Make your own paper garland decorations!

I have been busy busy busy! Jeff and I have been meeting with different vendors trying to nail down our favorites, because our wedding is a year away! Its insane how quickly these people get booked, we tried to get the same photographer that did my sisters wedding and he was already booked a solid year in advance! I've also shopped for and found a wedding dress and we've booked a venue, caterer, photographer, and planner.... whew!

I've also been getting things together our wedding and some upcoming showers. I volunteered to throw a shower for friend of mine getting married in November. The other bridesmaids and I are thinking late June at my house so I wanted to start making things now since I have so many things on my plate over the next year.

One of the  fabulous girls from the bridal party and I have been frantically pinning and have come up with some great, easy ideas so far. She found this awesome color palate....

And I found this super cute easy to make paper garland.

Though all of the colors from the palate wont be in every element I thought this would be a good way to kind of pull it all together.

Things you will need:
-Scrapbook paper
-An adjustable size circle cutter (I got mine from Joanns for like $10 bucks with a coupon and they come in SUPER handy for all kinds of projects. There is nothing worse than a wonky circle....well there are actually a lot of things that are worse but you get my point.)
-Hot Glue
-String

 Step 1: Decide on what size paper circles you want and set your adjustable circle cutter to that size

You could also do this with a circle punch but I like these contraptions better because its not just one set size. I change my mind about things ALL. THE. TIME. so this bad boy is perfect for me.

In fact you might notice the original circles in the next few pictures look smaller than the ones in the final product....keen observation! I changed my mind about the size after I made about 9 circles of every color :(

Step 2: Make a TON of paper circles. Like a metric shit ton. Scientifically speaking of course. If you are using this contraption make sure you put something under it so you don't scratch and cut up your table.

Step 3: Once you have all of your circles you'll need to decide what kind of spacing you want to use. I cut a small piece of yarn to the size of spacing I wanted in between each of my circles so I would have a quick reference and could move quickly. You might decide you want no space between circles... you might want more than what I chose to do. Its whatever works best for you.

Step 4: Put a line of hot glue right down the middle of the circle and on both sides. Lay the string in the glue.

 Step 5: Quickly make a paper dot/glue sandwich and slap another one of those bad boys on top!

Step 6: Use your string measure and repeat this step over until you have the length of garland you want.

Step 7: Repeat. Make a whole bunch of garlands.

Step 8: You can use another string or something rod-like depending on your preference for this next step. I used string

Tie each garland onto the string (or a rod of some kind if you prefer) spaced evenly apart. Keep going until you have the width that you want.

Step back and admire your work!

I tried so hard to get a good photo of my final product, but I just couldn't do it. Don't judge me... I'm a crafter not a photographer