Make a Paper Christmas Ornament: The Porcupine Ball

Find foil wrapping paper and tissue paper. Origami paper will work as well. Cut squares anywhere from 3 to 4 inches. You will need 14-16 squares per ornament. It needs to be fairly lightweight paper. You will find that working with foil is much easier than the tissue paper as it holds its shape. You don't have to work with tissue paper at all, for that matter, but it is pretty to alternate a foil layer with a tissue layer.

Cut each square as shown above, cutting to within half an inch (or so) to the center.

You want to work with the wrong side of the paper (usually white) face up. Then, as I've attempted to illustrate above, use a sharpened pencil to start the point on the shorter side of the section. At the same time pull the long side of the section towards the pencil. Remove the pencil and twist the paper with your fingers until you get a point which looks like the image below. (It would probably be a good idea to practice with some scrap paper until you get the hang of it.) Then use a glue stick to glue the tip of the paper down.

Getting an even cone shape with a tiny point is an art form. I am not all that good at it. It was almost like a competitive sport among the adults in my family when I was growing up.

Now you should have some layers that look like those in the picture below.

Next you'll need two small beads and two sequins as well as a length of embroidery thread or braid and a needle. Line up half of the squares so that the side of the paper that you had face up while rolling the paper sections all face the same way. Do the same with the other half. Now put them back to back.

With the threaded needle pierce through the middle of the stack, leaving a tail of thread at the end you first go through. Once through the layers string a sequin and then a bead on the needle, then take the needle back through the sequin and back through the stack. String another sequin on the other end and pull the layers tight to make the ball. Tie the two ends of the thread in a knot to secure the layers. Then add another bead, stringing the thread through twice to secure it. Finally tie the two ends of the thread together at the tips to make a loop with which to hang your ornament.