Spice up the party with easy-to-make hanging swirl decorations!

Yeap, I came up with another decoration idea for Angel's upcoming Disney party this Sunday. Since it is so easy to make, (yes, it is even simpler than the already simple party bags and Minnie Mouse invitation cards), I won't say this is actually a craft tutorial but more of me sharing with you the process of how I made these hanging decorations.

What you need:
1) Construction paper (I used 240g paper for this)
2) Photographs
3) Scissors
4) Glitter glue
5) String

Firstly, come up with a shape design. Since mine was a Disney party and I already had the template from making the invites, I decided to take the easy way out on this one and use the Mickey Mouse shape. Cut out as many shapes as you desire based on how long you want your decorations to dangle. For mine, I used both red and black paper just to alternate and give it a bit of variation.

Print out pictures of your kid, your family or any other pics related to your party theme. I used all the pictures we took in Paris Disneyland for this. I simply cropped out circular shapes, printed them on glossy photo paper, cut them out and pasted them onto the Mickey Mouse shapes.

In addition, I used glitter glue to write the words "Angel is 2" onto the back of every shape. When the decorations swirl around, you would be able to see both the picture and the wordings. I personally find this more attractive than one with pictures only and somehow the glitter helps to glam things up a bit.

Finally, all you need to do is to string the shapes together and there, you have made your own hanging decoration! In order to let them swirl around freely, you have to string one shape to the other individually instead of running a long string down all of them. Use a sharp object to poke holes at the top and bottom of the shape (look for an empty spot instead of ruining the pictures of wordings!), thread the string through it (I had to use a needle threader to help me since my string frayed easily and the hole was so tiny), and make secure double knots at every end.

For the top part, I made a loop in the string just so you could easily hang it onto any hook if you have them at home. If not, you could stick them in place with blu-tack and use a small piece of white paper to cover up the blu-tack.

See? I made only two of these hanging swirls because I wanted them to be at the doorway. You could also make shorter ones and dangle them from the ceiling all around your house if you wish. It took me less a day to make this as it was really rather idiot-proof and it was rewarding to see that they did help to brighten up my otherwise boring doorway.

Well, one last note, be careful not to let the curious (and somewhat careless) little ones rip apart your hard work! They can come off rather easily and are not a match for our strong, beefy kids.

So, what do you think of my Mickey Mouse hanging swirl decors?

For more craft ideas and DIY tutorials, visit my gallery here.