Old Job Chandelier

Today I made a craft to use up all those old papers from my stupid old job that I had to resign from after not getting paid for too long. 

Other than burning for heat, I can't think of a better use of all those old contracts, to-do lists, spreadsheets, and business cards!

To begin, I took about 50 pieces of scrap paper and dipped them in a 9x13 pan filled with tea so they would look old. They had to dry overnight. This step is totally optional if you actually have a life.

You need an old coat hanger and pliers. Metal coat hangers can be hard to find. They just don't make things how they used to! Luckily I found one in the parking lot of my grocery store.  I'm guessing a meth head who collects scrap metals must have dropped it while stealing a shopping cart, so I gave it a quick wash.

Next put in a DVD and get your scrap paper. You're going to be doing a lot of folding, which requires no concentration but some visual attention, so I recommend watching a show that you've seen and will enjoy mainly listening to.

You will also need a stapler and masking tape. Make one inch folds on the shorter side of the paper.

Like an accordion.

Keep it folded up.

And fold it in half.

You need to put a staple in the middle. My stapler was too small so I had to make a loose fold to get in in there.

My staples also weren't very strong so I also had to flip it over and put a staple in from the other direction as well.

Open it up and use your tape to attach one side to the other to make a fan-like thingy.

Then you attach two of the fans together to make a circle, again using tape.

When taping your circle together you want to leave a hole in the middle to push the coat hanger through eventually. You should make sure the tape is secure around the hole so the hanger won't move.

Make a quesadilla or some kind of healthy lunch.

Treat yourself to some cake. You gotta keep your strength up because you have to make about 24 of those circles (48 fans) to fill your coat hanger. I probably would have been better with 27 circles, but look how small that piece of cake is.

When you make 24 circles (which took me about 6 episodes of Gilmore Girls) you string them all onto a straightened out coat hanger.

Use your pliers and twist the wires to connect them making a circle. If your wire isn't really straight and already bent a little circular you may end up with some waves in your circle. I did, but I was pretty frustrated and quit trying to even it out after the fact. I can't believe how strong and covered in rust those old hangers can be!

Use some duct tape or whatever tape you like to make the seam in the wires even.

You need three equal lengths of ribbon or string. One, two, three.

Wrap the strings around the hanger evenly (every 8 paper circles in my case) and gather them all up top. Test to see how even your strings are. Remember you may have to adjust for unevenness in the coat hanger circle.

Add a smaller fourth piece of string to the mix to hang it on and then make a tight bunny knot with all 8 strings. The six coming out of the chandelier and the smaller loop coming out the top of the knot to hang it on.

Here is mine hanging and I tried to even out the paper fans to see how it looked. But it's still not done!

Now for those business cards. Place the written on sides of two of them together.

Cut a shape out of the two cards. I chose a heart because Valentine's day is coming up.

Look out behind you! Your partner may not appreciate that crafting is an important use of your time.

Ahem, as I was saying... You need some duct tape and pictures, old ticket stubs, cards- any kind of nice memorabilia you'd like to hang from your chandelier. You need pairs of items that are cut to the same size.

Tape a piece of string or ribbon to the back of a picture or whatever. Then make tape rings and attach the other side.

Using the same technique of taping one side to the string and then the other side to the original, add two hearts to each string.

If you use any heavy items, make a knot in the bottom of the string and then put the tape above it.

I made 5 of these strings, but I think that's probably just a minimum. The string I was using allowed me to fray the ends but it's okay if yours doesn't.

It's a little jumbled in the picture but I made an X out of white strings I attached to the coat hanger. Then I tied one of the strings with the hearts and pictures in the center cross point, and the other 4 halfway between the center and the hanger frame. If you added more you could do a ring attached to the coat hanger itself.

After straightening out the paper fans again it is finally done.

Another day crossed off the calender. How exhausting!

Thank you for viewing my inaugural blog post. If you make your own chandelier please post a picture to share your take on it! If you have any ideas or requests for step-by-step picture instructions of any recipes or crafts, please leave a comment. As long as it can be done indoors, I'm open to suggestions...

The 'Old Job Chandelier' is adapted from a vintage paper chandelier found on 'The Crafting Chicks" blog.