Paper Tassel Garland DIY

Did you see these swishy pink tassels from our friends’ Paso Robles wedding a few months ago? I was drooling and ever since, I’ve meant to find an occasion for them. They are still super hot and SO festive!

So, my desk in our home is in a little  built-in cubby off the kitchen and needed some fun. I was reminded of these banners by Lauren Elizabeth‘s Instagram. She had one from by Studio Mucci on Etsy. If you want a gorgeous perfect one delivered right to you, Studio Mucci is the place (the owner/creater is super cool looking) is the place to get it from. If you have some time on your hands, try making one for yourself. It’s very inexpensive and I’m tickled by the celebratory vibe it gives any area. My desk needed a party banner of its own. So I looked up a bunch of tutorials and I’ve made my own, combining techniques from different sources and developing my own.

I wanted a pinky gold one:

All you need is:

wrapping tissue (I bought a multi-pack from Michaels $7.99?)

scissors

twine (I used sisal)

a chopstick or skewer

twist ties (optional)

mildly crafty hands

1. Each tassel is composed of a sheet of tissue folded in half at the top. Any size works. I did a mini banner. Just keep the sizes consistent. 

Cut even strips up to fold and leave just a space uncut at the top as shown. You can go OCD and use a pencil to draw a line across the top but you’ll see that you can use a shortcut and wing it a bit. 

Make a practice tassel to see how thick you want the look of the steamers to be. 

P.S. With the first one I made, I used a photo paper/scrapbooking cutter with a sliding blade. It. Was. Perfect…and totally unnecessary. 

2. I like to use the chopstick to open the paper at the fold. 

3. For these mini banners, I used half a twist tie and placed it at the bottom of the center of the fold. Feel free to do it twist-tie free if you like. You can find twist ties in the bakery section of Michaels ($.99 for a pack of 50). The colors won’t show through so any colors will do.

4. Break out those crafty hands and start rolling tightly all the way to the top. Keep the streamers from getting too tangled up or wrinkled.

5. Now TWIST. TWIST. TWIST that paper around the twisty tie.

6. Perfect. Now bend it in half and use the chopstick to make room for a loop that the twine will pass through. Twist the base of the loop to secure it. 

7. String them up and use a little tape to secure.

Looks like I was stalking Emily Henderson’s birth story during this shoot. Fascinating stuff, childbirth. That is a “painting” I did of Charlie last winter in Seattle. You find hobbies in the cold dark vampire world. I tried to keep them peppy ones.

It’s a start.