A sheet of hanging shapes rather than one shape on its own: two round baubles, two teardrops, a star and a bell, each with a square cap on top and a small circle marked where the thread goes through. Six fit on an A4 sheet at the size it opens on, which is enough to fill a small tree in two printings.
Four shapes, not one
A tree hung with twelve identical circles looks like a worksheet. Mixing a round bauble with a teardrop, a star and a bell is what makes a paper tree read as decorated rather than as a craft activity, and it is the reason this sheet carries four outlines instead of one.
Each shape is a single closed line with the cap built into it, so there is one cut per ornament and no fiddly inner corners. The hole in the cap is drawn as a small circle to punch or pierce, not to cut around.
Three sizes
The size control gives Large, Medium and Small. Small is where it opens and puts all six shapes on the page, the biggest about 84mm tall. Medium drops to two per sheet, a round bauble and a teardrop. Large is a single round bauble about 158mm wide and 194mm tall, filling most of the page.
Large is the one for a classroom display or a name bauble for a paper tree on a wall. Small is the one for an actual tree, because anything bigger hangs badly on paper weight card.
Card, thread and decorating
160gsm card is the right weight. Lighter than that and the shapes curl within a day in a heated room; much heavier and a home printer struggles to feed it. Punch the hole with a single hole punch rather than scissors so the cap does not tear.
Children can decorate them before cutting, which is easier than decorating a cut shape that slides around. The bauble colouring pages are the version with patterns already drawn on if you would rather not start from blank.
Questions
- How many ornaments are on a sheet?
- Six at the size it opens on: two round baubles, two teardrops, a star and a bell. Medium gives two to a sheet and Large gives a single round bauble filling the page.
- How big are the printable ornaments?
- About 84mm tall at the small setting, which is close to a real bauble. The large setting puts one round shape on the page at about 194mm tall, which suits a wall display rather than a tree.
- Is the hole for the thread marked?
- Yes. Each shape has a square cap at the top with a small circle drawn on it. Punch or pierce that circle rather than cutting it out, and the cap holds a loop of thread without tearing.
- How is this different from the bauble template?
- The bauble template is one round shape with three forms and a three dimensional option. This sheet is a mixed set of hanging shapes, round, teardrop, star and bell, meant to fill a tree rather than make one decoration.