Newpaper Tassel Garland & 3D Bat Decor {DIY tutorials}

Halloween Halloween Halloween is in the air! I have said it before I will say it again I love Halloween, I love to decorate and I love the two combined. I also love easy, cheap and quick projects that I can use year after year. Today I have some Halloween decor and will include two tutorials that I thought I would combine into one post for you so you can make them both and bring the whole thing together in your home. This would also be super cute on a front porch display for your trick or treaters. I just happen to have a blank wall in my home from not decorating yet since the move so it was perfect. 

Put the kids to bed, stick in a movie or in my case watch the premiere of Grey's Anatomy and get to work on these two projects.  First up the Newspaper tassel garland. You have all seen the adorable tissue paper tassels all over pinterest! I love the tissue paper garlands but I wanted something a little different and a little more of a spooky and less cutesy feel to it. I collected a bunch of free newspapers {thanks to friends and family} and used them with a few tissue paper ones here and there. I love how it all came together. And it only cost me $2!!! You know I like thrifty around here.

{Materials Used}

-Newspaper {Free}

-Tissue Paper {$1}

-scissors or rottery cutter 

-Cutting mat 

-Twine or string 

{What I did}

First you are going to get some newspaper. If you don't get them just ask a friend or neighbor, It s fun way to recycle them. Then you are going to sift through them until you get pieces that are just black and white on both sides. Which is harder than it sounds there is a lot of color in newspapers these days. Who knew???
You are going to want 5 pieces of newspapers stacked for each of these steps and these steps will get you 2 tassels from each stack. I did 10 tassels so I used 5 stacks of 5 papers, needing 25 individual newspapers.

Once you have stacked up 5 pieces  you are going to cut them to 20X20 inches so you get a nice square. The size of  a lot of tissue paper. 

Once your stack is cut you will fold it in half so it looks like above. 

Then you are going to start cutting strips of the paper, leaving about an inch at the top {not cutting all the way through} Each strip will be about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick and you will just keep cutting until you get go down the whole thing. You can either do this with scissors or a rottery cutter.

Once it is all cut you will then find the middle and cut it in half all the way through so you have two stacks of cut up paper. Then you will open them up

Once it is opened up you will just start rolling it all the way down the paper like the picture above. Then you will fold it over. Next I used some twine to make a loop for the garland and to secure it in place. 

I did 10 newspaper tassels and 4 tissue paper tassels using the same steps. Once they were all cut, folded, looped and secured I laid them out the way I wanted then I took some orange and black bakers twine I had {you can use what ever you want} and I strung it through all the loops of each tassel until they were all connected into a garland. 

I hung it up on the wall arranged the tassels so they were all laying correctly then I stood back, looked at it and fell in LOVE with it! But it needed a little more. So now comes the next tutorial the 3D bats. This is a project that your kids will love to help with. My 3 year old thought it was oh so much fun and it is great time to spend together. 

{Materials Used}

-Black card stock

-Electronic Cutting Machine {cricut} or scissors and a pattern to trace from online 

-Tack {$1 section of Target}

{What I did}

First I found an image on cricut craft room that I fell in love with and I just cut out a bunch of them in 3 different sizes on black cardstock. I cut 5 large {the whole size of the cardstock}, 10 medium and 15 small. Maddux loved loading and unloading the mat and taking the bats off the sticky mat. Plus he loved to watch it cut he thinks its a robot.

If you don't have a cricut or any kind of cutting machine you can either borrow one, because this is such a quick project you can give it back in less than 20 minutes. You can come borrow mine if you are close. {Im in West Valley City} Or you can find a bat silhouette image online. Print it out cut it out trace it onto the card stock and cut a bunch out. This will take longer but you can get some help from your kids or hubby, watch a movie when you do it and I promise it is worth it in the end.

Once they are all cut you will just fold them in the middle {this gives them the 3D effect on the Wall} and then you will use some tack {I love this stuff because it doesn't damage your wall and I got it in the target dollar section} and stick it to the wall.

You can put them up there how ever you want. I just wanted mine to be a whole display and part of the garland so I made it look like a bunch of the bats flying from the tassels with it small at the bottom getting bigger in the middle and then getting smaller at the end again. 

I also loved these bats because after last years display I simply flattened them out, put them in a folder to store and they are ready to go with the fold already in them for years to come. 

So festive and yummy. This one that your kids will love. 

Pin pin pin away!!!

 Linked up HERE
 The Shabby Nest ,Chic on a Shoestring Decorating,

 Tatertots and Jello, Whipperberry, Fingerprints on the fridge, 

 Nap time Crafters,

 $1 Store Pumpkin Vamp-up

 Easy Wheat Banner 

 Halloween Project Roundup 

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