Making a tissue paper tassel garland

My daughter and a friend are having a joint birthday joint in June at a local rock climbing place.  I'm really looking forward to it overall, but in terms of decor was feeling a bit stymied about how to bring some personality and prettiness into that cavernous space.  Obviously, I can't decorate the whole building, so I decided to focus my efforts on a single table, which will be used for the cakes and favors.

The table will be in the party loft area, which is in the center of the space and is rimmed by a half wall with a top rail made of pipes.  My plan is to use zip ties to vertically mount 3ft. wooden dowels to the pipe rail.  I can then swag a garland from the dowels.  I decided to make tissue tassel garland because I have an overabundance of tissue paper and they looked pretty simple to make.  I am here to tell you that they ARE in fact very simple to make.  This may be the easiest and most impactful decor element I've ever made and they couldn't be cheaper.  I am a tissue tassel convert!

First step - assemble your tissue.  We have a party palette of blues and greens, so I pulled everything from kelly green to teal to powder blue and some white mixed in to boot.  (Disregard the red in there - I didn't use that.  I didn't use the prints either - too distracting.)

For this project, I pulled out my latest craft find - a large rotary cutting mat.  We have a second-hand craft store in town (I know - LUCKY!!!) and I got it for about $2.  Now that I've used it, I wish that I had bought one sooner.  It's so much less wear and tear on my hands and wrists, which are all ready in bad shape from all the computing and pipetting that I do at work (yes, I am a craft geek and an actual science geek as well - I'm an all-purpose geek, really...).  Now that you have your supplies, it's time to dive in.

Pull out a sheet of tissue and spread flat.  Cut it in half.  Go all the way up - I paused here to take the picture.

Take one half and fold in half.

Fold that half in half the other way.

Zip through with your rotary cutter, slicing up to about 1inch from the fold line at the top.

Make your cuts as thin or wide as you like.  They don't have to be perfectly even and it's OK if you get overzealous and slice some off.  You won't miss them in the final product.  Once you've fringed it up, open it flat and start rolling or pleating the un-fringed area.  I've done it both ways and neither is easier or prettier than the other, so your choice.

Do try to shake the fringes out every couple turns or it will get twisted up.  It's harder to untwist the fringes at the end, so be scrupulous about this now.

Once you've rolled/pleated the whole thing, start twisting the unfringed area tightly to compress into a thick ropey line.  Now twist the ropey line into a loop and twist the bottom of the loop closed.

You are now almost done.  All that remains is to seal the loop.  I've seen washi tape, glue, hot glue, string, and my personal choice - tiny hair elastics.  I found 2 kinds at the Dollar Tree - black and an assortment of blues and clears - perfect for my garland.  (I saw all clear ones at Walmart, but they were $3 for 75 - no thanks, Walmart.  I will take my business to the Dollar Tree.)  I'll be keeping my eyes open for a set of clear ones at the Dollar Tree - I'm sure it's just a matter of time... 

I like the elastic approach because it's quick and easy and cheap doesn't require that I sit near a power source for the glue gun or have to wait for drying time and also no burning my hands - yay!  This means that I can twist absentmindedly whilst watching Buffy the Vampie Slayer reruns (yes, I'm that kind of geek as well.  And incidentally - BtVS is probably the best show in the history of the world.  FYI.  I resisted at 1st because - really?  It's called Buffy teh Vampire Slayer?  No thanks.  But a good friend made me watch it and OMG - it's amazing.  Smart, funny, scary, sexy, romantic, devastating, heartbreaking, thought-provoking...  I could go on...  and on...  and on... sorry).  Anyhoo, reagarding the elastics, I could also theoretically reuse them when I trash the garland.  Just pull off and save the elastics for another time.

I'm not going to string the garland until the party is closer (will use either twine or this teal rope that I got from the second-hand craft store - $0.50 for the whole roll!), so for now I'm storing the tassels in bunches threaded on pipe cleaners.  The bunches are hanging on a hook in my basement. 

I did also cut a hole in a shopping bag and drape it over top to avoid dust and fading - tissue paper fades like crazy.

Fascinators and Favors for a Classy Bachelorette Party

My best friend's little sister got married last fall - best wishes, A.!  We feted her with a bachelorette party in September - a weekend at Harrah's in Atlantic City.  Now, I was reluctant to go back to AC, since I had gone before and was not impressed - between the ciggie smoke and feral cats, it was a bit sketchy.  I have to say, though, that Harrah's was very nice.  Our rooms were gorgeous and the hotel was fairly high-end.  It rivaled some hotels I've seen in Las Vegas.  Our weekend consisted of some pampering at the Red Door Spa (I had a body scrub and it was worth every penny), cocktails as we lounged by their fabulous pool (so chic - and the passion fruit margaritas were to DIE for), and a fancy dinner followed by gambling for the younger girls and a PJ's and junk TV for the, ahem, more mature ladies (I just can't party like I used to - and incidentally, you know you are getting older when you chat up the bartender to 1-figure out the best drink value for your buck and 2-compare notes on bifocals because neither of you can read the drink descriptions on those tiny menus). 

Anyhoo, the fancy dinner came with a dress code - little black dresses for everyone.  But we still wanted to do something extra to identify ourselves as part of a special group (bachelorette party) but while still looking classy.  My solution?  Fascinators.  They are huge right now and so much fun to wear.  The options are endless and I knew that I could make a ton for a small amount of money.  Here's how I did it...

Source Materials

Alligator Hair Clips - found at Joann's (12 for $2 with coupon!).  They are lightweight and almost flat with a good, strong grip.

Felt Triangles - I had felt on hand (free!), but you could make a ton from one sheet from any craft store - they are usually about $0.25 around here.  Just cut several small triangles.  The color doesn't really matter since you will be covering it up.

Needle and thread - again, color doesn't matter.  You are only using it to tack the felt onto the clip.

Hot glue sticks and gun - THE craft room essential

Feathers - I had sticker shock from the price of the "fancy" feathers.  There are tons of kinds, but you pay a premium for ones with designs, or from rare birds, or with different textures.  I couldn't afford that, so I bought a big bag of multicolored craft feathers for $3 and committed to trying to modify them to look special and not like a kindergarten Thanksgiving craft project.

Bling - I was initially looking for brooches or sparkly buttons to mount on the fascinators and then I realized how much that would cost.  So, I made my own brooches using a big bag of cheap, assorted rhinestones from Michael's ($8 with coupon).  You get a TON in those bags.  Some are goofy looking, but a lot are really nice.  I just hot glued them onto some paint chips from the hardware store that I had laying around.  Additionally, I wanted to make some beaded wire for more movement and interest.  I had some iridescent plastic beads on hand (from Walmart), and I also splurged on some swarovski crystals for the bride ($4 with coupon).  I wanted her to really sparkle!  I all ready had beading wire on hand.

How-To's

1. Sew the base
Double up your thread and tack a felt triangle onto a clip.  Be sure to open the clip before you start sewing.  I would stick a pencil in the "jaws" to hold it open as I sewed.  Some tutorials out there have you hot glue the base onto the clip.  That didn't feel secure enough to me.  Sewing took a few minutes longer, but it was worth it.  I'm pleased to report that we didn't lose a single bit of bling all night.

2. Choose your colors and layout
For mine, I put the big feathers on the bottom and built up from there, inserting smaller accent feathers and beaded wire next, and topped the whole shebang off with rhinestones.  Whatever you want to do, now is the time to decide, not when you have a hot glue gun in hand!

3. Pre-make accents
Now that you know how you want it to look, take the time to make your special accents

Feathers - craft feathers can be modified in several ways.  I recommend practicing with colors you have a lot of 1st and once you feel comfortable, then move on to the feathers you intend to use in your fascinators.
-CURLS:  feathers can be curled by sliding the central rib over the edge of scissors (like you do with curly ribbon) - go over it several times until it starts to curl.  Be gentle with the 1st couple passes to avoid snapping the rib.
-STRIPPING:  The fluffy feathers at the bottom can be stripped off the rib, leaving the more uniform feathers at the top.  Just grab the fluffies and pull against the direction of growth and they should strip off neatly. 
-SHAPING:  You can trim the feathers into oval shapes, diamonds, zigzags, whatever.  It just takes some patience.  You can also combine curling, stripping, and shaping to give yours an even more unique look.  The turquoise feathers above, for example, were stripped of lower feathers, shaped into diamonds at the tips, and curled slightly.

Brooches - Cut out a base on sturdy paper or paint chips like I did.  I did some in circles and some in rectangles, but I liked circles the best.  Glue on your rhinestones as desired.  Let dry before trying to attach to the fascinator.  The turquoise one above has a brooch that I made.

Beaded wire accents - Snip off a length of bead wire about 10 inches long.  String a bead and slide to the middle of the wire.  Bend the wire around the bead and feed both ends through the bead once more.  This keeps the bead in place.  This is now the tip of your wire.  Repeat this process, spacing your beads a few centimeters apart.

4. Get glue-gunnin'
Once you know how it's going to look, start hot glueing.  Go one layer a a time and give it a few minutes to set before moving on to the next layer.  I always have tweezers and a chopstick or pencil or something handy when I'm hot glueing - I'll use it to place small accents or to maneuver items without burning myself.

5. Enjoy turning heads in your fabu fascinator!

SWAG, Baby!

Because I love to craft and I tend to go overboard AND I don't know when to stop, I also made some little gift bags for the girls.  Simple brown paper bags dressed up with fabric rosettes and ribbons in the bride's palette of peridot and teal.  I filled the bags with treats, snacks, tiny bottles of wine, and personalized water bottles - just the thing to make our hotel rooms more comfy.  I thought it would be fun to contrast our bachelorette party hijinks with images of proper 50's housewives, so I made some tags for each bag juxtaposing these ladies with modern sayings.  They were a hit!

Here's the bag with just the treats - the wine was all ready in use...  :)