Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Christmas Bulbs Garland

christmas light strand tutorial 2

Most of you know I have not posted in a long time because I am full time painting now!!
You can see my watercolor paintings here!! 

But... this project was just too cute not to share.
You can find the step by step directions with photos at: http://www.stubbornlycrafty.com/blog/paper-christmas-lights-garland/

christmas light strand tutorial 3
Supply List:
  • Gray cardstock
  • Colored cardstock in colors of choice
  • Glue gun or paper glue
  • Hole punch
  • Scoring blade or other scoring tool
  • Twine, ribbon, or yarn
Cutting Your Cardstock:
  • Cut out your gray cardstock in 1 1/4″ x 4″ strips
  • Cut out your colored cardstock in 1″ x 8.5″ strips
Putting Our Lights Together:
christmas light strand tutorial 4
Take your gray cardstock and score it every 1/2″. Make two marks a half inch down at 1 1/4″ and 2 3/4″.ξFold your paper on the score lines and use a paper punch to punch two holes where we added pen marks.
christmas light strand tutorial 5
Take the two ends, overlap one 1/2″ flap onto the other end’s last 1/2″ flap and glue.
christmas light strand tutorial 6
Now onto shaping the bulbs. My eight year old came home from school and I recruited her to help. Ignore her out of lunch money stamps.
Take your strip of 1″ x 8.5″ cardstock and fold in half lightly pressing at the crease.
christmas light strand tutorial 7

Pinch your two ends together and push the paper onto your palm. When you bring it back up it should resemble a Christmas light. If not try it again until you get the shape you like.
christmas light strand tutorial 8
While still pinching your ends together use your hole puncher to punch a hole through both layers about a 1/4″ down. Make sure it’s centered.
christmas light strand tutorial 9
Now let’s start stringing our lights together. Stick it through one hole of your gray light top and then insert your bulb in the center and string your twine through both holes of your bulb. You can push your bulb paper up high to make it easier.
christmas light strand tutorial 10
String it through the other side of your gray cardstock. Repeat for as many lights as you need to get the garland length you’d like. Make sure to keep the side you glued in the back on all the bulbs while stringing them together.
christmas light strand tutorial 11
And that’s it. Now display them somewhere fabulous and admire your quick and easy Christmas lights garland. I think they turned out pretty darn adorable. I hope you do too.
christmas light strand tutorial 1
christmas light strand tutorial 12