Belle Bebes Fab finds for your beautiful baby.

For Beatrice’s birthday party, we created a number of paper decorations, which are very simple to make, cheap and most importantly, pretty! So I thought I would show you how to create your own. First of all, the circle garlands.

Delightful Disks

These are dead simple and can be altered in a number of ways to create very different effects. I used a 3 inch circle punch (you could just use scissors, but I would recommend a punch) and different pale shades of pink, peach, yellow, green, blue and purple. Work out how many you need to fill the area you intend to hang them and then set them out in piles of the correct number, in the colour order you want. Mine took 16 circles per strand and the shades were random within the colour.

Then you just sew! It really doesn’t matter how straight your sewing is (honestly, mine was all over the place!). Obviously, you want the beginning and end of the sewing on each circle to be vaguely central, but if you veer off course in between, it really doesn’t matter. Don’t forget to leave enough thread on at least one end of the strand so that you can use it to tie or stick them up.

This is one way to use these circle garlands. Debs used them not so long ago for a party she organised and this is how hers turned out. So you can see just how different they can be!

Simple Streamers

Next on the agenda is the zig-zag streamers. These are even easier than the circle garlands! All you need for these is a rectangle of paper and a pair of scissors. Cut a line parallel to the edge of the paper, about half an inch away, but don’t cut all the way through the paper. Then cut another line parallel to this one about an inch away, again not cutting all the way through. Continue cutting lines like this all along the rectangle. When you get to the end, turn the paper over and cut lines half way in between the cuts you’ve made, but again, don’t cut all the way through to the other side. Hey presto, a zig-zag streamer!

You will need to experiment slightly to see how big your rectangle needs to be in order to create the right length of zig-zag for your space, but this is another decoration that doesn’t require precision. If your cuts aren’t quite straight or evenly spaced, it actually doesn’t matter. (Am I coming across as a lazy DIYer yet?!)

Colourful Cones

And finally, this one isn’t really a decoration, it’s more a food accessory. It’s the paper cones which we used to hold our snacks. You need a circle big enough to draw around (that’s my bread bin lid in the picture), which will need to be around 30cm diameter, or you could use a compass if you have one. Then, lay greaseproof paper over the circle and free-hand draw a circle about 1cm smaller in radius to the coloured paper circle. You need to cut out twice as many coloured circles as you do greaseproof paper circles, as half of them will serve as bases. Then fold the paper circle in half and in half again to create a quarter circle. Cut out the 4 quarters and then repeat with the greaseproof paper. Roll up the quarter circles and stick into a cone shape with double-sided sticky tape. Take half of the coloured cones and cut off around 2cm from the top. Roll up the greaseproof paper circles and place them inside the other cones (there’s no need to stick these). Place a greaseproof paper-lined cone inside one of the bases and fill with snacks. Then eat. Easy peasy!

Verity