Paper Christmas Lights Garland

Shout out to my friend LeDonna for this cute idea - she saw it and sent a picture to me, and I agree with her that it's a fun easy Christmas craft for young and old alike :). Thanks L!

Because I'm a little bit of a perfectionist I didn't want to just wing it if there was someone who had actually figured out exactly how to make these somewhere online, so of course I googled and found a few different ones. I followed these directions and they worked perfectly.

Supplies are few:
- cardstock in a few different colors for the lights, and gray for the tops
- hole punch
-ruler and scorer (scoring isn't necessary but it did make the tops fold easily and look neat)
-glue stick or adhesive of your choice (I used my Stampin' Up rolling glue thingy)
- thick twine to string the lights on, I used about 48"

Directions:
Cut gray cardstock into 1 1/4"x  4" strips
Cut colored cardstock into 1" x 8 1/2" strips
(note I made 15 lights, so I cut 15 gray strips and 15 assorted colors strips).

Score the gray cardstock every 1/2". You could also just fold it neatly every 1/2" and run your fingernail along the edge to give it a sharp crease if you don't have a scorer. 

Make a dot at 1 1/4" and 2 3/4" in (that turns out to be in the middle of the 3rd space and the 6th space, see my picture - I stopped making a dot after the first couple and just eyeballed it). Hole punch on the marks. Fold the paper on the score lines, glue both ends 1/2" flap to each other making a circle.

To make the bulb: fold a colored strip in half. Pinch the two ends together and push on your palm or table to get a slight bend in the sides of the bulb. Holding the ends together hole punch thru both layers about 1/4" down in the center.

To string them into garland, put the top of a colored strip into a gray circle matching up the holes. Run twine thru all 4 holes. Then continuing adding the lights until you have it as long as you want, making sure to line up the bulbs with the glued gray part all facing the same way. Spread them evenly on the twine.

One thing I did I have a second of trouble with is the twine fraying and becoming hard to fit thru the holes - I wrapped a small piece of tape around the end and that solved the problem. 

Snowman Gift Box

This is another of the "make and takes" I got from my friend Ronda at a Stampin'Up meeting, remember I made the jack o'lantern one for Halloween? This snowman is SO cute, here he is on a pillow box but you could put him on lots of different things. This would make a cute gift card enclosure, or decorate a larger box/package, or on a card...very easy and fun. 

To make him you need 2 larger punched circles for eyes and 5 smaller punched circles for mouth from black card stock, 2 black rectangles to make his hat, an orange triangle, a piece of thin ribbon, and something to decorate his hat (here we used a punched flower with a crystal glued on). Oh, and some sort of adhesive to put it all in place - I used my Stampin' Up rolling adhesive thing and it worked perfect for this project. Adjust the size of these pieces for the size of what you are putting him on.

Arrange all of the pieces on a white base of your choosing and stick them down to make a snowman. That's it! Pretty self explanatory where everything goes...