I have stated before that I usually like the ‘prettier’ halloween. Glittered skulls, pretty potions, mystical & magical versus ghouls and gore is more up my alley. However, this year I just wasn’t feeling it. I even had ravens, black tulle, and lots of green glitter all ready to go. Instead I opted to make a huge mess with paint and plaster.
I think once you have a giant eye attached to your mantel, you kinda have to continue with the theme.
In comes spider webs and zombie candles. Lots of spider webs…
And lots of zombie candles…
Best part? My kids and husband didn’t even bat an eyelash at the giant evil eye. I think they are immune to Mama’s decorating insanity.
My youngest son turned 1 last week. I’d love to say I had it all together, realized that Dr. Seuss’ 100th birthday was occurring and picked the perfect theme for Conlan’s First Birthday. Alas, I would be lying… I wanted a Dr. Seuss themed birthday for McClain’s first (two years ago) and ordered the licensed plates, napkins, etc. The decorations came exactly one day after his party and were promptly shoved in the basement. I got my Dr. Seuss theme on the second go-around.
To complement the purchased party items I made a few decorations. Some Seussian-like trees for the wrapped box centerpiece and hand-dyed crepe paper ruffles.
While, I imagine that very few people will need to recreate the trees I think I may just give a run-down on how to make them next week. It might be fun to do something whimsical like that for Christmas.
Balloons and Streamers! Can’t have a birthday without them.
The guests (adults and kids alike) enjoyed the balloons. They made great decorations in the colors of red, white, turquoise, and yellow & doubled as entertainment. Everyone seemed to enjoy the basic snacks and of course a color themed cake. Conlan, seemed to enjoy all the extra attention.
Okay… Maybe Conlan enjoyed the balloons more. Oddly, he was not smiles about the cake.
While, the Dr. Seuss theme looked great and added nice color pops to the family photos (yes, I keep my friends off my blog) I did manage to miss getting one awesome picture. The cake smash! Why? Because Conlan was totally NOT about it. He stuck one hand in, and looked at me to wipe it off. Patrick gave him a taste of the icing, and he promptly made a face like it tasted horrible. Clearly he is missing some important sweet-tooth gene I should have passed to him. Anyway, enjoy one more photo of decoration details and scroll down for the connected tutorials.
Creating a thick tissue paper fringed garland add a lot of texture to my Spring Photo Wall. As an added bonus one single sheet of tissue paper will give you 4-6 feet of garland depending on how puffy you want to make it. The picture below shows a single sheet of yellow tissue paper turned into the piece of garland:
If anyone has a shorter name for this project please speak up!
Supplies
Tissue paper
Scissors
Sewing Machine
Step 1
Cut a single sheet of tissue paper into thirds down the long side of the paper. Because I am lazy I folded mine in half to cut as you can see in the photo. After cutting the paper into thirds fold each third down the long/lengthwise side. This makes cutting the fringe much easier.
I know that is a lot of folding cutting instructions… But basically make each piece as long as possible.
Step 2
This is either the very easy or very time consuming part of the project. Cutting the fringe. I stacked all three pieces that were folded in half to cut the fringe. Sure that is six layers… But six layers of tissue paper is still pretty easy to cut. You might not I have some awesome fringe scissors in the photos. You can cut them one at a time, but for 12 dollars fringe scissors are awesome. You’ll see that I left a lot of room in the middle. I’ll explain why in the final step.
I’m just going to call these scissors of awesomeness.
Step 3
Unfold the tissue paper till each piece is flat and lay it on the sewing machine with the fringe on either side. For more detailed directions on gathering you can see the post on making Easy Crepe Paper Ruffles. But basically if you have a long stitch length and mess with the thread tension the tissue paper will gather itself a but to make the fringe fluffy and thick. When you get to the end of the first sheet just overlap about an inch and keep going sewing to make as long as a garland as you need. And then you are done!
I’m lazy so sometimes a little of the fringe gets sewn in the middle. Trust me it doesn’t ruin the effect.
Notes
Sometimes when I was sewing really fast the feeder teeth would rip a little hole in the tissue. It isn’t noticeable once the garland is done. The thick fringe hides any lazy mistakes imperfections.
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Want to make a cheap, quick and easy garland? Then enter tissue paper. The green garland in the picture is the one we are going to learn how to make:
Okay, so technically there are two green garlands in this photo… Focus on the bright one.
Supplies
Tissue paper
Scissors
Step 1
Cut long thin strips out of the sheet of tissue paper. I made mine around 2 inches in thickness. Feel free to eyeball it, you are going to be twisting it anyway. So no cutting judges will be out to check your work.
Do as I say and not as I do. An astute observer might note I cute these on the shorter side. It still works but you have to attach a ton more pieces together.
Step 2
If you folded the paper because you are lazy to make the strips quicker to cut then unfold each piece until it is a single thickness. Take one end and begin to twist the paper through your fingers. Gross, but useful tip: If you lick your fingers the twist will take tighter. I mean you could probably dampen them with a sponge, but really…
If there was ever an action shot. This is it. #sarcasm
Step 3
Every 6 inches or so leave a gap in the twist of about two inches. This will make the puff part. When you come to the end of the strip overlap another piece by about 1 to 2 inches and twist it in. It will take a little planning as you near each end so a puff doesn’t occur right as you are trying to add another piece.
Overlap, pinch, and twist. That is all there is to it.
Notes
The tissue paper is light enough that the twist holds all the pieces together without glue or tape. However, I wouldn’t try scaling any castle walls with it. Also one piece of tissue paper makes 12-16 feet of length. So this project is very inexpensive. Also to see more details of the garland in action you can go to my Spring Garland Photo Wall post.
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There are thousands of how to’s and tutorials on making crepe paper ruffles. But really it is easy to make this gathered garland. Each tutorial out there offers many good tips, like gather foots, pleating etc. But in reality if you can thread a sewing machine (or con someone into threading it for you) and press the foot you can get a ruffle. You don’t really even need to be able to sew straight. It is that easy. Plus who isn’t thinking about feminine ruffles and dainty pink items on Valentine’s day?
So if you want to make these crepe garlands follow along:
Supplies
Crepe Paper Streamers
Thread
Sewing Machine
Wine/Beer/Mixed drink (Just a suggestion for most crafts)
Step 1
Grab some extra crepe paper streamers. Especially if you have hand-dyed yours, use some extra at first because you will need to play with two settings on your machine. One is the length of the stitch and the second the thread tension. I set the length pretty long and the tension high. When you get it right the paper will come out the back automatically ruffled as you sew. The tension will also make your ruffles tighter or looser. Just pick what you like.
I bet this is the most exciting picture you have ever seen in a tutorial.
Step 2
Start the crepe paper a little past the presser foot. You waste a little paper but it keeps it from getting stuck in the feeders. Then “Sew, Sew like the wind” (Please tell me someone else is a fan of the Three Amigos). The last picture demonstrates how to hold two different colors together and sew off the roll. Doubling the crepe paper makes a thicker ruffle. I like to mix a light and dark color together. Yep, it really was that easy.
Easy as 1, 2, 3.
Variations On The Theme
While, it is very easy to make these ruffled crepe paper garlands. You still have the option of adding some variation to them. Here are two different options Fringed Ruffle Garland and Twisty Ruffle Garland:
Fringed Ruffle Garland
Take the completed ruffle garland and fold it in half. Make tons of tiny snips down each side making sure to leave the middle intact. The ruffles will cause some little pieces to be snipped out but it adds an overall fluffiness to the crepe garland. You can see the completed fringed garland in the first picture, the top one in pink.
Yeah those are some awesome fringing scissors. If you are doing more than a few feet they are totally worth the $12 investment.
Twisty Ruffle Garland
Simply move the stitches back and forth as you sew. This makes the garland automatically twist around when you hang it.
This is a good one to do if you happen to not be able to sew straight or you imbibed any of the wine listed in the above supplies.
See it really was easy. No pulling threads or special presser feet. Just crepe paper, wine, and someone to thread the dang machine.
Want to see what you can do with all this crepe paper? Check out the inspiration for this tutorial in my Spring Garland Post.
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This post was submitted to 504 Main. Where you can find more create crafts, DIY, and recipes.
