New Years Eve Paper Lantern Garland and Glittered Clocks

Happy New Year's Eve!  I spent the day yesterday with the family putting away Christmas decor, and getting ready to ring in the new year.  I was inspired to be a little crafty and had some fun and simple decorations in mind.  I thought I would share how to make these easy New Year's decorations.

I wanted to make my New Year decorations mostly out of simple white copy paper, the first craft I made were simple glittered clocks.  There are many clock faces available to print online, I found some at a teaching website ( printable clocks link ).  I printed them out in black and white and cut out the few I wanted, especially the clock striking midnight, and I printed them out in various sizes.  I glued the clock faces down to card stock, and cut them out, and using gel glitter glue added tinsel silver glitter to the edges.  Regular silver glitter would work too, I am just partial to the Martha Stewart Tinsel glitter for it's old fashioned look.  I also glittered a Happy New Year 2014 sign to add to the table.  Here are how the clocks turned out.

I tucked the little glittered clocks throughout my dining room decor.  I kept out some of the glittery floral picks from Christmas, and some of the silver glittered Christmas balls to use as New Year's Eve decor.  I love the way they turned out!  If I had more time I would love to make some glittered clocks with a aged newsprint background, and maybe some different paper fringes, but I will have to save that for next year!

The next craft I made were little paper lanterns.  I have been making paper lanterns since I was a child in school, I have made them many times over the years with different colored papers for all the different holidays.  This past week I was watching a British Mystery on PBS and they kept showing little paper lanterns that some children were crafting, and so I was inspired to make some for New Year's Eve.  I knew right away I wanted to make them to match my clocks with plain white copy paper, and of course some more silver glitter!  They are super easy to make, here is a quick tutorial.

Supplies- Regular white copy paper, glue stick, scissors, single hole puncher, glue and glitter.

Fold a piece of paper in half, like shown above, and cut it into two equal sized pieces. Take one of the pieces and fold it in half again this time fold on the long side, see above.  Cut lines about 1/2 an inch apart, all along the folded edge, but not all the way through to the top, stop about half an inch from the top, I drew blue lines on the paper above in the tutorial pictures so you can see the type of cuts to make.  Cut all the way along the paper stopping half and inch from the end.

Once you have finished your cuts, unfold the paper, and glue on one end as shown in the picture above with the glue stick and the blue line showing were to apply the glue.  Fold it around and hold together for a moment while the glue adheres.  That is your basic paper lantern.

When you have made as many as you want, punch two holes in the top so you can string them up on some yarn as a garland.  Then using gel glue apply a thin bead to the top and bottom and sprinkle on some silver glitter.  When they are dry, string them on some white yarn and hang them up.  I also made a few to set around the table.

 I love the way all the decorations turned out!  I am just about ready to ring in the New Year!

We have a basket set out with our old fashioned clackers, and I am about to head to the store to make sure I am all stocked up on snacks for the evening.  The kids are having a few friends over and I am looking forward to a fun evening!

Happy New Year!  Have a fun and safe evening!