Laundry On Sundaes

I must first begin with a side note: I hate it when people/organizations don’t appreciate the work you do for them. I get that a lot as an illustrator for various campus publications at Columbia. Recent example: The Gadfly, the undegrad philosophy magazine, asked me to do some illustrations for them. I was very glad to accept. However, they did not send me the photographs I needed for the illustrations for a very long time, despite my efforts in e-mailing them several times. When they finally did, I had about a day to do the illustrations before the deadline. So I had to put aside my homework and studying for midterms to do them. And they never got back to me after I sent them the illustrations. Then, about a week ago, the magazine came out in print, and to my surprise, my drawings were not in there. Instead, they did some butchered Photoshop work on the original photos and completely left out my illustrations. Without even telling me. If they weren’t good enough for you, or got them in too late (which would not have been my fault) then at least let me know that, damn it.

Second example. What I had hoped as a weekly DIY column at Hoot is not turning out to be what I imagined. After rejecting one of my posts for no stated reason, they’re not posting my posts. I had a DIY wreath post ready to go for weeks and was hoping that it would be posted before Christmas, because, you know, wreaths are for Christmas. But as of now, they still have not posted it. All this while the co-editors in chief have been very eager to post their own posts, sometimes without even checking the spelling in the post title. So I’ve decided to resign from the team, who clearly have different interests than me.

Finally, I’ve come to the actual DIY project, and as you’ve probably guess, it’s the holiday wreath. I’m sorry that it’s a bit late for this season, but it’s super simple and you can always make it for next year! Here it is!

Project: Tissue paper holiday wreath
Difficulty level: medium

Step 1: Gather your supplies. I didn’t have a lot of stuff to make the wreath, so I had to get creative. All I used for this project are a thin wire hanger, some tissue paper (doesn’t matter if they’re new or used), scissors, tape, and glue.

Step 2: Bend the hanger into a circle. This will be the framework for the wreath. A hanger works great since it’s the perfect size and comes with a convenient hook for hanging.

Step 3: Choose 2 or 3 different colors of tissue paper for the wreath. I decided to make a nontraditional one and so I chose yellow and purple. Cut your tissue paper into strips of about 2.5″ by 7″.

Step 4: Scrunch up a strip of tissue paper with your hand.

Step 5: Tie the scrunched up strip to the hanger, making sure that the knot is in the center. Be careful to not rip the tissue.

Step 6: Do the same for the rest of the strips of tissue. You can make a pattern with the different colors or just arrange them randomly.

Step 7: Fill the entire framework with the tissues. Trim the wreath if some of the tissues are uneven. You’re now done with the basic wreath! You can stop here or go one to decorate it some more.

Step 8: I had some left over tissue paper, so I decided to make some paper balls to decorate my wreath. Take some tissue paper and scrunch it up. Put it in another piece of intact tissue paper.

Step 9: Wrap the intact piece around the crunched up tissue to make a ball. Tape it in the back.

Step 10: Make as many paper balls as you like and tape or glue them to your wreath. And you’re done! A gorgeous tissue paper wreath ready to be displayed.

Tags: crafts, diy, rants