My sister-in-law is getting married soon and decorations are of course going to be needed for a bridal shower, and I just don’t have it in me to pay for anything that I know I can just make myself! I knew I wanted to make some garlands, because they are the easiest way to dress up a room, but so many garland ideas were either way too much work or kind of “kiddish,” and that would not fly for my oh-so-sophisticated sister! Then I thought of doing a grown-up version of a paper ball with white and gold that would be sure to go with anything. Heck, it'll probably work for her wedding reception too if she wanted!
If you saw my last blog post on paper weaving, you may be seeing a similarity; there are just so many things you can do with paper strips and they are so versatile and easy! Go ahead and customize it in whatever way you want and follow along to see how I made mine.
Here’s what you’ll be needing:
- Cardstock Warehouse Cardstock Papers in Pure White Foundations and Gold Mirror
- Paper slicer (you could also cut by hand with scissors)
- Hot glue gun or any permanent adhesive
- Twine or string
Begin by slicing your strips along the long side of your paper in ½ inch thick strips. This is where you could also customize by giving it extra thick or thin strips. With my garland, I knew I would need two gold strips and four white strips per ball, and I knew I wanted about ten balls for the garland, so even with my limited math knowledge I knew that I needed 20 gold strips and 40 white strips.
After cutting your strips comes the gluing. I started with the gold strips because I wanted to build the white strips around it. Just overlap each end of the strip about a half an inch to make a circle and glue them together. Then glue the next strip by overlapping one end perpendicularly on top of where you glued the other strip, and then connect the other side in a circle as well. Once you have finished the gold, start to glue on the white, again wrapping it around and gluing one end, but this time not completely perpendicular. After doing two strips of white in between each gold strip, you are done with the hardest part! You can do less or more strips depending on the level of coverage you're wanting.
Now just weave your string through your ball openings and voila, you now have a simple, yet sophisticated garland that will work for so many occasions (not just your sister-in-law’s bridal shower). I am totally stealing it back once the party is over to reuse!
What are you paper crafting this week? We'd love to see! Tag us in your creations on Facebook and Instagram to be featured on our account!
Happy Crafting!