How to make a circle garland for Christmas

How to make a circle garland for Christmas.

I love to decorate for Christmas but I have to admit that I am a bit of a tinsel snob….don’t hate me! Each to their own and I do have some but it’s not so sparkly different shades of green with red ribbons on it. If I had a more modern house I think I’d embrace something more modern but it’s hard to mix modern with the low ceilings, wonky walls, fireplace and beams of our cottage.

We were once again sent, this month, our Bostik Bloggers craft box. It was full of goodies. I love crafting and stationary and I’ve so enjoyed receiving these boxes and trying the many different Bostik products.

When I opened the box, I was immediately drawn to some gorgeous scrapbooking paper. I see it in shops but as I don’t scrapbook, I’m never sure what to do with it. I soon came up with an idea though. A paper circle garland. It’s a really simple yet very effective craft. It looks lovely when hung and obviously can be made for any occasion. Once you have your circles cut out, it’s really easy.

Top tip: Plan to cut out a total number of circles that can be divided by 5 or 3. Why? You can make two shapes with your circles. One made with 3 circles or 5. The once made with 5 are really pretty and I would aim for that but I didn’t have enough paper, nor enough strength in my hands to cut all the circles out! You can buy punches that make a good sized circle and I think I’ll invest in the future but for now, it was scissors for me.

Start by gathering everything that you need. I initially planned to use some bells that I had and so they ar in the picture but I decided against it. We used 4 different types of craft paper and an A4 piece of silver card. The card was a little thick and so the fold creased but you don’t notice when it’s hung. Choose something to draw around and get cutting out your circles!

For this project, I tried the Bostik Fine and Wide Glu Pen which is a clear gel. It’s really easy to use and flowed easily. You don’t need big muscles to squeeze it out which is great if children are crafting or if you have arthritic hands like me! We used it with the thin nossle this time and it was perfect.

You simply take off the lid of the side you want to use – thick or thin. The glue didn’t cause any warping of the paper or glue that I find can happen sometimes with a wet glue.

Once you have everything together, start by folding each circle in half so that the pattern is on the inside of the fold. Next, choose 3 or 5 circles, depending on the style that you are making and stick all three, one on top of another, as half circles. If you only put the glue o the outside edge and miss the middle, you are supposed to be able to thread each decoration onto the ribbon or string that you have chosen but I prefered to stick each one onto the string as I didn’t fancy a struggle with each one. It’s a bit hard to describe but you basically stick all three together, then open out the bottom circle to create the middle, lay the string inside and then stick the last two halves together with the string inside. Hopefully the picture will explain better than I am able.

Repeat until you have run out of circles and you should have a pretty garland to hang anywhere in your home. I hung ours above our mantle but think we may make more to cross the living room.

You could easily do this for any celebration through out the year, even using wrapping paper. My little man would like a Paw Patrol Birthday party and so I’m going to try to make some of these to match.