Even though this package ornament looks elegant and expensive, it's actually easy and inexpensive to make (providing you have a few basic paper crafting tools).  We used wallpaper samples for the paper in the tea bag portion of this project.  Go to most any paint or home improvement store and you'll find that they're usually thrilled to give away old sample books of wallpaper.  That's right, give them away, as in for free, gratis, nada.  This represents an incredible find for creative crafters -- free supplies!   The sample books provide wonderful papers for all kinds of craft projects, and once you start flipping through the pages, you'll come up with all kinds of uses for the various designs.  I found this paper in a book of Ralph Lauren designs.  Any design that has a small element that is designed around a central point (like the papers in the photo below) will work to give your tea bag folding that kaleidoscopic effect. (If you don't have wallpaper sample books to pull from, do a Google search under tea bag folding paper and you'll find several websites offering free designs you can print from your computer).

Be aware that most sample book show the same design in a variety of color schemes, so if you come with a design or idea you like, you can usually make 3 or 4 versions of from the same style papers.

The other part of this package ornament, the embossed doilies are quick and easy to make.  They're a good utility item for crafters to have on hand.  Use them to layer with other elements to dress up gift wrapped packages.

If you're new to embossing, click here for basic how-to instructions first.

Make the embossed doilies:
Place doily on a piece of scrap paper, take ink pad and ink entire surface of the doily.  Take care to get good coverage on all areas of the doily before going on to the next step.  Sprinkle an even coat of embossing powder over doily, tilting and shaking it to get even coverage.  Tap off excess embossing powder.  Take a heat tool and and move it over the doily until the powder melts. Do this both doilies, using different colored embossing powder, and adhere the smaller one over the larger as in the photo.  Tip: Since the center of the large doily will be covered, there no need to waste embossing powder on this portion -- just in and emboss the edges and leave the center white.  This will also help when it comes time to glue the two doilies together.  If you're new to embossing, click here for basic how-to instructions first.

Make the tea bag folding portion of the package ornament:
Take a square paper punch (or a paper trimmer_ on cut out small squares from paper that features a design that radiates from a central point (like the wallpaper samples in the photo below).

Now it's time to fold a basic "kite."  This is the most important technique in tea bag folding.  the photo below shows step-by-step how to do it.  You can get an additional effect to use in your tea bag folding designs by folding the completed kite in half, lengthwise (although we're not using that technique in this project).

Now it's time to assemble the kites into a circle.  Start with a small paper circle.  Fold it half horizontally and vertically in order to find the center point and put a mark there.  Start by gluing on one of your folded kites with it's point exactly at that  center point of the circle.  Fill in around the circle with the other kites.  You can finish your package ornament right now by gluing this circle into the center of an embossed doily -- or you can build outward by strategically placing other folded kites to build out the circle even further before adhering it to the doilies (shown in the photo below with the layer of dark green kites).

Variation on a Theme:

• Stacked Star Gift Wrap Instructions -- This easy to do gift wrap also makes use of embossed doilies.