Spring has been peeking its elusive little head out these past few days, and seeing actual real-life sunshine makes me want to get crafty and host little parties. And what is having a little get-together without also sorting out a few homemade decorations? Just kidding, I never really have time to decorate like I want to when I have guests over because really…we just go straight to the good stuff: the food and drinks. So this craft is perfect for people like me: good intentions when it comes to party decorations, but time-consuming projects never seem to make the cut.
A cute DIY tissue paper garland adds a little touch of “I put effort into welcoming you into my home for this gathering” while at the same time, doesn’t seem like you spent all of your free evenings preparing for it. Because you spent more time making the food and drink for The perfect apéro: cocktail hour for example.
This garland comes together in under an hour (probably faster if you’re not sipping red wine and watching The Good Wife at the same time), and is DIY-able for even the most anti-DIYers out there.
It’s super versatile and keeps for a long time, so this garland can be used and re-used as you want. I’ve got mine hanging above my desk, for a little bit of color, but the possibilities are endless! You could even do little mini-garlands to decorate your desk/cubicle at your office, or use them in a kid’s room.
If you end up trying this, I’d love to see photos of your results!
Instructions:
- Choose your color scheme and purchase your tissue paper. I like to use 3-4 different colors, and do a “light-to-dark” repeating pattern.
- Roll out your tissue paper on a flat surface, and make sure that all edges are lined up. If you want smaller tassels, then you’ll need to cut your paper accordingly in half, fourths, etc.
- Fold your sheets of paper in half to create a center crease. Make sure your sheets are nice and lined up (if they’re not, the tassel will look messy).
- Next, take your paper cutter (or scissors) and cut strips about 1-inch wide going towards the edge stopping around 2 inches from the fold.
- Once you’ve cut the 1-inch strips along the whole edge of the paper, unfold and you will see the middle is still intact.
- Carefully roll the paper tightly down the center crease, until you get to the edge of the paper.
- Tightly twist the rolled paper to create a loop.
- Repeat until you have enough tassels, depending on the size of your garland.
- Take a piece of twine and string the tassels together. If you want to prevent them from sliding around on the string, you can either twist each loop tightly, or tie little knots after you string each tassel.
- Thumbtacks or strong tape work best to hang them on the wall.
Notes: most of the tutorials I found when I was researching this DIY suggest to use scissors to make the cuts. I have professional-grade scissors and I found that they just didn’t work very well. The paper cutter, however, gave me perfectly lined-up cuts, with no damage to the tissue paper. If you don’t have a paper cutter, then scissors will do but go slowly when making the cuts otherwise you’ll end up with raggedy garland. And that’s not a good thing.
For a fuller, sturdier result, try using crepe paper instead of tissue paper. I’ve been using this more and more, and the results are fabulous.
If you do want to use tissue paper, then you’ll need to use several sheets of tissue paper. Otherwise, your tassel will be limp and well… sad. Play around with it until you get it how you want it!
I’m big into online shopping, so got most of my tissue paper from Amazon. You can get lots of colors and sizes, and the price is almost always a little bit cheaper than the big craft store chains.