So how do you plan a Coraline party without giving any money to Gaiman? Well, you start by buying a used Coraline DVD for the main event (a library copy is just as good!), and you continue by DIYing, not buying, all of the party decorations, activities, accessories, favors, and other little things that make a party special. This oversized button garland is adorable, perfectly fits the party theme, and best of all–it’s completely DIYed and almost entirely upcycled. Here’s how to make it!
Materials
You will need:
corrugated cardboard. Corrugated cardboard stands up the best for this project, although you could get away with thinner cardboard if that’s what you have on hand. If you’d like a really professional-looking material so that your garland can serve as permanent decor, look for stash mat board or particle board and upgrade your cutting tools to match. stencils. For this particular garland set, I used a FiestaWare saucer for the larger buttons and a Mason jar lid for the smaller buttons. If you wanted to super-size your garland, you could use salad and dinner plates, but for me, the maximum size of the corrugated cardboard I scrounged was my limiting factor. tracing and cutting tools. I used a black Sharpie for tracing, a pair of heavy scissors for cutting the circles, and the point of a pair of very sharp scissors for making the button holes. black paint. I really like Rust-Oleum Paint+Primer for most of my quick painting projects, and for this one I’m using Flat Black. But if you’ve got the time and the materials, brush-on acrylic paint also works just as well. If you were setting up this party for a younger kid, it would also be cute to paint the buttons in a variety of colors, not just the emo black that my own kid prefers. yarn. A thicker yarn matches the sizing best. I lucked out by finding some acrylic yarn in my stash that was the absolute perfect length. This is why I hoard stuff!
Step 1: Cut circles for the buttons and punch the buttonholes.
Technically, you could do most of these steps in any order, but cutting the buttons before you paint the cardboard lets you see your cutting line. For this garland, I used two sizes of stencils, but I think the garland would also look cute with three or more sizes of buttons. I eyeballed the button holes (and just between us, I did a TERRIBLE job with the button holes on the smaller buttons–so off-center!) and punched them with the point of a sharp pair of scissors. I experimented first with only putting two buttonholes in the smaller buttons, but they wouldn’t hang nicely that way. Hence why every single set is off-center!
Step 2. Paint the cardboard buttons.
This corrugated cardboard absolutely sucked up the spray paint, so each side required two full coats. You’d definitely have less wasted paint if you brushed on acrylic paint, but that would also take about a billion hours longer… Follow the directions on the paint packaging for drying time, then gather all your buttons up so you can string them!
Step 3: String the button garland.
This part is so fun! Depending on the size of the holes you punched, you can probably get away with pushing the yarn straight through, but you can thread the yarn onto a plastic tapestry needle or stiffen the tip of the yarn with some tape if you’re struggling. To make each circle look like a button, string the yarn through in the shape of an x. You want the yarn to begin and end through the top buttonholes, so thread your yarn from back to front through the top left buttonhole, then to the bottom right buttonhole, then back to the front through the bottom left buttonhole, and finally to the top right buttonhole. I tried to leave a couple of inches between buttons on the garland, and the texture of the yarn and the x through each circle holds each button in place. If you choose a different threading method or if for some reason your buttons are slipping, you can sneak a little piece of tape onto the back of each button to hold the yarn in place. My kid and I are such a fan of the end product of this button garland! Part of the reason why I chose cardboard is because she’s off at college, so I wanted to mail her a party decoration that she could easily recycle at the end of the semester. But she loved it so much that she actually added it to her permanent room decor. If it gets damaged during all that between-semester packing and storage and unpacking, I guess this is my sign to revisit my idea to make a sturdier and more professional-looking garland out of particle board…
