Newspaper weaving

Hi!

This Christmas, I had the pleasure of taking part in Minna's DIY Christmas Calendar, where crafters have shared wonderful Christmas-themed craft projects, baking recipes, and decorating ideas. Thank you, Minna, for including me, and Merry Christmas!

At the beginning of December, I spent some time at my craft table making a stack of Christmas cards. Once they were on their way to their recipients, it was nice to work on something completely different: newspaper weaving!

Newspaper is a wonderful crafting material. It's always readily available and is not only inexpensive but also surprisingly durable and easy to work with. There are plenty of newspaper weaving tutorials online (just search for "newspaper weaving"), and there are even Facebook groups dedicated to the craft.

To make newspaper sturdy enough for weaving and finishing, it first needs to be folded or rolled into weaving strips. If you choose to roll the paper, each strip should be at least 5 cm (about 2 inches) wide. This makes the finished tube strong enough for weaving. I used tabloid-sized pages from Helsingin Sanomat, which produced tubes just over 30 cm (12 inches) long.

A long knitting needle (for example, a 2.5 mm needle) is a great tool for rolling the paper. Wrap the strip around the needle lengthwise at a slight angle. If you roll the paper tightly around the needle, it's enough to apply paper glue only to the very end of the strip to secure it. By avoiding glue along the entire length of the tube, it remains flexible and easier to weave.

When a paper strip is rolled around the knitting needle, one end of the tube naturally becomes slightly narrower than the other. This is important because the tubes are joined by inserting the narrow end of one tube into the wider end of another. You can use glue to secure the joint, but it's often unnecessary if the tubes overlap far enough.

For this frosty white table decoration, I used papier-mâché cones as the base and covered them with rolled newspaper tubes. Instead of papier-mâché cones, you could just as easily make the base from ordinary cardstock. I wrapped the newspaper tubes around the cone side by side, starting from the bottom edge. I glued the joints where the tubes were joined together. Once the entire cone was covered, I gave it two coats of white acrylic paint. White gesso would have worked just as well.

The tree toppers were die-cut from cardboard and colored with blue crafting wax. A wooden skewer inside each star keeps it standing upright. After Christmas, the stars can simply be lifted off the cones, allowing the cones to be stacked neatly inside one another for storage.

A single newspaper tube can also be turned into a simple star ornament for the Christmas tree. Fold the tube into five equal sections, arrange the points into a star shape, and glue the ends together. At the same time, add a few dabs of glue along the long sides to help the star hold its shape. Once the glue has dried, paint the star with your favorite acrylic paint.

These stars are quick and easy to make, making them a fun Christmas craft to enjoy with children.

Rolled newspaper tubes can also be easily woven into a star:

After Christmas, it's worth trying leftover wrapping paper as a weaving material. Not every type of paper will stand up to the process, but sturdier gift wrap can make excellent material for weaving baskets and other projects. It's recycling at its best!

Wishing you a peaceful and joyful Christmas,