How To Cut Simple Floral Shapes From Paper To Make A Party Garland In MInutes!
While I don’t love creating under pressure, it is true that some of my best work has come to light in just that way. I now introduce to you a new idea on the roster that we’ll call Matisse inspired cut paper shapes party garland! You can whip this paper party garland up in mere minutes, assuming you’ve got scissors and the right paper on hand! Picture this: with the party guests arriving in less than fiveteen minutes I still had an empty stretch of string running between two columns and in the center of the room. Yikes! This was exactly the scene on Sunday night just before our community women’s Purim party….. The giant paper peacocks and origami birds were up, with just this last area still bare, hmmm.
I am in charge of the decorations and I have accustomed the crowd to a creative effort each time, sooooooo, what to do? And then the idea struck, cut paper shapes to suggest flowers and leaves! The original theme that I had in mind was “colorful garden” and the other strings running overhead held paper lanterns, so this was an idea worth pulling off. Fortunately a friend was helping — I cut the shapes and she put them up, and the results were great! So happy to have another super quick party decor idea to pull out of my sleeve, and I suggest you give this one a try, maybe in a relaxed fashion? Okay, lets get started, Purim is just around the corner, and these make fun Purim decorations to hang just about anywhere!
As you can see, my super quick paper party garland in hanging in mid-air, which is the perfect application for this as it is two sided. That said, hanging it across a wall also works, though won’t like be quite as successful. Hmmm, not sure about that, I’m about to use these pieces in my home, so I’ll have to get back to you all about that!
You’ll Need:
- colored paper, stock weight, and preferably white on one side
- double stick tape, or even regular clear tape
- scissors
- a colored string
- some adrenaline to pull this off last minute?
How To:
Note: my string was hung on the low side, so my shapes could not be long, but playing with a variety of heights could be great, and/or a variety of sizes, like really big flower shapes and small leaf shapes, or vice versa. Also, while Matisse’s shapes tended to have rounded edges I didn’t have time for that, so my shapes all have sharp points. Whichever you choose, for a less busy result stick with either round edges or sharp points for both the flower and leaf shapes. Then again, give combining them a try that might work as well.
Note #2: Part of the success of this quick decoration is that the white inside peaks through as the two sides are loosely taped. If your paper is not white on one side, the result might be a bit plain, so you may want to add a few very loose strokes of black pen to suggest a leaf vein, or a petal, if you have the time that is!
Okay, now the actual instructions:
- Cut rectangles of paper such that when folded in half you have roughly a square. My pieces of paper were around 8″ x 14″.
- Fold paper in half vertically and then simply cut shapes through both layers, leaving a spine that will sit on top of the string
- Place shapes over string and lightly tape to secure
- Voila!
I can’t wait to try this idea in the future, and in the meantime I’m going to have fun using them to decorate my own home for Purim, yippee!
