How About Woven Paper Apples For Rosh HaShana?

You may have seen woven paper hearts, or paper hands with a woven insert, but have you ever seen woven apples? Me neither, until this idea popped into my head and these cute apples materialized on our dining room table a few nights ago. (You see, I told you a new pack of paper would be great inspiration given my self imposed art supply starvation!)

A whole bushel would look great strung garland style together with some other simple shapes, or paste some back to back and hang as parts of a holiday mobile. And for those of you who don't celebrate Rosh HaShana, well I do believe the timing is great for some back to school and early fall crafting!

How To:

1. Draw an apple shape about 4" wide (10cm) or even larger, depending on who will be doing the weaving. If you'll be making some yourself, so small and delicate could be really beautiful. If you'll be doing this projects with kids, so larger is better so that they'll be able to handle the actual weaving of the paper strips.
2. Turn your apple over to the wrong side and draw and outline within the apple shape, about 1/2" from the edge. This will be your guide for cutting slits. (I know you'd love a photo of this.....)
3. Using a craft knife and  metal ruler on a cutting surface, cut diagonal slits on the apple within the outline you've created in step 2
4. Cut strips of paper the same width as the slits you cut in the apple
5. Weave strips, you know, under over, under over until you've filled the whole shape.
6. Strips who end on the front of the apple should be trimmed such that they end in a square, and affixed with glue. ( I used a glue stick.)
7. Glue ends on back of apple down to secure.
8. Mount woven apple onto another background piece of paper (yellow here) add a leaf and trim leaving a small colored border around your apple.
9. I know you're going to try this, so don't forget to send photos! And I was thinking how very lovely these would look in neutral colors like beige, white, gray, for a sophisticated take on this project, especially if you make the slits and strips delicate!