New Year’s Celebrations: Up-cycled Envelope Garland

Take a few envelopes and change them into this fun New Year’s garland!

Materials

• Envelopes
• Paint (* Optional, we went with metallics.  You could use crayons, felt markers etc.)
• Craft tray
• Cardboard or scrap paper
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pencil/eraser
• OR paper cutter
• Rick rack (or twine, cord etc.)
• Smock
• Glue or glue gun (to be used by an adult)

Directions

• Carefully open up your envelope as shown.

• Draw lines around the outside triangles with your ruler, blocking off the parts with the glue residue. Make an “X” through the centre.

• Cut out your triangles.

• Arrange them on a scrap piece of paper or cardboard and place them in your craft tray.  Depending on the size of your craft tray you may want to cover your whole work space with newspaper or a plastic crafting tablecloth.

• Don your smock. We then went with a drip technique for the painting where we stood over the triangles and let the paint drip onto the them.  Allow to dry overnight.

• We then used a glue gun to glue our rick rack to the front of our triangles (ours was a bit bent being wrapped around card, but if yours is on a roll, craft glue would work too!)  Allow to dry.

• Hang up your garland and enjoy!

Purpose

• Re-imagining/recycling items
• Experimenting with various painting techniques.

Safety Notes

• Be sure to use a smock and a craft tray to protect your clothes and surfaces.
• Any string like materials such as rick rack may pose a strangulation hazard.  Be sure to use them with direct adult supervision and not as a toy.