Of course, since I’m from the South, a plain white popcorn garland isn’t nearly gaudy enough for me, so read on and I’ll show you not only how to easily make a great popcorn garland, but also how to easily paint it to match (or NOT match!) your holiday decor. For your popcorn garland, you’ll want plain, unsalted, unbuttered popcorn. If you don’t have an electric popcorn air-popper (I found mine for four dollars at Goodwill a few years ago), you can make DIY microwave popcorn with just popcorn kernels and a paper bag. If you want to leave your popcorn white, skip these next couple of steps. If you want painted popcorn, however, you’ll need either liquid food coloring or liquid watercolors (hint: I also use liquid watercolors to stain unfinished wood). Pour a small amount of the liquid dye into a small spritz bottle; I found these spritz bottles in the travel aisle at some big-box store or other, and I primarily use them with liquid watercolors to make kid-friendly spray paint for my daughters to use. Spread the popcorn out in a single layer on a large piece of newspaper, and lightly spritz–just once or twice in each area–all the popcorn with the dye. After the dye has dried, in just a few minutes, stir the popcorn around to expose the unpainted sides, and spritz again. You can repeat this until the popcorn is painted to your satisfaction. Next » To make glittered popcorn, quickly dip a piece of popcorn into glue, then glitter, then let dry. Repeat to your satisfaction. Next » Thread the end of a spool of string with a hand-sewing needle. If you have to shop for a needle, especially if you plan to make a popcorn garland with a child, then look for a large needle, which is quite manageable even for small-ish fingers. I like to wait to cut the thread off of the spool until I’m ready to tie the garland off. This also gives you some wiggle room–if you reach the end of the thread and haven’t finished your garland, tie it off, unwind another length of thread from the spool, cut it off, and begin again from the other end! Next » You can add a variety of other embellishments to your popcorn garland–beads, cranberries, buttons, dyed dry pasta, cereal, non-sticky candy, etc. Just don’t forget to factor in the fact that for every piece of popcorn that you string, you’ll eat at least a dozen–popcorn is tasty!
