This was one of my first blog posts that I wrote three years ago! Before I perfected camera skills and flat-lay pictures.
It's a rainy day here in the county of Surrey - and our girls are out all day at their Brownie circus skills workshop, so it's just the three of us, and whilst my boy is engrossed in the delights of Disney Jr, I thought I'd share this tutorial on how to make cheap honeycomb decorations.
This was a labour of love yesterday - my first attempt went very wrong. This one is far from perfect, but now I know what to do, I'm sure the next one will be even better. My camera phone photos don't do it much justice, it actually looks pretty impressive in the flesh. It's a time consuming activity - but so satisfying when you finish.
You will need:
40/50 sheets of tissue paper in a mixture of colours (Poundland)
Cardboard (a cereal box is perfect)
Scissors
A glue stick
A needle and thread
A sheet of paper
Two different coloured pens
30 minutes (not easy with kids!)
1. Cut a circle out of the cereal box - any size you fancy, I drew round a tin of paint. Then cut it in half so you have two semi-circles.
2. Count out 40 sheets of tissue paper, I layered them in different colour blocks, three sheets of pink, 3 sheets of yellow etc to get the bright rainbow stripe effect. Cut them so they are larger than the area of the semi-circle. You'll end up with a pile of rectangular sheets.
3. On your plain sheet of paper, mark out stripes in alternate coloured pen lines. It doesn't really matter what width they are, as long as they alternate e.g red stripe, blue stripe. The distance between them will depend on the size of the honeycomb cell.
4. Next is where I went wrong the first time. Do NOT use PVA glue, it seeps through the layers sticking them all together! Use a glue stick. Follow the blue lines first, gripping the paper down firmly at the side - drag the glue stick down each blue line. Then add your next sheet of tissue paper and press down firmly.
5. On the next layer, follow the red lines - add your next layer and press down. Then on the third layer follow the blue lines again. You get the gist - alternate layers follow blue then red! This is where it takes a lot patience. I repeated this process for roughly 40 layers. Once all the gluing is finished. Draw around your semi circle on top of the tissue paper.
6. For my first ball decoration I just cut round the semi-circle, remember to use strong scissors as you're cutting through lots of layers. For my second decoration a cut a bumpy edge around the semi circle to look like petals. Once you have cut the tissue paper, stick one cardboard semi-circle to one side. I cut it a little smaller.
7. Then on the other side I cut the cardboard to a rainbow shape (arch) and stuck it on. This makes it less lop-sided when you hang it.
8. Next with your needle and thread, poke a hole through each corner, I poked through the cardboard and all the layers, pull it tight and tie a knot, leaving some thread dangling.
9. This is the last - and most satisfying step - where all your hard work becomes worth it. Slowly unfold the ball. Some bits may be slightly stuck together, but gently tease it open......and hooray - you did it - a honeycomb ball!
You can clip it in place with paperclips of a bit of tape which allows you to store it flat again.
Mine is far from neat and perfect - but I'm pretty proud of myself. Below is my first attempt with PVA glue, you can see it didn't work as well!
I'm going to continue experimenting - a pack of tissue paper from Poundland could easily make three decorations - so it's a cheap way to brighten up a party or kid's bedroom. Thanks for visiting!
