Paper Christmas Light Garland

I love Garland!! I don’t know why I just do. I was actually making these for ornaments originally, However last-minute turned it into garland. So really these cute little paper light bulbs would look great anywhere. Be careful when string them or hanging them as the ends are pretty flimsy.

Well let’s get started.

Supplies Needed:

• 1 sheet of red construction paper
• 1 sheet of white construction paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Red glitter
• Silver glitter
• Gold glitter glue
• Hole punch
• String
• Black puffy Paint

Instructions:

1. Draw or take a template of a classic style Christmas light bulb and trace it 10 times on each color construction paper.
2. Cut out your light bulbs
3. take all your red colored light bulbs and brush your glue on just the light bulb section of the light bulb.
4. After you glue about 3 or 4 take your red glitter and sprinkle it over the light bulb making sure to cover all the glue.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 or the rest of your red light bulbs.
6. After you are done putting the glitter on the bulb take your gold glitter glue and cover the part of the light bulb that would screw in.
7. Set aside all your red bulbs to dry for about 30 min.
8. While your red bulbs are drying repeat steps 3-7 for the white construction paper light bulbs using the sliver glitter for the bulb part and continuing to use the gold glitter glue like you used for the red bulbs.
9. After your 30 min or so are done for your red bulbs take your black puffy paint and draw 3 lines across the bottom part where the bulb would screw in.
10. Then set aside again to dry for about 4-6 hours
11. Repeat steps 9 and 10 for the silver bulbs.
12. After your drying time has passed take your bulbs and repeat the whole process on the other side.
13. When everything is done drying it’s time to string your bulbs and hang them up. Watch them sparkle.

 Total time should take around 8-10 hours, However 90% of it is drying time.

For the people who are following me or are just finding this blog I have spent a total of  $20.00 on supplies to make all the Christmas decorations and crafts for 2011. This will make the 13th project working off the same materials. The supplies consisted of:

• 200 sheets of construction paper (Large Pack $3.49)
• Big bottle of Elmers glue ($1.10)
• 1- 4 oz bottle of red glitter ($2.25)
• 1- 4 oz bottle of silver glitter ($2.25)
• 1 -4 oz bottle of gold glitter ($2.25)
• 1 -sm Tulip puffy paint black ($.97)
• 1 -sm Tulip puffy paint red ($.97)
• 1 -sm Tulip puffy paint white ($.97)
• 10 pack- of glitter glue ($1.00)
• 50 sheets of christmas colored tissue paper($2.99)
• 1 pack of Christmas colored fuzzy sticks ($1.00)

 total $19.24 then add some tax.

Everything else was stuff I found lying around my house or was given to me for free. I just wanted to show for a small amount of money you can really make your house full of beautiful decorations and keepsake gift ideas.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Please comment back and share your paper Christmas bulbs. I would love to see what you did with them.

 Happy Holidays!

Snowman Pop-up Christmas Card

 

 

The other week I was trying to decide whether to send out Christmas Cards. This was always something I had wanted to do but just never got around too. Well this year was no different. With finals just wrapping up this last week I felt like I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I am so glad this semester is finally over. Now on to the week before Christmas and I only finished one card.  Now that all my crafting material and crafting area is set up in an accessible area, I feel a lot more organized then I did before I started this blog site. My wonderful Husband arranged things so I would be able to have my area where I can still see whats going on with our little one if he is playing with his toys. With all this in mind I fully intend on getting those Christmas Cards out next year!!

Well on to the tutorial…I took a few pictures with this one because I think that a picture might better explain the process.

Supplies Used:

• 1/2 Sheet of Blue Construction Paper
• 1/2 Sheet of White Construction Paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Glitter
• Markers or Crayons
• Ruler
• Pen

Instructions:

1. I had taken a Piece of white printer paper and cut it in half the long way.  The White Computer paper really was  just  not strong enough which is why in the supplies needed I suggested to use white construction paper. Oh and I had gone back and straitened my edge also. Write down the length of the White Paper.
2. Cut between 1/8 to 1/2 inch on each short end of the white paper.
3. The next step is to fold your white paper in half. You will also want to take a measurement of the width of the white paper at this time.
4. Then take out your template of whatever shape you want to pop out of the card and trace it on to the white paper. I used a snowman and then free-handed the trees. You can freehand the thing if you want. I just so happen to have a bunch of these templates from other projects that I just recently made.
5. Next bend your objects forward slightly and the access paper to the back.
6. Open card slightly and tuck your object inside and make sure your access is still sticking up
7. Then cut out off the access.
8. On fold the entire thing so that it’s stretched out to its full length.
9. Fold your card back up so that the object folds inside to the 2 solid white cover pieces.
10. Next take your Blue colored Construction paper and cut this in half the long ways also. The width of the blue paper should be measured between 1/8 to 1/2 inch wider then the blue paper and 1/8 to 1/2 inch longer then the white paper.
11. Fold your Blue piece of paper in half.
12. Then stick in your white paper inside the blue paper to make sure your blue paper is sized up correctly with your white paper. 
13. Take your white paper out and place it on a scrap piece of paper or table.
14. Color, Glitter, Decorate your object and write your message on the bottom or right hand solid section of the white paper. Set aside to dry if needed.
15. Decorate and embellish the front of your blue paper.
16. If your paper needed to dry or even if it didnt now you can take your white paper and glue it inside your blue paper.

 I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the pop-up snowman card. It was really fun to make. I just wish I would have had more time to get the rest of them done so I could have sent them out to the family. Please comment back and share your christmas pop-up cards.

  I hope you and your family have a great holiday season!

Pop-Up Christmas Tree Card

 

 

So I decided to get some other things done this week that I have been meaning to get done instead of focusing on tree decorations. So I started my Christmas Cards. As I was thinking about what my christmas cards should look like I had come across a site that was selling die cut pop up christmas cards. Seeing how we are family on a budget I thought why not try it myself. So I decided to try something simple first. What could be easier than a Christmas Tree it’s just a triangle, and it didn’t turn out to bad. So I thought I would share. It’s something even the kids could do.

Supplies Needed:

• 1 sheet of green paper or a white piece of paper if you want to color in your tree.
• 1 colored sheet for the outside of the card
• scissors
• glue

 

Instructions:

1. Cut your colored sheet to the size you want your card make sure you fold it in half to make sure its the size you want.
2. Then measure your green or white paper and measure it so that the paper will be 1/8 to 1/4 shorter on all sides then your outer layer.
3. Next you are going to want to cut your green paper and then fold that in half.
4. With you green paper folded in half on the edge with the fold take your scissors and cut a line going diagonally down the paper.(Like a side of a triangle.) Then go down a little lower and cut the trunk and the bottom of the tree. When you get to the bottom corner of the tree don’t cut all the way. (This is the part that will keep it attached and allow it to pop out.)
5. The next step is open the green paper and push the tree towards you then close the green paper in half.
6. Then take your outer layer and wrap that around the green sheet.
7. Open them up together and you can see the color shadow behind your pop-up tree.
8. Glue your green sheet to your outer layer.
9. Decorate with any other embellishments

Thats it. Pretty easy. Please comment back and remember to come back and share your pop-up Christmas Cards

Paper Christmas Tree Sun Catcher

This turned out to actually be a nice looking decoration for the windows during the holiday season, or really anywhere that is well lite. As this project seemed to be a little more detailed and time-consuming then a few of my more recent projects, it was still just as fun!! This is a project where really you can use anything you want to decorate the tree, whether it be little foam stickers, crayons, or paper. The kids will love it!

The whole idea of this project is to make it appear that when the tree is held up to light that the holes where the tissue paper belong act as the tree lights. So then let get started!!

Supplies Needed:

• 1-2 sheets of green paper (depending on how large you want your christmas tree, However just remember you have to get a whole punch around the tree)
• 1 sheet of brown paper
• 1 sheet of yellow or gold paper
• 1 sheet of each color tissue paper you want for your lights
• Scissors
• Glue
• Glitter (For the tree garland, your choice in color. I used gold)

 

Instructions:

1. Take your 2 sheets of green paper and trace of draw 2 identical Christmas Trees.
2. With the brown paper cut a small rectangle for the tree trunk.
3. On the yellow or gold piece of paper  draw or trace a small star.
4. Cut all your pieces out
5. Then take your 2 green trees and line them up so the edges are lined up evenly all the way around.
6. After your edges are lined up take your single hole punch and start punching a few holes scattered in different places around the trees(Make sure your holes line up on both pages). To punch some holes in the middle you will need to lightly fold both pieces of your paper without making a hard crease in the process.
7. After your holes are punched take one of the trees with the pen traced side up and lay it in front of you. (It’s time to put the lights on the tree!)
8. Take your colored tissue paper and cut little squares about 1 inch by 1 inch.
9. After you cut out your tissue paper to the number of holes you put on your tree lay them out they way you want them.
10. When you are done laying out your lights glue them down to the tree. (Warning don’t use a lot of glue when tacking these down the tissue paper will start to dissolve.
11. If you prefer your lights to have a deeper color and a little less light shine through copy the same pattern on the other tree just make sure you put the tissue paper in the right holes so they colors and the tree still line up.
12. After you have glued your tissue paper down to you trees and let them dry a little its time to assemble the tree together. lay you first tree so the tissue side is the up side then glue your brown rectangle at the bottom of the tree for the tree trunk.
13. Then glue on the other tree tissue side on the down side. Make sure when you lay this down all your edges line up so the light will shine through the tissue paper covered holes.
14. Now its time to decorate the tree!!!
15. Take your glue and draw wavy lines across the tree where you want the garland to go across.
16. Then sprinkle your glitter over the glue making sure to cover all the glue areas. Shake off access glitter.
17. Color or stick on your tree ornaments and add anything else you would like for your tree decorations.
18. Now take your yellow or gold star and glue that to the top of the tree.
19. I added some light gold glitter glue that I had left over from a past project to the top of the star for a little extra texture but that’s up to you.

That is it!! Take your tree and hold it up to the window or a light and watch your Christmas Tree Glow. My little one really thought this was a neat decoration, seeing how Christmas lights are one of his most favorite things to look at this time of year.

Please comment back and remember to come back and share your Christmas Tree Sun Catcher Projects.

Paper Santa

This is another one of those Christmas classic crafting ideas. However believe it or not I just so happen to not have paper plates in the house when I decided to start this project, so we improvised. My little one really enjoyed this project but once again, we learned a valuable lesson about leaving things to dry where the big bad kitty would find it funny to attack the tip of Santa’s hat and completely tore off the first hat so I just cut it down and replaced it with another. This time to make sure I set it somewhere the cat could not destroy it while it was drying. Another thing that some might find a little funny is if you are wondering about why santa looks SHOCKED well this santa is sitting right above where my son’s time out chair is and Santa is just shocked that someone would have to sit in the naughty chair.  No really I was just really bad at trying to draw a mouth that’s just the end result. HAHA

Well let’s get started.

Supplies Needed:

• I used a peach colored piece of paper but you can go the classic way and use a paper plate too.
• 1-2 sheets of white paper
• 1 sheet of red paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Cotton balls (20-40)
• black marker

Instructions:

1. First I traced a large circle out of the peach paper of grab a paper plate.
2. On the white paper you will need to draw a beard, a mustache, 2 ovals for the eyes, and a rectangle that is the width of the paper and about 1 to 1 1/4 inch high for the brim of Santa’s hat.
3. On the red piece of paper draw the shape of a santa hat and a smaller red over for Santa’s Lips.
4. Now that you are done drawing all your objects its time to cut them out.
5. The next step is to take your peach circle or paper plate and lay that down first.
6. Then Lay down they red hat piece
7. Next lay down the white beard piece make sure that everything lines up together fairly nicely width wise and make sure the beard and the hat overlap your circle by about a half-inch to an inch but make sure you leave enough space for the face to fit in there properly.
8. After you lined everything up its time to secure them to the circle with your glue.
9. After you glue the hat and beard on lay the eye pieces down, the red oval for the lips, and then the mustache. Try and tuck the very bottom of the red oval under the edge of the beard. Just make sure the lips arent overlapping on top of the beard. Also  make sure the mustache is lined up with where the beard ends on the face and is just above the top of the red oval or slightly overlapping it.
10. Then secure them in place.
11. After you do that you will take your white rectangle piece and lay it so that it’s just covering the very top of the eyes and overlaps the red hat.
12. Next take your black marker and draw in the eye balls, draw a nose, and draw the rest of the lips. (I am not very artistic when it comes to drawing facial features as you could see from the above picture.)
13. When you are done securing all your pieces in place it is then time for the fun part, Gluing on the cotton balls.
14. Glue the cotton balls onto the beard first starting with an outline around the edge and work your way into the middle
15. Then glue your cotton balls onto the mustache making sure you cover the whole mustache.
16. After that glue more cotton balls onto the white rectangle for the brim of Santa’s hat.
17. Last but not least glue one or two cotton balls onto the tip of Santa’s hat.

All Done!

Please comment back and remember to come back and share your Classic Paper Santa Projects