thrifty Holidays 101: garland

Gingerbread men garland from mailing paper

This was my favorite cutting activity when I was in kindergarten. You can say, that I was abscessed with folding the paper, drawing 1/2 silhouettes and cutting them, unfolding to see what I've got.

It's super easy. If you woke up and remembered that you were in charge of classroom decorations, and the party is today - you can still make it! Here's how to.

1) Find a piece of paper that's as long as you want your garland to be. Note, that if your garland is longer that 10 Gingerbread men, it might be too difficult to cut through that many layers of paper.  

2) Decide how wide you want your design to be. 

3) Fold the paper back and forth like accordion (fan fold). Draw your design on the top layer. You can either draw the whole Gingerbread man or just a 1/2 of it.  Make sure their hands are touching at the folded edge. If you're making a very long garland, you can make a wider folds and draw 2 men, or Gingerbread man and a Snowman.
4) Cut out your garland, being sure not to cut the fold lines under the hands.

5) Open up the garland. 

6) Iron it with a hot iron with steam turned off.

7) For extra credit, decorate the Gingerbread men.