Xmas in July: Snowflake Pentagon Ball Ornament

Xmas crafting in July. Sounds counter-intuitive - but it is a thing. A very big thing. And it makes so much sense. School's out. The pace is slower. No pressure! And crafting is the ideal antidote to dismal holiday weather.

Today's project is a printable papercraft pentagon ball ornament with snowflake decorations. If you have a digital papercutting machine, then you can print-and-cut it. But it can also easily be made by hand once you've printed it out. Assembling it is lots of fun - a bit like a jigsaw puzzle.

Here is your free papercraft printable:
SnowflakePentagonBallOrnament.pdf 
SnowflakePentagonBallOrnament.svg 
SnowflakePentagonBallOrnament.studio 

Snowflake Pentagon Ball Ornament

1 Print the template onto 160gsm white photocopier card.

2 Cut out the pattern pieces by hand or by machine. Score the fold lines using a fine-point embossing tool held against a small metal ruler.
Crease the folds.

2 The pentagon ball is made in two halves. To assemble each half, first join front to back to make a ring. Next, fold down the lid and glue it in place (PVA tacky glue applied with a cocktail stick does the job). 

3 Glue top to bottom along the zig-zag edge, matching the points and gluing the tabs. Note: if you wish to pop a jingle-bell inside to raise the fun factor, do so before securing all the tabs.Try to avoid having segments of like colours touch - but this won't be entirely avoidable.

4 Next, make the hat-like ornament top. (The printed fold lines belong on the wrong side.) Score and crease the folds.  Join tab of long strip to front of long strip, to make a ring. Fold down the lid, gluing the tabs inside. Fold the curved tabs outwards, making petal-like projections.
You can knot and insert a hanging loop through the hole on top or, alternatively, you can add the hanging loop arc (the extra bit), for a more elegant finish. Two mirror-image pieces are required. Glue the arcs together and fold the pentagon-halves outwards. Glue onto ornament top, matching edges. Tie on a hanging loop. (Craft thread or baker's twine recommended.)

Whichever style you selected, you must now glue the ornament top (the "hat") onto the top of the pentagon ball. A printed pentagon indicates placement - glue the "petals" down.

Your ornament is now complete. 

You can, of course, enlarge or reduce the template on a photocopier.
(Always nice to have varying sizes in an arrangement.)