paper onion Christmas ornaments

I’ve been wanting to make my own version of these retro paper onion Christmas decorations ever since I stumbled across this tutorial a few weeks ago.

Aren’t they fun? And don’t they look super easy to make? I thought so too.

Somehow I didn’t get around to making my own until this afternoon, but Christmas isn’t ’til tomorrow, so I figured it wasn’t too late. Fortunately, the process was as quick and easy as I expected, so it didn’t take me much time at all to make three ornaments.

The hardest part was deciding where to hang them.

You’ll notice that I stapled mine together, since I don’t have either grommets or the patience to wait for glue to dry. I made the blue one first, and cut the strips to the lengths specified on the tutorial. For the others, I cut the center strip first (to determine how tall the ornament would be), cut the outside strips next (to determine how wide and curvy it would be), and then cut the other strips last at a length that would put them halfway between the outer strip and the center strip. I didn’t do any fancy calculations or anything — I just eyeballed it.

My strips of cardstock are 1-in. wide, and the lengths are as follows:

[white] 11″, 10″, 9.5″
[blue] 12″, 10″, 8.75″
[red] 7.5″, 6.5″, 6″

If you’re looking for additional inspiration for your own paper onion Christmas ornaments, here are a few more fun ornaments I found on other sites.

These ornaments from Design*Sponge feature several colors in each ornament.

Bookity used maps to make her ornaments. She also made some heart ornaments that I want to remember when Valentine’s Day rolls around.

And these ornaments from ferm LIVING are actually made of wood!

I also found some other paper onion Christmas ornaments that were made in a very different way.

These ornaments from DaWanda look like they were stitched together and then folded.

And finally, West Elm sells these mini onion ornaments. I’d like to try making that kind sometime, just to see if I can do it, because they look a lot like the 3D paper snowflakes that are all over the internet.

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!