The other day I took to making recycled paper with the scraps that became to accumulate in the recycling bin. It is while looking at the sun filtering trough sheets of recycled paper that were hanging at the window waiting to dry that I had the idea for this project.
Recycled paper (see this walk-through if are unsure how to make your own)
Walk-through
The recycled paper
Most of the sheets of paper that I will use are plain white, but for some of them I decided to have a little fun by using a few different techniques.
If you would like to know more about those techniques, all the details are available in this post.
How many sheets?
The paper that I make is of A5 format. To use them as well as possible, I decided to divide each sheet into 6 squares of 6.5cm.
One half of the hanger is composed of 5 hanging strings – or columns. Each column is itself composed of 9 squares. This means that for one side of the decoration I need 5*9=45 squares, or 90 squares total.
As we can fit 6 squares on one sheet, the whole project will require 90/6=15 sheets of A5 paper.
Cutting the squares
To make the process easier, I suggest making a template with a piece of paper where the corners of the 6 squares are perforated. This way you can lay it on top of your piece of recycled paper, mark all the corners quickly with a pencil and align your ruler easily after that to make your cuts.
Perforating the holes the cord will go through
I am using a leathercraft hole punch here but if you don’t have one this is where the nail is going to be of use.
Prepare a template with the ideal position of the holes perforated.
Position this template over a stack of squares (5 worked well for me, more and they would be more difficult to keep well aligned).
Punch through the stack using the holes of the template as a guide.
Making the eyelets
This step is optional. I didn’t have any eyelets but I did have some paper fiber air-drying clay so I thought that it would be interesting to go full DIY on that one and make my own.
Linking the eyelets together
Join the eyelets together with a piece of cord.
I used beeswax to secure the last knot.
Threading in the squares
Prepare 10 threads of cords and make a knot at one end for each of them.
Start to thread in the squares of paper, 9 squares per thread.
Attaching the columns to the eyelets
Finally attach each column to its corresponding eyelet with a knot.
Final result
There you go, hope you found this project as enjoyable as I did!
Tutorial
Recycled paper window decoration
2 hours
Easy
Common
The other day I took to making recycled paper with the scraps that became to accumulate in the recycling bin. It is while looking at the sun filtering trough sheets of recycled paper that were hanging at the window waiting to dry that I had the idea for this project.
Requirements
Tools
Bill of Materials
Walk-through
The recycled paper
Most of the sheets of paper that I will use are plain white, but for some of them I decided to have a little fun by using a few different techniques.
If you would like to know more about those techniques, all the details are available in this post.
How many sheets?
The paper that I make is of A5 format. To use them as well as possible, I decided to divide each sheet into 6 squares of 6.5cm.
One half of the hanger is composed of 5 hanging strings – or columns. Each column is itself composed of 9 squares. This means that for one side of the decoration I need 5*9=45 squares, or 90 squares total.
As we can fit 6 squares on one sheet, the whole project will require 90/6=15 sheets of A5 paper.
Cutting the squares
To make the process easier, I suggest making a template with a piece of paper where the corners of the 6 squares are perforated. This way you can lay it on top of your piece of recycled paper, mark all the corners quickly with a pencil and align your ruler easily after that to make your cuts.
Perforating the holes the cord will go through
I am using a leathercraft hole punch here but if you don’t have one this is where the nail is going to be of use.
Prepare a template with the ideal position of the holes perforated.
Position this template over a stack of squares (5 worked well for me, more and they would be more difficult to keep well aligned).
Punch through the stack using the holes of the template as a guide.
Making the eyelets
This step is optional. I didn’t have any eyelets but I did have some paper fiber air-drying clay so I thought that it would be interesting to go full DIY on that one and make my own.
Linking the eyelets together
Join the eyelets together with a piece of cord.
I used beeswax to secure the last knot.
Threading in the squares
Prepare 10 threads of cords and make a knot at one end for each of them.
Start to thread in the squares of paper, 9 squares per thread.
Attaching the columns to the eyelets
Finally attach each column to its corresponding eyelet with a knot.
Final result
There you go, hope you found this project as enjoyable as I did!