Friday, January 28, 2011

Festive paper scrap garland


Little makes a room look more festive than a colorful garland, and festive is exactly the look I wanted for the playroom.


I wanted to use fabric, but I definitely have more paper scraps lying around than fabric scraps. Use what you got, right? (Small confession: I did buy a two new pieces of paper to fill in some color gaps.) Plus, I'm just more comfortable working with paper. Me and paper go way back.


I took some rough measurements for how long it needed to be by draping my ribbon around the room. I did this by myself, and probably would have been more precise if I had someone helping me, but it turned out to be more or less pretty accurate.


I took that measurement and calculated how many pieces of paper I would need based on the width of the paper (2.25 inches). I added in a quarter inch width (per piece of paper) to accomodate for the gap between the papers.


After I cut the approximately 100 2.25 x 7 inch pieces I needed, I laid them all out to find a nice randomization. Then I folded all the pieces in half.


I took some 3/8" grossgrain ribbon I had on hand (the same ribbon I used to measure). Then I folded the paper over the ribbon and ran a stitch down the length of the ribbon with a sewing machine, adding papers one by one. A little time-consuming, but easy.


I used these cute birdie hooks to tack up the ends and one of the points in the middle.


Honestly, I think this is what ties the whole playroom together. It makes me smile every time I walk in.

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Check out another paper garland I've made.