How To: DIY Pom Poms

In my previous nursery post I gave you a sneak peek at my latest DIY project. I wish I could say that I brainstormed these beautiful pom poms on my own, but I actually got the idea from a wedding blog. OnceWed.com features a DIY Wedding Pom Pom tutorial that I replicated (along with their color scheme - isn't it gorgeous and perfect for a little girl's room?). Since their instructions were a bit vague, I had to do a practice run and figure out some more specific details (size of lantern, size of circle cut outs, etc) on my own. 

Materials needed:

• paper lanterns (I used one 9" and two 6" lanterns)
• 2-3 yards of fabric per lantern (I used 3yd for 9" and 2yd for 6")
• glue gun
• ribbon
• a long weekend

Before I started, I printed out 3" and 4" circles and traced them onto cardboard to cut out and use as my tracing template. Once I had my fabric picked out I used my template to trace the circles along the whole piece of fabric. I was sure to put them as close together as I could so I didn't waste any fabric.  

With the 4" circles I was able to get 100 circles per yard and used a full 3 yards. Obviously you get more circles with the 3" template (but I forgot to count), and also use just under 2 yards. This is where you don't want to spend a ton of money on expensive fabric. You want something light that won't be stiff when you glue or heavy when hung. I used a basic thin cotton material that cost $3-7 per yard depending what you chose. I lucked out that there was a sale going on at JoAnn Fabrics along with a 25% off coupon I had, so I purchased my fabric for pretty cheap.

Once traced, I cut out all the circles. This is probably the most time-consuming and somewhat boring part of the project. It's good to just plop on the couch and stick in a movie while you do this. I watched a Jersey Shore marathon while I traced and cut. (T-Shirt time!) 

Once your circles are all cut you can begin to glue to your paper lantern. First fold the circle in half, and stick a dab of glue in the middle. Fold it in half once more to seal. Put another dab of glue at the bottom of the folded circle and attach to your lantern.

(these 3 pictures snagged from OnceWed since I had no free hands to photograph this step!)

You want to make sure you mix and match directions that you place the circles. 

Continue this for a loooong time until your paper lantern is covered.

(my work area mid-construction)

Once finished, it will look like this:

All you have left to do is attach a long piece of ribbon to the hook inside the top of the paper lantern and hang where you want. We picked up an inexpensive pack of mini hooks from Target that simply screwed into the ceiling. It took the two of us to tackle this step so that I could eye the spacing of the pom poms and Jordan could screw them into the ceiling.

Here is a close up on the ribbons I chose. They were each $1.00 for a mini spool at JoAnn fabrics. It took about 1 full spool per pom-pom (then trimmed for length). I chose teal, white and pink ribbons each with its own unique decorative detail to mix and match with the multi-colored pom poms. 

Once hung, just sit back and enjoy your pretty, whimsical decor!