TUTORIAL: Newspaper Circle Garland

I’m really enjoying finding ways to save things from the recycling bin, repurposing them into Christmas decorations. I don’t have a lot of storage in my house, so the fact that I can toss my decorations at the end of the holiday season without feeling guilty is nice. So far, I’ve made gift boxes out of cereal boxes, a geo ornament out of paper, and DIY shrinky dink ornaments from take-out boxes.

My latest recycled Christmas craft is the Newspaper Circle Garland. It’s so easy that you can finish a string long enough for your entire tree in under an hour. Here at my house, due to lack of space, the actual tree isn’t going up until closer to Christmas. For now, our mantle and other spots around the house are getting festive touches with ornaments and garlands.

I think that this garland would also be lovely out of old magazines, or even colored paper. I wouldn’t recommend scrapbook paper, unless it’s double-sided, since the back will show. I’ve been on a recycling rampage through the house, though, and I’m out of old magazines at the moment. I do, however, have a daily newspaper delivered so there’s plenty of newsprint around here.

Ready to get started? This is easy. Here’s all you’ll need:

• paper
• circle cutter of some sort
• sewing machine
• thread

My circle cutter is pretty tough, so I was able to cut through an entire section of the newspaper at once. However you do it, your first step is to cut out a ton of circles. For the final garland, I opted to do 8 circles per paper ball. So do the math and figure out how many paper balls you’d like on your garland and multiply that times 8.

Then head to your sewing machine. I sewed this at a stitch length of 3. Begin with a fairly long amount of extra thread pulled out. Then lay a stack of circles under your presser foot and sew straight through the middle.

Once you’ve sewn through the circles, keep your machine going to make a nice little chain of thread. When the circle gets to the edge of your sewing machine, add another stack of circles and repeat. Just keep going and going until your garland is the length you want it.

See? Easy!

For now, I’m hanging mine on the mantle. I love how it’s a very natural, subtle decoration.

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