Fun Upcycled Dictionary Baubles For Christmas
Did you know that according to the Cambridge University Dictionary, UPCYCLING is the word of the year for 2019?
To celebrate this I thought I would upcycle an actual dictionary and make some decoupaged Christmas baubles with vintage images. I have already made an upcycled dictionary advent calendar which you can see here.
It may seem odd to upcycle a dictionary, but they do go out of date and most people use google rather than a dictionary these days. Also dictionary's can prove to be a very cheap source of craft paper.
As well as a dictionary I also used some plain baubles for this craft that I got from my local craft shop. You can use any old baubles as you will be decoupaging them it doesn't matter what colour they are.
To make these baubles a bit more colourful and festive I decided to print some vintage botanicals on the dictionary pages. There is a wonderful collection of free vintage printables here.
To start with I tore a page out of the dictionary. I tried to pick a page with a word on it that was either related to the picture I was going to print or with a Christmas word on it.
Next, I taped the dictionary page to a sheet of computer paper. I then put the paper through my printer and printed a vintage botanical onto the page. (There are more details on the blog if you need them along with the printable images).
Next, I measured the diameter of the bauble I was going to decoupage.
It is hard to decoupage a round object like a bauble. The best way to do it is segments. On the print out I drew 3 leaf shapes the same height as the diameter of the bauble. I also make sure that the main image was in the center of one of the leaves.
Next, I folded over the paper and cut out the three leaf shapes.
Because I folded over the paper I ended up with six leaf paper shapes.
Then using a decoupage glue such as Mod Podge, I glued the leaf shapes one by one to the bauble. Once it was all covered I then applied another layer of Mod Podge to the bauble, this acts as a varnish.
I then hung them to dry.
I love how the baubles turned out. The kids have had fun trying to spot the word that relates to picture on the baubles.
You can print anything you want onto the dictionary page. Dictionary paper tends to be thin which makes it great for decoupage too.
Resources for this project:
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Comments
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I’m going to use maps with places I have been! Thanks for the inspiration
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Those sound like they would be fabulous. I love map crafts.
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I have a friend who is a published author. Guess what he is getting for Christmas? I may actually use paperback copies of a couple of his books!
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That sounds like a fabulous idea, I bet he'll love it.
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Frequently asked questions
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I made these once with Christmas music. They never really dried & were very sticky/tacky even after a couple of years. Did you have a problem with that?