The main thing in any pre-holiday preparation is to create the right mood! Making the room in the right style, we achieve vivid emotions among the guests and all those present. And if the participants of the holiday directly happened to create such beauty with their own hands, success is guaranteed! Especially when it's children.
If you came up with the idea of decorating a house for the holiday (not only for the New Year), then the good news is for you: there are a lot of options for making garlands of paper, and they make out quickly and easily. And if you involve a child in the process, it will also be fun! So, let's begin.
What do we need?
We stock up with colored paper, scissors, strong threads (ribbons, ropes), a hole punch, double-sided tape (you can replace it with glue). It’s good if you have curly scissors or a curly hole punch. Even better if a sewing machine is available, although you can do without it.
All handicrafts can be found in special stores selling scrapbooking goods. If there is no such store nearby, an online order is possible. Using a figured hole punch for large holes or special scissors, it is possible to prepare a large number of paper figures in the form of snowflakes, Christmas trees, stars, etc. strung on a thread or ribbon, they form elegant and original garlands.
If you are at a loss with a process such as paper cutting, figure templates can be found in huge numbers. After downloading and printing any of them, it is enough to attach to paper and cut. To the rope (twine or ordinary yarn), the obtained workpieces are glued, attached with a machine seam, or holes are made in them through which the thread is stretched.
The simplest garland of paper: diagram and description of work
Let's start with the most simple jewelry, which almost all young artists can make. One of the simplest options is a garland of rainbow ribbons. Take double-sided paper of all possible colors, a ruler, scissors and a thread with a needle (or a sewing machine, whoever has it).
Each sheet is folded in half and cut with scissors. Using a ruler, strips of the same width are marked, about a centimeter and a half. Sheets are cut along marked lines.
The resulting ribbons are grouped by color, for example, you can take the solar spectrum as a basis. Then in the center they are sewn on a typewriter or simply sewn together manually. If you are afraid to entrust the needle to the young artist, you can simply stick the strips to the central thread.
Little tricks
How to make garlands of paper fluffy and voluminous? Very simple - the thread should be twisted several times during hanging.
Colored paper can be replaced with strips of shiny foil or bright candy wrappers folded into strips. The last option is original and very practical - there is much to add to the wrappers from sweets eaten for the whole previous year.
Strips of paper can be replaced by circles, triangles, any flat figures. On an ongoing basis, you can use such a garland in the interior by cutting out elements from strips of plastic and placing in a kitchen or a nursery. Placed vertically, it looks better. At the bottom, you should attach a small load - for example, a button.
Chain garland
Another, completely uncomplicated, but at the same time elegant and original garland of colored paper is a chain of ringlets. Again we take scissors, sheets of colored paper, a pen or pencil, a ruler and PVA glue. We likewise draw paper on strips 2-3 cm wide, cut it. Then we sequentially connect all the strips into rings, passing each next through the previous ring and connecting the ends with glue. In this way, any desired length can be obtained.
Strips can be selected by alternating the selected colors, one and two-tone - there are many options! Even a very small baby will cope with this task, and how much joy the creative process will bring!
The links for the paper chain can be made curly, if each of the sheets of paper is folded in half, and then already draw the selected template on it. All other details are cut out on it in the right amount.
A garland is glued together with a thread of each link in the next, also bent in half.
Great idea for the new year.
Christmas paper garlands can be vertical. Let us craft an original and very simple decoration in the form of such a vertical Christmas tree garland. Paper for it can be taken not only green, but also silver, gold or any other. First we make a lot of circles. Then we cut each of them into triangular sectors. The resulting triangles need to be rolled up in the shape of a cone, after which they are alternately strung on a thread or fishing line.
Such elements can decorate a window, walls or corners of a room or hang them above a table. Made in large size, they will look great under the ceiling.
Another option is a multi-colored pendant garland for a window. Fold in a stack, and then in half sheets of colored paper. We cut in the shape of a zigzag and fix the ends to fix our product. Then each sheet is expanded, and the finished product is attached, for example, to a curtain. Wonderful corrugated decorations are obtained from folded into an accordion and folded by a triangle paper. Connected by glue or a stapler to each other, they are also able to form voluminous and unusual chains.
Figurine garland
If you want to please your son or daughter with a garland of funny figures (snowmen, animals, favorite characters), then you yourself have to take up paper cutting. Templates can be downloaded and printed on the printer.
By applying the blank to a sheet of paper, you can get as many fun figures as you like, which are then painted and strung on a thread or fishing line. Figures can be cut out of coloring books, unnecessary children's books or magazines.
If you do not want to mess with felt-tip pens or gouache, glue them with bright paper. Then hang in the baby’s room to his joy!
Other ideas for the New Year
By the way, New Year's garlands are made not only of paper. A very popular material is pine cones. After collecting the right amount, you need to attach a ring or loop of wire to the base of each of them, through which then thread the thread or ribbon. Such a garland will not only decorate the room, but also provide you with a wonderful forest aroma for the holiday.
If you can make paper lanterns (this is done by gluing corrugated paper blanks in the shape of a ball - colored paper strips, drawn with a sharp object and folded in an accordion), then here is another great idea.
With the help of such flashlights, the most ordinary electric garland that is in every house is easily transformed. The main thing is to verify its serviceability and fire safety. Finished paper lanterns, matched by color, put on light bulbs. With such "lampshades" they will be transformed in the most magical way!
How to make paper garlands with a surprise inside
A month before the New Year, you can craft and hang a real garland with surprises. All fragments of it are made of corrugated paper, with each of them hiding a small box with a surprise, which should be taken out daily. It can be the most ordinary matchboxes covered with shiny foil. Wrapped in paper, surprise boxes are connected together in the amount of 31 pieces - according to the number of days of the last month of the year.
The “filling” for surprises will be sweets, comic greetings, small toys, directions - where to look for a gift. In a word, all that is enough for your imagination. You can hang a garland both on a Christmas tree, and in a doorway or the like.
The New Year's mood will be perfectly created by "snowfall" - a lot of large and small snowflakes cut from white or silver paper and suspended on thin threads above a Christmas tree or on a window. Hovering, shiny snowflakes will create the complete illusion of Christmas snowfall.
Not only New Year
If you need a garland of paper for a birthday or, say, Valentine's Day or a wedding, themed decoration from bright hearts will come in handy. Neither glue nor scissors are needed for its manufacture. All you need is strips of bright colored paper (ideally scarlet) and a stapler.
How to make garlands of paper in the form of hearts? The sheets are cut into stripes about 2 centimeters wide and about 15 cm long. Each strip is half the future heart. It should be bent so that one of the ends is turned inward and forms with the other exactly the same, located symmetrically, a deepening of the top of the heart. The lower ends, connected in pairs, close to the bottom, and the sharp lower tip of each heart is inserted into the upper recess of the other. Everything is attached with a stapler. It turns out a bright beautiful garland of hearts interconnected.
Hearts can be made multi-layered if you put inside each other, made of stripes shorter and contrasting color. The connection principle is the same. You can collect hearts in a horizontal garland, if you chop them with a stapler on the sides. Such a delicate garland of hearts will look especially elegant if inside we place shiny paper of different colors or foil.