A Quick & Cheerful New Year's Banner

Late this afternoon, Earlybird and I made a very simple, colorful banner for the learning room windows. This is a really nice craft to do with kids of all ages.

We started with just a few materials ...

 

*Construction paper (card stock would be sturdier, but this is what we had on hand)

*Art tissue paper

*Yarn (or twine or a metallic cord would be fun)

*Scissors, hole punch, tape

* A craft punch (ours is in the shape of a snowflake)

(Note: If you don't have a craft punch you could just cut a shape - say, a heart - into the triangle using scissors. Lightly fold the triangle down the middle to center the shape as you cut. You could also use the hole punch to make a design.)

And here's what we did ...

(It took us about 30 minutes to make this - but to be fair, I had Bill's help with some of the cutting and punching.)

1. Cut out triangles in varying shades.

2. Use the craft punch to make an open shape in the middle of the triangle.

3. Use the hole punch to make a hole in the top corners of the triangle. (You could brace the holes with those little reinforcement stickers if you'd like.)

4. Tape a piece of tissue paper to the back of the triangles, covering the punched-out shape.

5. Run a length of yarn through the triangles.

6. (Save the punched paper shapes for decorating the windows - or anything you'd like.)

7. Your banner is ready to hang!

It looks especially pretty in a sunny window where the tissue paper can catch the light.

 

With very young children it would be wise to have the triangles and tissue paper already cut out. Let them do the punching (with supervision), taping and threading. They can also help with the hanging, and of course, all the oohing and ahhing. :D

Happy New Year!