It was my childhood days when I was fascinated to see my grandmother making various decorations like fold and cut paper chain. Within few minutes my grandmother would fold long strips of newspaper, tear and cut pieces away. Then she used to open the strip out to expose the most charming and interesting chains of little hand-linked figures. It was true that I used to like her at work. I used to try to figure out what kind of design she was working on. It was a good fun for me.

This project adds some innovations with the idea of the paper chain craft. The figures are adorned with drawn faces and costume details.

If you are looking forward to make easy, atypical, cheap, easy-to-work decorations for Thanksgiving, then this is the project which you are looking for.

TOOLS AND MATERIALS

You need:

Materials

• 4 ½ inches wide and 12 to 18 inches long strip of thin colored paper.
• 2 * 4 ½ inches tracing paper
• Masking tape
• A pencil
• Scissors
• A set of colored pencil crayon or felt tip pens

CAUTIONS AND ADULT HELP

• This particular craft is very simple and easy to make. You would rarely need an adult to help you out on this.
  
  
• If you are not sure about the shapes of the figures then it is better to look for the help of an adult. Spend some time and try to make the figures with newspaper before you seek an adult help.

Figure - 1

Figure - 2

Figure - 3

Figure - 4

Figure - 5

WHAT TO DO

• Take a look at the project picture (fig. 1) and the working drawings (fig. 2) very carefully. The most important point is to learn how to cut a folded concertina of paper, with the body at centerline and the hands occurring on the folds.
  
  
• Try to figure out appropriately how to work on the project. Measure, mark and fold the paper strip. Trace off the half-figure design and pencil-press-transfer the traced lines through to the top face of the folded paper so that the hands and the center lines occur on the folds. (fig. 3, top left)
  
  
• Make sure that the transferred lines are clear after removing the tracing paper.
  
  
• Shade in the areas of waste. Be cautious to cut across the "hand" folds. Use scissors to cut around the lines of the half-figures (fig. 4).
  
  
• Open the chains out after you are done with cutting away the areas of waste. Use pencil and color aptly to mark all the little details (fig. 5).

TIPS AND OTHER IDEAS

• There is a limit to the number of paper folds or layers which you can cut through at any point of time. Find this out right at the beginning of the project.
  
  
• Don't cut through the hand-to-hand linking area at the time when you are cutting the waste away.
  
  
• To make it more colorful it is not a bad idea to play with different colors, costume details and the features. If you are able to make each of the figures a different character then you are highly successful.

More Crafts:
Indian Selections | General

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