Christmas Decorations part 2

This week we have been making some more Christmas decorations.  These were really easy to do, and need very little to make them.

So, first step was to cut out some different length strips of card.  I can't tell you any measurements because mine were dependent on the width of the ruler I was using and the length of the card.  But anyway, you need two small, four medium and four long lengths of card:

It's also not necessary to keep your table as messy as this one, that's just me

 Next thing, I stuck them together so that each strip had a red side and a gold side.  The children did theirs differently, the colours don't matter just so long as both sides of each strip are pretty:

We found that paperclips held them pretty well and stopped them bending outwards while they dried a bit.  Don't leave them to dry completely as they will need to bend in one of the later steps

After that We made a whole in either end of each strip using that time-honoured Blue Peter style poke it with a sharp pencil with a blob of Blu-Tak or Play Doh underneath, until there is a hole in both ends of each strip.

Sharp pencil necessary, blurry photography optional

Hole in each end - don't make the mistake I made here of punching the holes through the paperclips, I REALLY regretted it when it came to taking the paperclips off again later

Once all the holes were punched the next thing was to attach them together - short one in the middle, longest on the outside - and tie them through the holes.  I found some shiny purple ribbony stuff which I thought would be great for this, turns out it's really hard to get through the holes, and the pipe cleaner I used for the one hole we ran out of ribbon for was amazing.  Pipe cleaners all the way!

I hope you're learning from my mistakes, people!!

Tied together

Then tie together the other end, bending the longer strips outwards.  As you see, this was the pipe cleaner end.  I really wish I'd thought of this before watching my children take 20 minutes poking ribbony stuff through a tiny hole with a pencil.

All three of them together - shiny shiny shiny