It's Monday which means we're back for another Advent Calendar piece! We're also tired, slightly behind schedule and easily distracted because, well...it's a Monday. Today also marks the final week until Christmas, and keeping with tradition in my family, we're not really ready for it. The gifts have been bought, the letters have been written and the post has been sent, but apart from a few cards on the mantel piece it's doesn't feel like Christmas yet. So let's try to change that!
Today we're going to try to create two simple, handmade baubles with a Remedy twist. One will be solely focused on Quantum Break, with the other featuring all of the titles! _o/
First thing to do is to get a selection of photos, and for mine I chose to have 10 slides for each bauble. You can have a bigger number to make the ornament more spherical but then you would have the issue of not being able to see the photos.
So we know the number of slides we want and we have the photos...What's next? Several craft shops make a specific tool designed for cutting circular shapes out of paper, if you have one you can just print out your photos straight away and get to work cutting out your shapes. If you don't that's completely fine, it just means that you have to do a little bit of extra work, and I also recommend using a photo editor. If you don't have something like Photoshop, you can get a free program called Paint.net from HERE. (It's what I've been using for this site.)
If you're using Paint.net, you first would need to set the image size. For my images I used a square measuring 7.5cm. (Go to "Image" on the toolbar, and then "Canvas Size".) After, draw a filled circle fitting into the space. Use the Magic Wand tool and highlight the filled circle, then hit delete. You should now only have a white frame. Insert another layer and move it so it's behind the frame. Now you're ready to start arranging the photos!
Whenever you want to create a new photo, paste it onto the layer behind the frame, and once you've got the photo lined up how you want it, click the "Merge" button. You then have one photo you can copy into Microsoft Word (or a similar program) which will allow you to print off all the images at once. Whenever you're ready to put a new image behind the frame, go through your edit history to the point just before you merged the two layers. (Yeah...This section is easier to do than explain. Very wordy!)
Then just print them out! (If you can, try using card instead of paper, it just makes them slightly more durable and less frustrating to deal with later...Yeah, I learnt that the hard way.)
And we're getting there!
If you're planning on doing more than one bauble, you would want to sort them out into separate piles as you fold them vertically in half....
Grab a glue stick and start gluing the sides together, but don't glue the final side down just yet if you're planning on putting string through the middle.
As they the slides are drying, now is the perfect time to get the string and decorations sorted. Embroidery thraed, thin ribbon or string is the best for this job. If you want the bauble to stand out a little more you can add little decorations such as sequins or beads.
Then just put the thread through the middle of the bauble and stick the final two slides together. (When I was doing this, I made a really stupid mistake and thought I could add the string on later after I have glued all the sides down. This meant that I spent a ridiculously long time arguing with a needle and thread...Not too sure I won that fight.)
I decided to give the baubles a little border. This also has the added benefit of being able to cover any mistakes such as having two slightly different shaped slides together.
Here's the Quantum Break one...
And the Remedy one...
Now unfortunately my camera isn't all that great with capturing moving objects, and the thing about these baubles is that they were constantly spinning. So in the end I only managed to get one alright photo before the camera battery died.
...Close enough. :)
