Quick Christmas Ornaments with CorelDRAW

Quick Christmas Ornaments with CorelDRAW

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I'll bet you didn't think you could make Christmas tree ornaments using CorelDRAW! These were done in CorelDraw 7, but can be done in CorelDRAW 6 and above. They can be done in CorelDRAW 4 and 5 by using guide lines instead of the Graph tool.
Put some guidelines about a half inch away from each side of your paper. Then go to Properties under the Graph Tool and put in 3 wide and 4 high. With Snap to Guidelines activated, draw a graph across your page.
These ornaments all come from the Symbol Roll Up, which shouldn't be a surprise to you!
Figure 1 is #62 in the Festive Roll Up. Put it in the first rectangle and zoom in on it so you can work on it. You might want to take off Snap to Guidelines at this point. Break apart the symbol and color the different areas to your taste. I also deleted all the small circles inside the top circles. I used bright colors for my ornament, but you might like a different color scheme. When you have it colored, move the rectangle box at the top down and to the back so there is no space between it and the circle below it. Move the top circle down a little bit so it is sitting a little more on top of the rectangle. This will make it easier to cut out the ornaments. When you are satisfied with it, group it. At this point you might want to make the ornament a little larger in your rectangle.
Continue making the other ornaments, which are all in the Symbol Roll Up under Festive, the same way. Node edit the circles on the top of the tear drop ornaments to make them a little larger.
The two in the center are two ornaments put together. The outside of the Santa is #60 and the inside is #39. Color the Santa and shrink him a bit. Move the center of the other ornament a little lower before inserting the Santa. Don't forget to group all your ornaments.
Delete the outlines on the angel, #33 before shrinking her and putting her into the other ornament, #57. Node edit around the top of it to make it easier to cut.
When you have all your ornaments ready to print you might want to delete the graph as you really don't need it any more. I printed my ornaments on an Epson printer at 720 x 720 dpi on Epson's Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper. Any paper will work, but the better the quality of paper the better the color your ornaments will be.
If these ornaments aren't large enough for you, just make a bigger graph when you design them and use two sheets of paper instead of one.

Assembly Instructions

Materials needed:

• Printed sheet of ornaments
• Wax paper
• 1/3 yard Iron on Interfacing (craft weight)
• 1/3 yard Wonder-Under
• 9" x 12" piece of felt
• String, narrow ribbon, thread, yarn, or embroidery cotton
• Needle with a good size eye
• A tea towel or a large man's handkerchief
• 1/3 yard Clear Contact paper
• Ironing board and iron

These materials can be found at Wal-Mart or a Craft Supply and Fabric store.
Tear off a piece of wax paper larger than the printed sheet of ornaments and place on the ironing board. Heat your iron to almost hot. Don't rush when you do this operation. Be sure your things are in the right order.
Place the sheet of ornaments wrong side up on the wax paper. The wax paper is to protect your ironing board cover.
Cut a piece of Interfacing to a little smaller that your sheet of ornaments but large enough to cover them. Place it sticky/shiny side down on top of your sheet of ornaments. Iron 10 - 15 seconds with a dry iron. You don't want to use steam during these instructions as the water might effect the ink.
Cut a similar size piece of Wonder-Under and place it on top of the Interfacing sticky/shinny side down. Iron with a dry iron about 30 seconds. Very quickly peel off the paper backing of the Wonder-Under.
Now put the piece of felt on the ironing board without the wax paper. Place the sheet of ornaments right side up on the felt. Cover it with the tea towel or handkerchief and iron for about 30 seconds. This will fuse the sheet of ornaments to the felt. Let the felt cool.
I find that it is easier to put the Contact on the individual ornaments rather than trying to cover the whole sheet. Roughly cut apart one ornament. Don't cut away all the excess. Cut a piece of Contact to cover the ornament. It doesn't matter if it overlaps the edge of the ornament. Carefully cover the ornament with the Contact. You might want to try this operation on a scrap piece of paper first. You don't want it to bend or bubble on you.
Now, using sharp scissors, trim away the excess from the ornament. With a pencil, make two small dots (horizontally) in the round circle at the top. Cut whatever you are going to use to hang the ornament about 12 inches long. Thread your needle and go from the front to the back through one of the pencil dots. Unthread your needle and thread the other end. Put the needle through the other dot. Using the two holes will make the ornament hang straight on the Christmas tree. You can either tie the ends now in a bow or do it when you hang the ornament.

A Note About the Bicyclists

The three bicyclists In my Christmas In Green Valley picture above are made from Symbol #59 in the Sports Figures Roll Up. I wanted to make the bicyclists look three dimensional, which provided a real challenge! Figure A.
Mirror the bicyclist and break it apart. I have filled the body part with blue so you will understand better how to work with it. Figure B. Fill your body with a color for the time being.
Click on what should be open space and then click on the body and combine the objects. You will have to click on the line of the open space as at this point there is no fill in it. Figure C.
Fill the body of the biker with a similar linear fountain fill as in the rectangle D. Figure E.
Add a helmet and some hair to the women. You can skip the hair for the men. Figure F.
Figure G shows the finished woman. To change the color in the men's bodies, just change the color in the Gradient Fill.
If you don't have a pen and graphics tablet, this tutorial will convince you that you need one! To learn more about tablets, visit our Hardware Store.