Craftcourse basically made its handmade event decor ‘debut’ with garlands of larger-than-life hanging paper gems for a local maker market here in Nashville last winter. Even though we’ve made all kinds of things since then, they’ve kind of become our signature creation, which we’ve been known to say could be used just about anywhere for any occasion. What space or event couldn’t be made better by some hanging gems?! Although we’ve never formally given away our ginormous paper gem secrets, I’m slipping a little today by showing you how to make some medium-sized hanging diamonds covered in faux grass – a fun summer take on our plain ole gems. Enjoy! –Mandy Pellegrin of Craftcourse

Materials
Template
Poster Board
Pencil
Craft Knife
Metal Ruler
Cutting Surface
Hot Glue and Glue Gun
String
Small Wooden Bead
A Cheap Artificial Grass Rug (like this or this)
Scissors

Step One: After you’ve downloaded and cut out the template, trace the template onto poster board. Trace four templates edge-to-edge as shown here and in the template file with the top points (that is, the point opposite the arrow on the template) meeting in the middle. Each diamond-shaped gem will require two of these four-triangle sets. I was able to fit six sets (or enough for three gems) onto two pieces of poster board.

Step Two: Cut out using a craft knife and a metal ruler. When cutting them out, you’ll need to add tabs for assembly. On one of the four-triangle sets, add only one tab along the side of one of the outer triangles as shown here (on the right) and in the template file. On the other set, you’ll need to add tabs both on an outer triangle like for the other set and along the bottom edge (i.e. the edge denoted with a triangle on the template) of each triangle. Again, this is shown here (on the left) and in the template file.

Step Three: Score all the lines by gently tracing each one with the back-side of the blade of the craft knife. This will give you a nice clean score, but don’t push so hard that you cut through your poster board.

Step Four: Crease each of the scores by folding inward so that your pencil marks will be on the inside of the finished gem.

Step Five: Assemble the gem by first hot gluing the four bottom edge tabs of the one piece to the four bottom edges of the other piece.

Step Six: Before glueing shut the edge tabs, slip a string with a small wooden bead tied onto the end inside the gem. Apply glue to the tabs, and gently squeeze shut and apply some pressure to the area on top of the tabs to get them to adhere. You now have a plain hanging gem!

Step Seven: For each hanging gem, trace eight triangle templates onto the back of your artificial grass rug.

Step Eight: Cut out each of the ‘grass’ triangles.

Step Nine: Hot glue the triangles onto the plain finished gem. If you want to cover all of the poster board, make sure you cut your triangles out slightly bigger than the template. A little white peeks through on mine, but I sort of liked how it helped define the geometric shape a bit more.

For a full-on hanging gem installation, combine the ‘grass’ gems with other plain gems. Make a smaller diamond gem by shrinking the template provided, and assemble multiple on a single string. Make larger ones by blowing the template up.

Photo Credits: Mandy Pellegrin for Oh So Beautiful Paper