3-D Vintage Sheet Music Ornaments Tutorial

One of our favorite day-after-Thanksgiving traditions is to make some new, easy Christmas ornaments and start our holiday decorating. When my kids were little, we made ornaments with glitter or paint, and they really got into it. As they grew older, my son lost interest but my daughter still likes to create and decorate. In the past we’ve made a whole set of book page ornaments, then simple punch ornaments one year and easy Anthropologie knockoff tinsel ornaments another. This year we’re adding glittered cork ornaments, and these stunning 3-D vintage sheet music ornaments to our handmade collection.

I think these make quite a statement, all while costing zero dollars. Isn’t that the best kind of craft? I suppose I should add the .05 that it might’ve cost for the glue stick, but really I usually have a ton of those on hand, so it would be hard to pinpoint an exact amount. But everything else is just stuff most of you have laying around and the sheet music is usually easy to find from family and friends. It’s simply a matter of tracing, cutting, stapling and gluing – anyone can do this! Kids can help with the tracing and cutting part, and if you have the cool temp glue gun, maybe older kids can help with that, too. I hope you have as much fun as I did creating these easy and elegant vintage sheet music ornaments!

How to make 3-D Vintage Sheet Music Ornaments

1. Gather materials: sheet music, pencil, scissors, stapler, glue gun (with glue sticks) and ornament shapes. Draw or find ornament shapes with interesting edges, but not too complicated. To use the exact ornaments I did, download this free template.

2. Cut out ornaments. Lay the cut out ornaments on top of sheet music, trace around edges with pencil and cut out (cut however many layers of paper that you can without it moving too much- I was able to cut out 4 layers at a time). Cut enough to have 20 total paper layers for each ornament.

3. Fold and staple. Take 10 layers of sheet music and fold in half. Repeat with remaining 10 layers. Staple layers together on the center line at the top, middle, and bottom of the ornament. Fold and fan out a bit.

4. Create 3-D shape with glue. Use glue to help all the layers stay in a fanned-out shape: start at an area with the staples showing and add a dot of glue to each staple area, then hold together for a few seconds to dry. Repeat this for all the layers, alternating glue dots for each layer as shown with the arrows above. Just work your way around, fanning and gluing – it only takes about 10 minutes.

5. Adjust and finish. After you’ve finished gluing, fix any areas you see that seem off or too big with glue. Take your thumb and help the 3-D effect by gently folding some of the layers that stick together more than you’d like.

6. Add hanger. Use a needle to thread a hanger through the layers of paper at the top. I used basic thread since I want them to kind of disappear, but you can use gold thread or fishing line – or anything you can thread through, actually.

Pretty great, right? I just love simple crafts, they always make me feel so accomplished, ha! I’m actually thinking about hanging these three ornaments in the center of an evergreen wreath wrapped with a burlap ribbon, though they would look fantastic on a tree, of course.

Got more sheet music? Check out these other easy decor I’ve made with them (all unusable student practice sheet music, by the way – nothing classic!):

• Sheet Music Wreath
• Decoupaged Sheet Music-Holiday Sayings Coasters
• Vintage Sheet Music Joy Sign (from a cupboard door!)
• And these book page crafts that could be made with sheet music, too: Rosette Ornament Tutorial, Quick Punch Ornaments, Paper Ring Garland, Simple Banner garlands

Do you think you’ll make these, and if you do, how will you use them?

I’m sharing this at Inspiration Exchange, Show & Tell: Christmas, Best DIY & Recipes Party