School Projects

Fun Projects

Monday, September 23, 2013

Happy Birthday Garland

 Hello to all!  We got home safely from our Road Trip Vacation to Boston, spent about 20 hours recovering, and jumped right into the first week of school.  It was a bit of a whirlwind around here, but with Blair's third birthday party yesterday, I finally got back into the project-ing mood.  On Saturday the big kids wanted to make their kid sister some party decorations, so I handed them construction paper and scissors and taught them how to cut spirals.
 Brynnie was proud to announce that she knew what a spiral was: "Mom, it's like the staircase in the Bunker Hill Monument!"  Yes, my girl, it is, and you should know because you climbed every single one of those steps!
 We also cut some from square shapes for a different look.
 Just a little tip: use cardstock if you can (we didn't have any) - construction paper is a little flimsy for this project.
 I had pinned this garland on Pinterest a while back, but when I tried to follow the website link it didn't work anymore.  Oh well, I usually wing these things anyway.
I stacked six pieces of construction paper, drew circles using a glass, and cut them out.  I got 12 circles on one stack of paper, and I used two stacks.  It was plenty for one garland.  Like the spirals above, I think lightweight cardstock would have been a better choice for this project, but I wasn't going to make a special Hobby Lobby run for it and I just used what was on hand.
I kept the papers stacked in the same order and just rotated which color was on top, 
then I basted them together.  I didn't know how my machine would handle six sheets of paper, but I had no problems at all.
 I spaced the first few sets of circles about four inches apart, but that looked silly, so the rest are all about half an inch apart.   It looks much better, right?
 After all the circles were sewn on (it took about 20 minutes), I "fluffed" the circles by grabbing about half the papers (I did not count, that is why it was "about half") and pinching them one way while pinching the other half the other way.  They popped back open, separating into the different colors and sort of spinning on the threads.
 Then it was time to decorate for the party!
 And make a cake.  Since Blair's nick-name is "Brownie" everyone thought that making frosted Brownies was the best choice for cake.
 She loved her party!
 And for those who didn't like brownies, the other birthday girl (Me) requested an angel food cake with yellow frosting.
Happy Birthday, Blair!

3 comments:

Jessica said...

LOVE the garland. Sewing on paper...what a concept! The spirals are cool too. I can't believe Blair is already 3!

~ Tandis ~ said...

I was going to tell you at the party how pretty everything looked but got distracted. Nice work everyone! How nice to have the other kids work on their sister's party decor, definitely encourages thoughtfulness.

Dana said...

Isn't it cool what a little bit of colored paper and happy people can do? Who needs expensive decor?