Deck the Halls With Paper! 3D Snowflakes, Paper Chains, Advent Calendar and More!

Deck the Halls with reams of Paper!

This is holiday decorating on the cheap. There's been plenty of years that we've had to go cheap on decorating.

I was inspired by Elf, I love all the silly snowflakes and paper chains that Buddy puts up everywhere.

And, this would make some killer decorations for a Frozen themed birthday party!

You'll need some basic supplies:

Regular weight Paper--colors or plain white!

Stapler and staples (I love my staple pliers)

Scissors

Let's Deck the Halls!

Step 1: Simple Snowflakes!

Simple Snowflakes!

You'll need a bunch of simple snowflakes to tape on walls or windows!

You will need Scissors and Paper!

How to make a Snowflake Tutorial:
Begin with a letter sized sheet of lightweight paper.

You'll need to make it a square.
So fold over the corner and line up the side.

Cut off the excess strip.

Now you are going to fold it up, all revolving
around the center...like slicing a pie into 8 pieces!

Fold over and crease, fold 1 more time and crease.

Cut the top edge so the paper is even...either
straight across or with a slight curve.

(at this point you could open it and it should resemble

a circle like a pie, divided into 8 peices

Now comes the designs! Little triangle shapes...little notches...half shapes...
Once you get the hang of it, there are endless possibilities!

Just notch out triangles on both sides...careful not to cut all the way through the flake!

Now comes the fun...open your snowflake carefully!

The layers sometimes stick because of all the cuts, so open with care!

Tape them on walls (with painters tape) and windows!

Hang them on the tree! The lightweight paper lets the Christmas lights shine through!

Step 2: Paper Chains!

Paper Chains are tons of fun and great for kids to put together!

You'll need:

1 1/2 inch strips of paper

Stapler/staples

Start with one strip of paper. Loop it and staple it.

Then take another strip of paper, run it through the center of the previous loop, loop it and staple it.

Repeat a million times.

It doesn't take long to make a huge chain!

We used a long paper chain to wrap around our colorful pre-lit Christmas tree!

It made the tree look so much more full and pretty! I love the pops of blue!

We made yards more chains and hung them from the ceilings. I used a corsage pin and just stuck them through the chain and into top of the door frames or ceiling. Once you pull out the pin, it's very hard to find the holes...so I'm not even going to worry about patching them later.

Step 3: 3D Snowflakes!

3D Snowflakes!

These snowflakes make a big impact on the "Decking the Halls" project!

Each snowflake uses 6 pieces of paper!

Okay you'll need:

Square pieces of paper (ours are 8.5 by 8.5 inch)

Stapler/staples (I started with glue stick...it works, but staples are faster)

Twine, hole punch and pins for hanging.

Start by folding your square piece of paper in half, triangle way.

Then again.

On the folded edge of the triangle, you will cut 3 cuts.

About an inch apart and an inch from the edge...don't cut all the way through.

Open the paper back up. If you cut it right it will have arrow points coming out from the center.

Now take the 2 smallest pieces and curl them into each other. Staple in place.

Flip the paper over. Take the next 2 pieces, loop them and staple.

Flip paper, next 2...staple....repeat one last time.

You should have a cute little spinny ornament shape.

Repeat until you have 6 of them.

Then staple them side to side...Then staple the bases of 3 of them together. Staple the other three together...then staple the last 2 edges together to form the circle loop!

Sounds confusing...but it's super simple! Just look at the pictures and go for it! My 6 year old son could do it!

Then we repeated that...until we had 150 of those spinny things! We made 25 3D snowflakes!

Then just punched a hole at one end, tied on some twine and stuck them right into the textured ceiling with corsage pins!

Huge impact!

Step 4: Toilet Paper Roll Advent Calendar Punch Board!

Toilet Paper Roll Christmas Countdown Advent Calendar Punch Board!

You will need:
Candy--or small toys!

12 Toilet paper rolls...or other cardboard tubes

Lightweight paper

Ribbon

Rubber stamps numbers/ink

Small hair elastics

Tissue paper

Cardboard for the backing

Hot glue/gun

I cut my red paper to measure 4 by 5.5".
Apparently, this is a pretty standard tp roll size.

I ran some tape around it and rolled it onto each roll.

Like so.
(I actually made a second calendar without the paper and it still looks fabulous!)

Then, cut all the rolls in half with scissors.
They aren't perfect, but no worries!

Next I cut some circles of tissue paper....You could use Wrapping Paper instead!
About 4 inches in diameter.

Next I used a darling Alphabet stamp set and ink
to stamp all the numbers on the tissue paper.

You could just write it with a marker if you want.

Take the tissue paper and press it gently over the top of a roll.
Gathering and creasing the tissue paper slightly.

Secure it in place with a small hair elastic.
...and repeat 23 more times!

Next you will need some backing.
to fit 24 tp rolls...I used cardboard.

And I covered it in red paper too.
Just wrapped the top of it like a present.

Add some ribbon with hot glue to the back if you plan
on hanging up your advent calendar.

Next, put a piece of candy inside the tube and run a bead
of hot glue around the tp roll opening.

While holding the cardboard up, so the candy doesn't fall out
of the tube...or get hot glued inside...

press it on the backing.

Repeat 23 more times.
One at a time, holding up the board and pressing it on carefully.

Looks cute!
My kids are so eager to poke through all these little holes!

Next I found some candy striped ribbon and wrapped the entire thing!
I think this will help with stability, but it looks cute too!

Tie it off with a big bow!

Now each day of December...the kids can take turns poking their finger through the tissue paper...

And getting a treat!

Step 5: Paper!

You can even decorate with paper ornaments!

Check out my 3D Snowflakes Bunting instructable here!

Or make a big Poinsettia Wreath from paper!

Check out my Dahlia Wreath instructable here!

Now you can see how easy and cheap it is to decorate for the holidays with just paper!

Just as magical and impressive as the movie Elf! This is fun that the whole family can have!

Check out my blog Doodlecraft for more great ideas!