Paper Angels

 

Years ago I attended a community Christmas dinner at Mommy's church and I remember walking into their gym and seeing the many tables beautifully decorated with angels. So many angels. When I looked closer, I saw that each angel was simply cut from a single sheet of heavy white paper, like card stock or cover stock.

I did not take one of the angels from the table when the meal was over. My mother taught me not to take without asking. But later thanks to heroic efforts by Mommy and one of the associate ministers at that church, they tracked down a paper angel for me. And they shared a website that showed how to fold these adorable angels. The directions were in some slavic language, but the pictures were useful.

Jessica and I made stacks of these angels for a cattlemen's dinner the following year. And yay for me, I saved the angels and added them to my accumulation of Christmas table decorations. (I decorated for the cattlemen's association for years.) So when a friend asked this week if I remembered how to make the angels, I told her we could use one of mine to trace some for her. I thought it would be good for Joanne to see the original link but I cannot find that original site. I thought it might be wise to make a new set of instructions right here. In English.

These are so easy to make. And they are extremely economical. It just takes time. The tracing was the hardest part. This morning I realized that as I was making a new, more permanent pattern, I could print the cutting lines and eliminate the tracing.

This is what the printed pattern looks like.

Fold it in half to cut.

If you trace by hand, you would fold the paper first and place your template on the fold.

YOU CUT THIS OUT FOLDED!

When I first saw the pattern I thought that cutting out the interior around the head was going to be impossible without tiny sharp scissors. But then realized that if you cut the line above the head (see blue arrow) first, you just keep cutting around the arms and head. Then it was pretty simple.

I cut this one with my not-so-sharp scissors I use for gift wrap.

It's possible that you might need to smooth out the printed/traced lines as you cut. And when I printed the pattern, the lines didn't quite reach the edge of the paper. You crafty people can extend it to the edge. Try to cut so that the pencil/printer line is cut off. My goal was to have a pure white angel. I didn't always achieve my goal.

Open the paper enough to make the angel stand, arms straight up.

Fold the arms and trumpet forward, giving a little pinch at the shoulders.

And then fold the arms down, pinching the "hands" at the trumpet.

You can download the PDF for the angel pattern here: Paper Angel Template   I hope. I've never attached a PDF to the blog. If you are the artsy type, you could freehand the pattern onto folded paper and make a template.

Friend Joanne is going to put an angel on a charger plate with greenery and votive candles. I honestly don't remember exactly how I used them on the tables years ago. I do remember that the air from the heat vents would blow them over. They are only paper. So I taped them to the table on the back side.