Around Christmas time I came across a great way of recycling christmas cards by making them into a 3D ball shape ornament . Being the crazy fabric lady that I am I knew I had to make a giant one using fabric.

I grabbed my stack of  Little Azalea, the latest range from Dena Designs, and used a dinner plate as template to cut out 20 big circles.  I glued the fabric circles to some light weight white cardboard. I just used basic paper glue, it was what I had on hand and luckily it worked just fine.

Once the glue dried I cut out the circles. 
I cut out an equilateral triangle shape that fit the size of the circle.  Placed it in the the circle, fabric side up, and use it to fold the edges inwards.

so the circle takes on the triangle fold...
like so 

Once folded the circles are ready to glue together. I found it easier to make 3 sections. The top and bottom sections are made up of 5 circles each. The remaining 10 become the center section. I used paper clips to hold the pieces together while the glue dried. Clothes pegs would work too. 

It looked as though it needed a tassel so I whipped one up by cutting 1/2 inch strips of fabric into 9 inch legnths. I left their raw edges, simply folded them over and wrapped another strip of fabric around the top.  

I glued the Bottom Section to Middle section and let it dry. I found it helpful to use a bowl to support the pieces while I was gluing them together. 
Next up I secured the tassel using a long bit of perle thread, threaded some fun felt balls as well, and brought then needle up through the bottom and then up through the center of the top piece. I then sealed the ball up with glue. I figure the perle thread running through the whole structure helps to keep the 3 parts together. 

Seeing it had felt balls threaded onto the top and bottom I decided to continue the theme and glued felt balls to the joins too. Happy little bobbles of colour! 

With a diameter of 16 inches it looks more like a lantern than an ornament so I'm calling it a Daylight Lantern. The folds of the circles catch the light as it slowly turns around in a breeze. 

Do you like the it hanging from this twisted branch? I carried that branch home one day from a walk, 
I knew it would come in handy one day...