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Colorful knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame from craft book author & designer Heidi Gustad.

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How-to: Mod Holiday Decor

November 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

There was a flash flood in my building last summer that destroyed a bunch of my husband’s and my Christmas decorations, including our fake tree, wreath, all of our lights, and even a few ornaments. Maybe it was a sign telling us to try something new with our holiday decor. We’re new Chicagoans, in a new apartment. Why not try something new? Our apartment has great high ceilings, but sometimes it’s a challenge to find stuff for the walls that doesn’t cost a zillion dollars.

The really cool thing about this relatively easy project (which costs just $10-15 to make) is that if you swap out the wrapping paper with some season-neutral paper, this wall hanging can work year-round.

Supplies 

cardboard

wrapping paper

tape (packing tape works best)

scissors

dinner plate

paper clips

x-acto knife

pencil

nail

mallet/hammer

string

Directions

Lay out your cardboard on your work surface. Trace a dinner plate onto it, creating as many circles as your wall hanging calls for. My wall hanging is 4 circles by 4 circles, so I needed a total of 16.

Cut the outline of each circle using an x-acto knife. I recommend not cutting all the way through your cardboard as it takes forEVER. Instead, cut through just half of your cardboard with the x-acto knife. Then cut the circles out completely using a regular scissors. The x-acto knife step makes cutting cardboard with a scissors a lot easier.

Repeat the x-acto knife/scissors cutting process until all of your circles are cut out. Cutting the cardboard circles is the most time-consuming step in this whole project. Cutting cardboard can get really, really messy. I keep a lint roller on hand to help clean up my work space – it’s a big time-saver.

Next, lay your circles out on the wrong side of some wrapping paper. Cut the wrapping paper into circles about an inch wider than your cardboard.

Tape the wrapping paper to the cardboard. To get the roundest result, I secured my paper in eight evenly-spaced spots around the circle, as shown.

Cut each point that you see sticking up with a scissors, being careful not to cut too far onto the front of the circle or tear the wrapping paper.

Fold the two pieces down and tape them in place.

Repeat this process to cover each circle. I covered half of mine in one type of paper, and the rest in another. I wanted the finished product to have an alternating color pattern.

Lay a scrap of cardboard on your work surface to protect it. Lay one of your circles on it and punch four evenly-spaced holes using a nail and hammer. You won’t have to hit very hard to punch through the cardboard! I also recommend punching the holes from front to back since there will be a little blow out in the direction in which the hole is punched on your circles. I often punched two circles’ worth of holes at once by layering two circles on top of one another to save time.

Once holes have been punched in each of your circles, grab a paper clip and unbend it.

Thread the paper clip through the hole of once circle and then another, connecting them like chain links.

Continue linking all of the circles with paper clips to create your wall hanging. If you’re hoping to create a pattern like I did, be careful about which circles you clip to each other. I made four one-by-four strips of circles first, before linking each strip to each other.

To make your hanging wall-mountable, add a row of paper clips to the top of the top row of circles. Then, thread some string through each of them. Mounting this is as easy as hammering two nails into a wall and hanging the string on them.

Filed Under: Christmas, How-to Tagged With: cardboard, chirstmas decor, mod, wrapping paper

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author, designer & creator specializing in yarn crafts like knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé. Her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now.

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi (she/her/hers), a craft book author & pattern designer specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. Really anything with yarn! ❤️  My work combines vintage and modern design elements, featuring bold colors and graphic motifs.

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handsoccupied

Craft book author, designer & creator specializing in yarn crafts like knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé
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Weekend knitting design aftermath. Remember kids, Weekend knitting design aftermath. Remember kids, it’s always good to stop, swatch and block it. 🧶
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Since it won’t be clean for long, swipe to see w Since it won’t be clean for long, swipe to see what my home studio looks like these days. Nothing will ever quite be like the old Hands Occupied Studio, but I’m pretty pleased with how I shoehorned everything in this space. Function over form + a layer of yarn cuteness-meets-chaos is how I’d describe my creative space needs. 😆 When I was still renting the studio, those needs included “doesn’t rain suspicious brown water from a crack in the ceiling for a year,” so this is an improvement! 😆
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For a time lapse of the studio organizing and tszuj-ing process, scroll down a couple posts on my feed. (There’s also a video or two featuring the old studio if you’re curious.) Happy June, friends! 
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#handsoccupied #magicloop #knitting #howtoknit #knittinginspiration #knittingintheround
Finally organizing & putting the finishing touches Finally organizing & putting the finishing touches on my home studio. After losing my studio space last fall, it’s feels really great to *occupy* this new space all the way. 😉
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I started by removing general clutter & returning straggler supplies from various WIPs, videos & design deadlines to their homes. Next, I hung a third peg board in the space - this one is mostly for display and less for organizing tools or projects. For the first time ever, I’m displaying projects from my book, plus a couple other faves. (The best thing about designing more yarn crafts besides knit & crochet is that I have some really fun -and delightfully pettable 😆- samples around.) I finished by adding a square dowel to my small supply storage tower to keep it from tipping over, plus re-arranging and de-cluttering the closet. 
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This cleaner space already has me feeling so much more creative and less overwhelmed. Now to find a safe spot in the basement for the tower of project samples in Rubbermaid tubs I liberated from my WIPs closet. Also why are there five?! 
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