In my last post I showed you lots of party ideas using Make + Print stickers, bottles and lots of other great products that we have in the stores and online right now. I made some paper straw garlands for the party and in this post I'm going to show you how I made them.
I made two different paper straw garlands.
The first one, you can see it at the top of the picture, was very simple with paper straws cut into 1" lengths, large glass beads and foam shapes all strung together on baker's twine.
Please note that you can use whatever type of beads that you want ... glass, plastic, foam, felt ... just make sure that the colours of the beads work with the colours of your straws.
The second garland, bottom of the picture, was a little more involved because I added small clothepins to the garland so that I could hang pictures or letters (to spell out words). I could have left the clothespin plain but of course I had to decorated mine. I used premade fabric flowers that we are currently selling in the Toronto store (in the Creative Studio area).
As soon as I finished making the second garland with the clothespins I realized that this party decoration would make a great craft project for the kids tp make at the party. The garlands the children made could be used as a decoration in their bedrooms to hang art work or school awards/certificates.
I packaged the paper straw garland craft kits in clear little take out boxes. You can see that I added another one of the stickers that I designed and printed using the Make + Print stickers, a tag and some ribbon to decorate the take out box.
Here's what I put into the craft kit ... baker's twine with a large (blunt) needle already threaded (so that the kids don't have to ask you), assorted beads (you can see that I used clear plastic beads for this kit), paper straws precut into 1" lengths, small wood clothespins and paper or fabric flowers (you don't have to decorate the clothespins so the flowers are optional). The only other supplies that you will need is some glue if you are adding flowers to the clothespins (white glue is fine) and a pair of scissors to cut the baker's twine at the end if it is too long.
The instructions for these are very simple.
1. Glue the flower to the clothespin as shown and let dry.
2. Tie a loop and knot at the end of the baker's twine. You will need an extra large knot so that the first bead you add to the twine does not fall off.
3. Then start stringing together the beads, paper straws and clothespins. Make sure that you string each of the clothepins the same way on the baker's twine so that they all face the same way when you are done.
4. When you get to the end, make another loop for hanging and tie an extra large knot next to the last bead so that it does not fall off.
Hint: I created a pattern so that every colour and element was spaced out along the garland.
If you decide to make these as a craft project at the party with the kids make sure that you make one before the party. That way you will know what you are doing and the kids will have a sample to look at.
Have a great week!
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