Making an autumn garland

We like making garlands in our house. We have a large opening between our living room and our dining room and it's the perfect spot for seasonal garlands.

Today we finished up our autumn garland. It's an easy project and our six year old daughter was able to finish most of the work herself. I assisted with some fine trimming, helping her line up the chain for stapling, and hanging the finished garland.

Supplies needed:

- construction paper in assorted autumn colors (we used yellow, orange, red, and brown)
- scissors
- stapler
- paper cutter (optional - you could substitute scissors)
- templates for tracing
- lightweight cardboard
- pencils

The first step was creating the templates. For this I just searched the web and found these templates:

1. Pumpkins

2. Leaves

3. Apples

I also had an acorn template left over from last year and I didn't bookmark where I found it. You can easily substitute other autumn shapes, if you desire.

Print out the templates and glue them to some lightweight cardboard. If you have them, old cereal boxes (or similar type of cardboard) work well for this.



Then carefully cut out the centers of the images so that you have a template that can be easily traced.



Place the template over a piece of construction paper and trace the shape.



Then cut the shape out. Repeat until you have enough shapes to create the desired size garland.





Next you'll want to create your paper chain garland. I cut strips of paper about 1" wide and about 8.5" long using my paper cutter.



You could also use scissors to cut out strips.

We took those strips and made chain links for the garland. Just loop a strip around into a circle shape and staple it shut. Link the next strip around the first and continue to staple them, creating a chain.





After the chain is finished, use the stapler to attach your autumn shapes.

Then hang!



We've linked up over at A Wise Woman Builds Her Home today. Go see the other posts celebrating fall.