Christmas Garland

Since I never posted about this project last Christmas,
I thought I'd share it this Christmas.

Also, because I don't have any Christmas decorations up this year!
But that's what you get when you are out of state kid wrangling for one week,
busy with work the next week, then heading to the farm for over a week for Christmas.
{And getting to see my favorite little sister!!}

 To be honest, I have no idea where the inspiration for the project came from.
If it is from someone out in blogland, please let me know!

Otherwise, it must have been in my head.  :)

To start, I punched out a LOT of circles {in 3 different sizes} and 'flowers' from a coordinated set of scrapbook paper from HobLob {half price, of course!}.
To add some other texture to the piece, I also used brown kraft paper.

By the end, my hand was so sore from all the 'punching'!  But I wasn't done yet.

I then took little stacks of the circles and flowers and put a hole in the middle of them with my Crop-A-Dile.
{Which again, I got at Hobby Lobby, either half price or 40% off.}

Now it was time to string them!

 

Prior to this project, I purchased a BIG needle.  I have no idea what kind it is, but it was great.

The end was fairly dull, which I didn't care about.  My only concern was that I had something that would hold the jute twine in place, but would work to thread/string the cut outs.  

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention.  After I punched out all the shapes and punched the hole in the middle, I crushed/wadded up each of the pieces of paper.  I know I did more than one at a time to make things go faster. 

I did this because it gave more texture to the design in the end.  Otherwise, it just wouldn't have looked the same.  {You can tell they are crinkled in the 1st picture.}

  

Scrapbook paper garland {snake}

On the ends of the garland, I made loops because I used little 3M hooks to hang it.  

 

After I hung it up, I came up with another idea of hanging my Christmas cards from it.

  

Love it!  Had I actually decorated this year, I would have put some scrapbook paper on the clothespins.  

But, maybe that will happen next year.

 This was an easy craft that I did while watching movies.  

It's also one that kids could help out with.  Especially the crumpling of the paper.

One of these years, I think it would be fun to make mini garland to drape around like swags.
I would use a small circle punch only, instead of different sizes.

 What Christmas crafts have you done?

Now, if I could only get going on finishing my nephews gift!  I know he'll love it.  

I just need to {start and} finish it!

FYI....only 3 more days until I get to see my little sister!  :)