DIY Paper Party Chandelier - Tutorial

Let's go back a bit, oh say a couple of weeks... it was a Friday and I was busy to-doing, getting things together for a party in BLUE. I was fluffing blue paper pom-poms (not my favorite task it turns out), hanging blue paper lanterns, draping blue beaded curtains, and dangling sparkling silver stars. My girl had asked for blue, but had not specified which hue of blue she preferred. There are rather a lot of shades of blue you know?  So, I just got as many shades as I could find.

At the bottom of my bag of tricks there was one little roll of $1.50 blue crepe paper. At the moment I could not for the life of me remember what my intentions had been regarding this roll of crepe paper when I purchased it. I looked around and noticed the large pendant light hanging from the center of the ceiling and it irked me, as it often does, but it was particularly clashing with the blue extravaganza I had in play. 

I decided right then and there that something must be done, some remedy must be found! So with my one roll of blue crepe paper in hand and about an hour or so left on my timeline, I set about upon a path of easy peasy cheesy DIY righteousness! 

I was not certain how this was all going to end up, but took some photos just in case I might stumble upon a kind of clever idea. In the end I was well enough pleased with my super thrifty endeavor and thought I'd share it with you here in brief. Perfect for parties and festivities of all sorts.

The DIY Crepe Paper Chandelier:

Materials:

One roll of crepe paper

Piece of cardboard about 12"x 12"

Marker Pen

Masking Tape

Paint (optional)

Roll of curling ribbon or other ribbon

Scissors

Push pins

(I had all of the materials at home already but for the crepe paper, chances are you will have most of these items too. Which makes this a very cheap project)

To Start:

click on the pictures to enlarge if needed

I traced around a large dinner plate onto my cardboard, I then centered a smaller salad plate inside the larger circle and traced around that to create two circles. Using scissors, cut out the large circle, then cut out the center circle. (It's ok to cut through the outer circle to get to the center, in fact, for me it was necessary to be able to open it up to get it to fit around my wide pendant light shade.) I then applied a quick coat of blue paint to one side of the circle just to make sure the cardboard wouldn't show through, but it isn't critical to the project. Let dry. 

Side Note: If the base of your light (the part attached to the ceiling) is larger than 8" you may need a larger piece of cardboard and then trace a large enough circle to fit around it.

 Next, cut even lengths of crepe paper: how long you cut them depends on how far you want them to hang down below the light (my lengths were about 34"). begin taping your strips around the wrong side of the cardboard circle as shown in the upper left photo above. Continue all the way around (upper right photo). Cut a second set of strips from the crepe paper a bit shorter than the first and tape each one between/overlapping the the first strips all the way around the circle as before. Next, cut lengths of curling ribbon (the kind used for wrapping presents) and tape them in even spacing around the circle. You can use more crepe paper and ribbon if you like. I used the entire roll of crepe paper I had and what was left of a roll of curling ribbon so that was my gauge of how much to use.

Next I used my scissors to curl the ends of the ribbon. I carefully centered my finished chandelier around the base of the light at the ceiling and used a couple of push pins pressed through the cardboard into the ceiling to keep it in place. Ta Da! 

Now that was seriously easy right? And thrifty! For all that last minute throw it together and hope for the best business, it was a big hit at the party and has me thinking of making some fancy ones with sheer fabrics and silk ribbons and... oh you know how I like to say: possibilities are endless!

Important Note: Make sure that your crepe paper is not touching a bare light bulb, you want to make sure you have a few inches between the paper and a hot bulb as this could possibly be a fire hazard. You wouldn't even have to use these with a light, they would make a pretty decoration on their own. Or use a safe LED light inside instead if you are worried. The glow does make it extra special.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, it's not my usual sort of thing, but it is great fun and would be a perfect project to do with kids. And who can resist a chandelier? If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I will do my best to respond to them there.

Happy crafting!