DIY Pom Pom and Tassel Garland (with tutorials)

Well hello there,

Unfortunately I have an affliction. The first things I purchased as soon as I landed in Ireland for a visit home were three balls of wool! I wanted to make a tassel garland for my teacher notice board and these colours were very me. (The first thing I bought in my hometown were matching packs of tissue paper; more on that to follow!)

I saw a video on how to make little pom poms using a fork. Then I decided that I'd decorate my garland with both pom poms and tassels. Here's how it looked in my classroom. (Note the tissue paper flowers!)

And here are tutorials on how I made them.

Enjoy!
Emer

Mini Pom Poms:
You will need: wool, scissors, fork
1. Wrap the wool around the fork lots of times. Make sure not to go too close to the tips of the fork and also to leave space so you can see the holes.
2. Cut a short length of wool and thread it through the middle hole in the fork. Tie it in a loose knot. Slide the wool off the fork, pull the wool tighter and tie two knots.
3. Snip the loops all around the edge of the pom pom.
4. Give the pom pom a "haircut" to tidy up any scraggly bits.
5. Fluff it out et volià! 

Tassles:
You will need: Wool, scissors, a thin box or book
1. Wrap the wool around the book or thin box several times. (I did it 30 times.)
2. Slide the wool off the box.
3. Cut a short length of wool and place it a third / a quarter of the way down the wool (depending on how you want your tassel to look).
4. Tie that strand tightly.
5. Snip the middle of the longer loops. Give it a quick "haircut" to even up the length of the strands.
6. Pull one end of the strand used in step 4 through the loops at the top and then tie it on top. 

I've also previously written a blog tutorial on how to make the paper flowers. Click here to view it!

Desk tidy made from old colouring pencils

 

After having some old colouring pencils pile up in a basket in my classroom, I decided I wanted to do something crafty with them. Naturally, a quick Pinterest search was in order and I really liked the idea of using them to make little containers for the sharpeners and erasers on the desks in my classroom. My colleagues were very forthcoming following my email request for pencils that were too short to use so I built up quite a few in the last month of school. 

I thought these would take a lot longer to make but the longest part was sorting the pencils into different coloured piles. After that it was quite quick, hot-gluing them on to plastic raspberry containers. I decided not to make them all the same length and I like the effect of having some shorter and some longer pencils in there. 

Here are a few pics of how I made them:

The longest part - sorting the colours!

The surprisingly quick gluing part!
(TIP: Put greaseproof paper on the surface where you use the hot glue gun - it peels off really easily and doesn't get too messy and sticky!)

Two of the finished containers!