tisket a tasket... another baby shower project

 Okay... actually it's not a tisket or a tasket (in fact I don't know what a tisket or a tasket is) but a tissue tassel garland... I just liked the "t" thing!  But seriously, if you're looking for a cute and super cheap idea for a party, this one is it!.  I made about an 8 foot long garland out of 6 pieces of tissue paper and an 8 foot piece of ribbon.  It takes a bit of time but is definitely worth the effort.

I started with these 4 colors of tissue... since it's for the THE baby shower I wanted these specific colors.  I used two pieces of the light pink, two pieces of the aqua, one yellow and one "raspberry" pink.

My ribbon of choice... since I am planning to pin this (using these vintage baby pins, of course) to a tablecloth, I decided to use wide satin ribbon but you could use narrow ribbon, bias tape even baker's twine to hang it from.

I found a good tutorial on (where else) Pinterest.  My version follows this with just a couple of tweaks.

First lay out a single sheet of tissue flat and fold over lengthwise.  Here my fold is at the top.

Then fold in half, width wise.  Here my fold is on the left.  You would obviously line up your edges but I left it a bit askew just so you could see it folded.

Now fold width wise again, this time the fold is on the right.  Once again, you would line it up.

The tutorial used scissors in the next step but I used my cutting mat, rotary cutter and ruler instead.  It made it super easy and quick.

Cut strips about 1/4 inch apart, eyeballing is just fine, start the cut at the bottom which is the open or non folded side and cut up towards the folded edge.  Stop about 2 inches before the fold.  Continue all the way across.

Now unfold your tissue just once... you will cut up the middle where the fold is.  Since you started cutting the strips 1/4 inch from the folded edge it should be about 1/2 wide here.

Now you have this...

Which when you pull it apart you have two separate pieces (on the left) and another folded piece (on the right).  Unfold that piece on the right and cut up the middle again just like the previous step.

You should now have 4 pieces out of that once piece of tissue.

Since I like to work assembly line style, keep doing this for all of your pieces and colors.

Now take one of the pieces and gently spread it all out.

Starting at the bottom, roll the piece up.  You will see that the fringe-y bits get a little snarled, gently untangle them.

Next twist the tissue once in the center of the rolled area.

Then twist out from there.  Don't overdo the twisting as you don't want the tissue to tear apart.

You can keep going on rolling and twisting.

Then take one tassel and fold it over.  Cross the twisted section and twist together, this is why you don't twist to much on the first twist step.  Be sure to leave an opening at the top for your ribbon/twine.  The tutorial had you glue it during this step but I found that my tissue kept together just fine without any glue... but that's up to you.  Perhaps if this was to be used outside you may want to glue it since the damp air might have an effect on it.

Rolling and twisting the afternoon away...

For my placement I decided about 5 inches apart would fill up my ribbon.  I spread out my tassels by color and then strung them on my selected ribbon.

Of course I needed to do a test run of pinning the tassel garland to a tablecloth...

 And I was surprised to see that the tassels didn't slide around too much, even on this satin ribbon.

So if you have a couple of hours on your hands and just a minimal amount of supplies, I definitely recommend this little project for your next party!

 It's super light weight for hanging but really leaves an impact.

Next up?  I'm thinking pinwheels....

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