by Hank + Hunt

Happy Holidays! Here is a little retro garland for your holiday fete. I’m head over heels for anything vintage at Christmas, and recently swooned over some very kitchy, very vintage, mini present garlands on Etsy,  in not so awesome metallic wrap.  Then, I saw some dangling from fishing line, swathed in very not-my-kind-of-Christmas-y fabric at a local shop.  Our holiday decor at home is more candy shop than tannenbaum, and I really wanted something with brighter colors.  I’ve been looking for more ways to use crepe paper ever since Jordan opened my eyes to the availability of entire sheets of the lovely stuff and decided to use it to wrap the mini boxes for the garland.  I did manage to wrangle up some of that silver thread that the vintage ones seemed to be wrapped with.

You will need: crepe paper folds, cereal box or raisin boxes (empty), scissors, Glue Dots, embroidery thread or thin metallic ribbon (here’s a Seattle based source), and scissors. Optional: scoring board, paper cutter.

Step 1: Cut down each side of the empty cereal box. Cut into strips about 1 – 1.5″ wide. This is most easily done with a paper cutter.

Step 2: Cut each strip into one 4″ length and one 5.5″ length. Either folding carefully, or using a scoring board to help, fold each strip as follows:  for the 4″ strip: fold at 1″, 1.5″, 2.5″, & 3″/for the 5 ” strip: fold at 1.5″, 2″, 3 .5″, & 4″ Fold the strip so the printed side is on the inside of the mock box. Once you have folded the strips, attach a glue dot to the top side (cardboard side) of one end and over lap the panels, forming a box. Alternatively, you could just use small empty match or raisin boxes.

Step 3. Take your crepe paper, still folded from the package, and using your box as a guide, cut a strip wider than the box. Next, use a Glue Dot to adhere the crepe paper strip to the box and wrap around a few times, until the color is solid.  If you are using a printed box, like the raisin box, it will take a few more wraps to cover the print.   Wrap your box like a present, using Glue Dots to secure each end. It doesn’t have to be perfect, think kitchy.

Lay out your packages as you would like to hang them. Cut a strip of thread or ribbon the length of garland you will need. I cut a five foot length for my 14 packages, since it was for my mini tree.  Tie a hoop on one end and thread the long end through the back of the package, under the string it is wrapped with. Tie a knot.  Continue down the line, working with the long end of the garland string, tying knots as you go and spacing them about 3-4 inches apart. You could also just attach an ornament hook to the back and hang willy-nilly for an even simpler treat.  I might have to makea bunch for a wreath!

We are having our first real Christmas party this weekend and I have two mini trees that I will be using on my buffet that were in need of some love. These little packages all tied up with string, might be one of my favorite things. Perfect for my mini trees.