of colored paper, a knitted scarf, or a cotton mustache and beard. When finished, glue the loop to the top of the walnut man's head.

Citrus decor

Required:

• lemon, tangerine or orange;
• different cookie cutters;
• If there are no forms, scissors will do.

You need to remove the skin from the citrus fruit and cut out a piece of the desired shape from it, make a hole or cut out the middle, and then dry it.

During the drying process, the skin becomes deformed - if you don’t like this, you can put the blanks under the press in advance, placing them between two sheets of paper and pressing them down with books.

Hang the resulting figures separately from a loop or make a garland. Dried citrus peels smell wonderful, and you can add natural cinnamon sticks to this garland for added scent, too.

You can also dry orange and lemon slices, then poke holes in them and hang them.

"Macaroni" Christmas decorations

• pasta of various shapes;
• brushes, water;
• glue moment;
• acrylic paints of different colors, as well as metallic paints - silver and gold acrylic;
• sparkles, glitters for decoration;
• ribbons for loops for hanging decorations.

There are no limits to your imagination with pasta. You can use them to create unusual Christmas trees, snowflakes, angels, etc. You can lay them out on the table and play like with a construction set. When you decide on the shape of the future product, fasten the pasta together with glue and let it dry.

Then start painting. Cover the table with newspaper, take a brush and cover the product first on one side, then, when dry, on the other. To fix the paint, the creation can be varnished. You need to attach a loop on top.

During the process, when the paint is still wet, you can sprinkle the toy with glitter. A shiny silver snowflake or star will look great.

If you have foam blanks of New Year's balls or just old and uninteresting ones, you can paste them over with pasta and paint them.

Working with blanks

Button decor

What you will need:

• a lot of beautiful buttons (beads, seed beads);
• glue moment;
• preparing a Christmas ball;
• a piece of twine or ribbon for a loop.

Craft stores (and even sometimes stationery stores) sell sets of foam and wooden blanks for creating New Year's toys with your own hands. You can buy a package or use old, ugly plastic balls you have at home.

It is enough to select buttons and beads with which you will lay out the surface of the Christmas tree decoration, and glue them one by one, and at the end attach a loop to the top.

Decor with beads

• preparing a Christmas tree toy;
• skeins of small and large plastic beads;
• glue;
• scissors;
• loop ribbon;
• decor to taste.

Another way to decorate an old Christmas tree ball or blank. Beads are wrapped in rows around the toy and “set” on glue.

You can glue individual beads to the ball, playing with their size, color and shape, or decorate with several large and medium beads, and fill the remaining space with multi-colored microbeads (available in stores selling manicure products).

If you take a thin cord and use glue to lay it in fancy curls on the ball, adding beads, it will also be beautiful. Don't forget to attach a loop to hang the toy on the tree.

Ball using decoupage technique

Required:

• blank for the ball;
• napkins with a cute pattern;
• sponge;
• white acrylic primer or white acrylic paint;
• a jar of water, PVA glue, brush;
• nail scissors;
• decoupage varnish;
• palette (a piece of cardboard will do);
• sparkles, glitter;
• string for hanging the ball.

Squeeze the paint onto the palette, lightly dip the sponge into it and cover the ball with white with light touches. If you have art primer in a jar, you can use a sponge to take it straight from there. While the toy is drying, separate the colorful layer from the selected napkin and cut out from it with nail scissors the element that you want to see on the ball.

Mix water and PVA in a 1:1 ratio, place the tenderloin on the ball and begin to apply the adhesive mixture to the napkin with a brush, from the middle to the edges. Try not to let the brush drip; a wet cloth will tear easily. If you want to sprinkle glitter on the balloon, do it now.

Let the work dry. Later, you can once again lightly walk the sponge with paint over the ball, so it will look dusted with snow. Finally, coat the toy with varnish and attach a loop.

Here are ideas for family entertainment on New Year's Eve. Be creative, rejoice, smile at each other. Time spent in this way is priceless and is worth much more than ordinary purchased gifts and a table set on a festive night.

Funny snowmen made of cardboard