I’ve always lived in flats owned by other people, so I never wanted to decorate them or stick things to the walls. However this year I have a house, and that means I can make all the changes I want in the world!

This year I went away, so I only made a few things. The first was a star garland for the wall. I made 8 origami five-pointed stars (you can try this tutorial!) out of frosted silver and gold paper, then I threaded some twine through each one. I bought some Command easy wall hooks to hang this up in my room.

The second thing I made was an origami wreath. I learnt how to make these interlocking units from Marta’s Origami when I was looking up wreaths. The instructions are in Portuguese but the images are fairly straightforward to follow along. I used red and green units for a Festive theme.

What you can do with them is add some flat-backed pearls onto the centre of the flowers, then glue them together and punch a hole in one unit for a ribbon to hold it all together. This ribbon has a lovely gold trim on it.

Next year I hope I’ll be around to make more decorations on a grander scale, but here is just a teaser for now! I really enjoyed making these!

Materials for the star garland:
– double-sided gold and silver paper
– twine

Materials for the origami wreath:
– double-sided red and green paper
– gold flat-backed pearls
– thin red ribbon

Tools needed:
– hot glue gun
– craft knife and cutting mat