DIY - Tissue Paper Halloween Tassel Garland
Hey there!
About two weeks ago I was decorating for my daughter's birthday party and I kept seeing Pinterest pins for tissue paper tassels. Because I waited until the last minute to actually get the items for decorating, I didn't think that I would have time to get tissue paper tassel garlands made. Now that I've finished a garland, I had plenty of time.
These garlands are so pretty and yet so simple to make. The hardest part was finding gold tissue paper that didn't cost an arm and a leg. The rest of the project was pretty easy.
I looked at a lot of YouTube videos and read a lot of articles on the topic, because I'm a researcher. I research things to death. I want to know the specific specifications before tackling a project. In this case I spent more time researching than I did making the project.
Let's jump in.
You simply need
Multicolored tissue paper
String, twine, ribbon
Scissors
Washi tape (optional)
That's it.
I wanted to make a Halloween tissue paper garland so I made sure that I had purple, black, orange, gold, yellow, etc. I thought about picking 3 colors and just sticking with those but I always go all out when I decorate for Halloween so I wanted my garland to be a reflection of that. I chose lots of colors instead of just three.
The process is pretty simple too.
1. Match up several sheets of tissue paper. I used 3 multicolored sheets for each tassel.
2. Fold your tissue paper length wise and then cut it in half horizontally. The plan is that out of each sheet of tissue paper (or three in my case) you will get 4 tassels. You'll see how this happens in a minute.
3. Take your horizontal piece of paper and cut fringes in your sheets, leaving about an inch or a slight bit more uncut ALONG THE FOLD of the tissue paper. This is important! My fringe cuts were about 1/4 of an inch apart. That seemed to work out well.
4. Open your tissue paper and you should have about 2 inches of uncut tissue paper in the center of your fringed paper (I told you it was important).
5. Find the center of the tissue paper and cut it in half at one of the fringe points. (IMPORTANT - Don't cut vertically along the 2 inch uncut portion. This will make a mess. Cut horizontally). This makes your 4 tassels. Yes, there are easier ways to do this once you get the hang of making tissue paper tassels but I found it easier to stick with this method until I found my rhythm.
6.Take one end of the 2 inches of uncut tissue and begin rolling/folding the tissue paper into a tassel. I found that my rolls/folds ended up pretty big (1/4") so I made a final fold to make it smaller and strengthen to tassel loop.
7. Fold the tissue paper in half and secure the hanging part of the tassel by either twisting the tissue paper or use decorative washi tape (or regular tape is fine too). I find that twisting is ok but the tissue paper is so delicate you can very easily tear it. And, well who doesn't have washi tape just lying around? If you don't, run, don't walk, to your Dollar Tree or Target "Front of the Store" Spot (or whatever they are calling it these days) and grab you some! Washi tape comes in handy!
8. Cut a good length of twine or ribbon. I tore up my craft area looking for my twine. I'm sure I used it in some project and didn't put it back in the proper place (Boys and girls, let this be a lesson to you; everything has a proper place. Make sure to put things back in their space). Since I couldn't find twine, I improvised and used curling ribbon. I secured 3 strands of curling ribbon and strung the tissue paper tassels on the ribbon.
Tada! Look at that! So pretty. So festive! And, so easy to make. The entire project only took about 45 minutes to make 14 tassels. I could have my entire place decorated in tissue paper tassels in one afternoon. Maybe I do have my entire place decorated in tissue paper tassels. Don't judge. This is a judge free zone.
Thinking about making tissue paper tassels for your next party (or just decorating your space)? Tag me (#DIYWright) on Instagram and let me see what you make and what color you use.
Oh, and if you'd like to see all of the tassels I thought were pretty, head over to my tassel Pinterest board (diywright) and see what I liked.
