Easy Homemade Happy New Year Garland

Whether you are hosting a New Year's Eve party, or just planning on spending a quiet night with the family, you can still feel festive by hanging up a decorative Happy New Year garland.

This garland is very easy to make, and you can make it a variety of ways depending on what craft supplies you have on hand or how elaborate you want the garland to be.

This is a family craft for all ages. Even the very little kids can help! You and your kids will have fun making this Happy New Year garland.

Before you begin, you might want to see an image of one style of this garland. You can see an image here. The garland you see in the image is one made from felt and sequins. You can use whatever fabric or supplies you like. I give you lots of variations below.

You will need 12 rectangles of fabric or paper on which to write Happy New Year. You can use felt as seen in the image. Or, you can use construction paper for a very simple garland. Other items you can use are newspaper, magazine pages, card stock, cereal box cardboard, computer paper, fabric, washcloths, vinyl, or whatever you can think up.

Once you decide what to use for your garland, you need to cut 12 rectangles about 3 inches wide by 10 inches long. You can adjust the size as needed. You can make very little rectangles for a mini garland that will hang in a doorway, or you can make a huge garland that will hang in front of your home. It's all up to you!

Once you have your rectangles cut, fold them in half and drape them over a cord. For cord you can use yarn, ribbon, twine, or whatever you have on hand. Fold the first rectangle in the center of your cord then glue the folds together to secure it. If you want, you can glue just the bottom of the edge together so the top of the rectangle will slide across the cord. Glue all your rectangles on one cord, or if you want the word "happy" to hang above "new year" then you will need to glue five rectangles on one cord and seven on another cord. Make sure you leave spaces between the words.

To write the words "Happy New Year," you have many options. You can glue sequins as seen in the image, or you can glue on buttons, bells, beads, tiles, pom poms or whatever craft item you like. If you are writing on rectangles that have a print, like on printed fabric, you can make the letters a solid color so they stand out. You can even cut the letters out of paper or foil (foil wrapping paper is easier to work with than aluminum foil). If you are making a simple garland using construction paper, you can draw the letters using markers or poster paint.

If you are hanging your garland against a wall, you only need to write the words on one side. If you are hanging in a location where both sides are visible, write the words on both sides so your message is visible coming or going!

Source: www.crafts.kaboose.com