Christmas Light Garland

When Trevor was in kindergarten, he came home with an adorable garland of Christmas lightbulbs made from construction paper and yarn.  He was very proud of it.  We displayed it in our bright, sunny kitchen throughout December.  When we put it away, it was quite faded. We've displayed it for the past two years despite the fading.  Here's how it looks now:

 

We decided to make another garland with paper that hopefully will not fade as easily as construction paper.  I dug through the craft closet and found this "Reflections Paper."  It has a mirror finish that would be beautiful as lightbulbs.

Making the garland was simple.  We made a freehand template on chipboard, cut it out, then used it as a tracer to create matching lightbulbs.  Then we cut 4"x2" strips of black cardstock and folded them in half.  We cut a length of black yarn and spaced the black cardstock strips evenly along the yarn, with the open end hanging down.  We applied glue to the bottom edge of the front and back, and inserted a bulb into each black cardstock piece.  When the garland was dry, we strung it from the staircase over the piano.

 

It does a beautiful job reflecting the light (which, of course, means it's impossible to photograph).  Here's another look:

 

I'll be curious to see how fade-resistant this paper is.  Hopefully it will stay bright and colorful. But if not, we'll be remaking this with felt in a future year.