Crafting with straws is becoming more and more popular these days and there is almost no occasion where the charming creations made with paper straws are not present as decoration. Regardless of whether you are celebrating a child's birthday, baby shower or Christmas, this can always be a good idea. For this reason, we have put together some simple and inspiring instructions for DIY Christmas decorations for you.
What can you do with straws for Christmas?
This is the kind of straw craft that absolutely any of you can make yourself at home. If you are old enough to use a needle and young enough to have sufficient vision, you canhandmade Christmas tree decorations with your childrentinker with it. The paper straws come together very easily, so you can also use them to decorate homemade cookies, great gifts or packaging.
Christmas trees made of straws
Use paper straws and wooden beads to make this easy and fun Christmas decoration. With just a little effort to put the pieces together and a pack of straws, you can create multiple ornaments. You will need a pack of paper straws, although you can buy two different ones to get multiple colors out of them. You will also need embroidery floss, a needle, a brush and scissors. So here is the summarized list of accessories again:
Materials
- Paper straws – one or two different packs
- Scissors
- Nadel
- Embroidery floss or yarn
- small beads and other similar beads of your choice
- Chopsticks, pencil or a thin brush to smooth the edges
Instructions
- To cut the straws, first decide how long the bottom and longest piece will be. As a rule, 10 centimeters is a suitable length.
- Place the next two straws on top of the first, leaving about 1.5cm difference between each of them.
- Carefully cut the paper straws with scissors.
- Use the shortest resulting straw as a measurement for the next set you will cut. Repeat the first step to determine how long you want the straws above.
- Continue in this way until you get a straw as narrow as you want the top of your Christmas tree to be.
- Smooth the ends that became a little frayed during the cutting process with a stick, brush or pencil. It's best to do this before putting the jewelry together.
- First, thread your needle and bring both ends of the thread together into a knot. String the beads that will be the trunk of the tree.
- Then start with the longest straw by piercing it in the middle with the needle. If it doesn't look straight afterward, you can simply make a new hole, or level the straw by cutting it.
- Thread a small bead or bead and continue until you have added all the straws.
- Finally, cut the yarn leaving as much thread as possible. Tie the latter next to the top bead. You may need to tie a few knots to keep the beads from sliding up.
- Decide for yourself how much embroidery thread is needed for the hanging loop and tie a knot in the appropriate place. Finally, cut off the remaining thread.
Geometric Himmeli for crafting with straws
Himmeli are traditional Finnish Christmas decorations made with straw. These geometric figures were usually hung above the dining table to ensure that next year's rye harvest would be plentiful. Tradition says that the bigger the Himmeli was, the better the harvest should be.
Materials
- 1 pack of straws with different patterns or plain
- Sharp knife or scissors
- A strong thread and a needle
Instructions
- Gather your materials and cut a long piece of thread.
- Cut 6 straws in half, making 12 total.
- Thread the needle and knot the end of the thread. This will prevent the needle from slipping.
- Next, pull up 4 of the paper straws and move them to the other end of the thread.
- Knot the two ends of the threads so that you form a diamond-shaped figure with the free end and the needle with the needle.
- Thread 2 more pieces of the straw together and tie them tightly to the other end of the diamond.
- Repeat the process with two more pieces until you have a total of 8 pieces forming the diamond-shaped prism and 4 free-standing pieces.
- Cut the thread at this point and repeat the third step. First, tie a knot with the free end of the thread on one of the horizontal connecting pieces and pull a piece through it.
- Tie this to the horizontal connector next to it and add the other 3 pieces over the horizontal connectors this way.
- When you're done, cut off the excess thread. You can make a loop with the thread and tie it at the joint where you want to hang the himmeli.
- If you cut the straws in half you will get fairly large shapes. However, if you want to create several smaller himmeli by crafting with straws, you can cut them into thirds. This can also be doneChristmas wreaths or garlandscreate by lining them up.
