Photos By Karla Luna / Staff
By Karla Luna
A lot of us have time on our hands with the closure of Southwestern’s campus. I do not plan to leave my house—I hope you are with me on that—so I am expanding my DIY skills. Some ideas I found looked too complicated for someone who does not have wood planks and a pasta maker laying around at home.Instead, I will share weekly crafts and recipes that can be made without breaking the bank or risking a trip to the store. If you enjoy the suggestions, post a picture and tag @theswcsun on social media and use #TheSunAtHome.
This week: Paper Wall Hanging
Just a heads up before you start, this week’s craft can be messy if you are not careful.
I got paint on my dog, Peanut Butter. Try not to paint your dog, if you have one. One of my paint seals did not want to open and I twisted too hard. Paint flew in Peanut Butter’s direction. He’s an old dog, so he just gave me a disapproving look. It was like he asked me, “Aren’t you going to clean it up?” Funny how dogs can give you attitude with just a look.I cleaned up the paint with some baby wipes and later gave Peanut Butter a bath. I had to make sure the good ol’ boy was nice and clean.
This week in shelter gave me a chance to clean out my room. I found some old posters and CDs I have not seen since middle school, which made me cringe thinking about those times.I also recently built a new bed and moved things around leaving some walls empty. I began looking at easy room DIY ideas to fill the void.
I saw different shelves and picture frames, but those are things I already have. I wanted something simple and new. While searching through thousands of DIY ideas, something colorful caught my eye. It was a paper wall hanging with multiple colored shapes hanging over a bed This looked cute and easy.
Materials Needed:
Paint
Paint Brush
Paper
Wired Hanger
Scissors
Glue
Sewing thread or string
Nail or pin to hangup
Directions:
First, paint the pieces of paper. I decided on five different shades of blue for an ombre effect. The number of paper pieces required depends on the size of the wall hanger. I painted 14 papers since I want a longer ombre effect. Let your paper dry. Mine took two hours.
Waiting for the paint to dry is a good time to shape the wired hanger. Take apart the hanger and push the wire with your thumbs until it forms a circle.
Next comes the design. I decided to hang stars on the wired hanger. I chose this shape to compliment the glow-in-the-dark stars I have on the ceiling in my room. (Do other people still have those in their room?)To make sure my shape looked good while I cut, I made a star stencil out of paper. You can do this with any shape, but I recommend picking one that is easy to cut out.You can save a little time (and your hand muscles) by folding your paper into three equal parts as shown below.
