Paper
enough for the making of Christmas greens to decorate an ordinary room quite lavishly may be bought for fifty cents or less. One sheet of tissue paper will make thirty-two holly leaves. One sheet of tissue paper will make a large bunch of mistletoe and one sheet of tissue paper will make one yard of evergreen rope. Complete success in this work depends largely upon the paper used and great care must be taken in selecting the colors. The quality should be good, else it will lack the necessary crispness and staying properties.
For the holly and evergreen choose a dark moss-green paper, which is a yellow green with no tinge of blue. For the mistletoe you must have a light gray-green, also of a yellow tone, a light cardinal red for the brilliant holly berries, white for the waxy mistletoe berries and dark gray-brown for holly stems. One sheet each of the red and white paper will probably be sufficient for all the berries you will want, and one sheet of gray-brown will answer for the stems. Besides the paper you must have a spool of fine wire or coarse thread for winding and some natural bare branches or twigs, or a roll of heavy bonnet wire for stems.
Begin with the
Holly
and cut one sheet of the dark moss-green tissue paper in half (Fig. 395). Fold the half sheet according to the dotted lines through the middle and you will have Fig. 396. Fold Fig. 396 through the middle as shown by the dotted line and there will be Fig. 397. Bring the two ends of Fig. 397 together, folding at the dotted line, and it will give you Fig. 398. Again fold along the dotted central line and you will have Fig. 399. Fold through the middle, along the dotted line, for the last time and there will be an oblong, one and three-quarter inches wide by five inches long.
With a soft lead pencil draw the outline of a half holly leaf after the pattern (Fig. 400), the fold of the paper forming the straight edge of the outline. Cut along the pencil line, open the fold and there will be sixteen leaves like Fig. 401. The dotted line running lengthwise through the middle of the leaf shows where the paper was folded. Have a damp sponge ready and slightly moisten the fingers of your right hand on the sponge—never with your lips in handling green paper. Take one leaf in your left hand and with the moist fingers of your right hand twist each point of the leaf into a sharp spike, beginning at the top of the leaf as in Fig. 402. Twist the lower part of the leaf into a stem (Fig. 403) and, refolding the leaf down the middle, pinch the underside of the fold to form the mid-rib, bringing your two hands together and puffing the paper a little as you do so (Fig. 403). The finished leaf should resemble Fig. 404. The crinkled appearance given by pinching and twisting adds much to the natural look of the leaf. You may vary the size, making some leaves smaller than others, but keep as nearly as possible to the pattern, for experiment has proved it to be a good one.
Before putting your leaves on the stems make the
Holly Berries,
for they must be fastened on first.
From your red tissue paper cut a number of pieces two and a half inches square, make a little ball of raw cotton a trifle larger than a good sized pea and place it in the centre of one of the squares of paper (Fig. 405). Draw the paper up and around the ball, completely covering it, then twist the remainder of the paper into a stem (Fig. 406). Make three berries, twisting their stems as tightly as possible and bunch them. With your fine wire or thread, wrap the three stems closely together (Fig. 407) and cut off the ragged ends (Fig. 408). Take up a natural branch and wrap the stems of the berries to the end of a twig (Fig. 409). Cut a strip of the gray-brown paper half an inch wide and about four inches long, and, beginning close to the berries (Fig. 410), wrap the stem with the paper as shown in Fig. 411. Fasten three leaves to the stem close to the berries as in Fig. 412, and place other leaves about one inch apart, alternating first on one side then on the other side of the stem (Fig. 413).
When the holly is to be made into
Wreaths,
the branches should not be large and a small wooden or wire hoop should form the foundation of the wreath. Upon this hoop the small branches of holly must be bound, overlapping one another and extending out beyond the hoop to form a generous wreath. A bright red ribbon bow, fastened at the top of the holly wreath, gives it a still more realistic effect.
For Mistletoe
cut the gray-green tissue paper into pieces eight and one-half inches long by one and a half inches wide. Bring the two ends of a strip together, folding through the middle, to form the oblong (Fig. 414). Fold Fig. 414 lengthwise through the middle along the dotted line and on it draw the outline of half of a mistletoe leaf, with the straight edge on the long fold and the stem end on the short fold of the paper (Fig. 415). Cut along this outline, open the folds and you will have twin leaves like Fig. 416. Bring the two open leaves together and twist the connecting part into a stem like Fig. 417. Make a number of white mistletoe berries according to the directions given for the red holly berries and wrap them together in pairs; then nestling a couple close in between two leaves (Fig. 418) wrap them on the stem. The
Stems
of the mistletoe should be very irregular and branching, and it may be necessary to make them of bonnet wire in order to produce the proper shape.
Fig. 419 shows the branching irregular stem and the position of leaves and berries. Some of the twigs should be left bare, as they are so often on the natural mistletoe branch.
Fasten on the leaves and berries by wrapping with fine wire and then cover the stems with strips of the gray-green tissue paper, wrapping it as directed in making the holly branch. The only difference being that while the holly stem is wrapped with paper only far enough to cover the red stems of the berries and the leaves are put on afterwards, the mistletoe leaves must be fastened on with the berries and the entire stem then covered with the paper. You will remember that the stems of the natural mistletoe are as pale in color as the leaves, so no dark wood must show in your branch.
Hang your bunch of mistletoe from the chandelier and you will find that no one will stop to examine it too closely, and the Christmas games can be played just as merrily under the paper as under the real mistletoe.
There now remains but the
Ropes of Evergreen
to complete the time-honored Christmas decorations.
Fold a sheet of the dark moss-green tissue paper crosswise, then fold again and you will have an oblong a little less than four inches wide and the length of the paper’s width. Press the folds down flat and cut them open with a paper knife, then, keeping the strips together, fold crosswise through the middle; again fold crosswise through the middle and there will be an oblong like Fig. 420. Cut this oblong into a fringe, bringing the slits to within one inch of the top edge and making each strip not more than one-quarter of an inch wide (Fig. 420). Unfold and separate four pieces to loosen the fringe, then place the top edges of the four pieces together once more and, taking a long piece of strong twine, curl the right hand upper corner of the heading of the fringe over the twine near the end (Fig. 421). From this start to wrap the fringe around and around the twine forming the rope shown in Fig. 422.
When you have almost reached the ends of the first four strips of fringe, paste the ends of the headings of four more strips on to the first and continue to wrap as before. In this way you may make your evergreen rope as long as you wish.
There is just one word of caution which must go with the assurance of the real beauty of these Christmas decorations and that is: Remember to hang your wreaths and ropes where they will not be exposed to the flames of gas, candle or lamp, for while they are scarcely more inflammable than the natural greens, it is not well to take any risks and neither is it at all necessary. With this in mind your rooms may be inexpensively, prettily and safely decorated with the tissue paper Christmas greens.
A Large Spool
and you will have a pretty little table; paint it a red brown to resemble mahogany. If you need more suggestions, spool furniture may be found in “What a Girl Can Make and Do.”
To make the doll house. Get three stiff pasteboard boxes about fourteen inches long, thirteen inches wide and six and one-half inches high (Fig. 423). Cut the thirteen-inch front and the right-hand side from the first box (Fig. 424). Take the second box and lay the fourteen-inch front down flat on top of an old, common wooden table which can be used without fear of injury, and with the aid of a ruler, draw two straight lines across the front on the inside of the box; let each line be about one and one-fourth inch from the side. Keep the box as it is while you score the lines with a sharp penknife; then cut out the front, leaving the upright pieces to form the corners at each end (Fig. 425). Cut the thirteen-inch front and left-hand side from the third box (Fig. 426). Mark two high windows (Fig. 427) on the inside, near the front of the left side of the first box (Fig. 424). Make each window two and one-half inches high and two and one-half inches wide, leaving a space of three-fourths of an inch between them. Lay this left side of the box flat down on the table and use the sharp penknife to score the dotted lines and cut the heavy lines. Always cut and score from the inside of the box, otherwise the shutters will turn inward.
When the window is scored and cut, throw
Open the Shutters
and look out through the little opening of the doll’s kitchen window (Fig. 428).
In the second box (Fig. 425) cut a door five and one-half inches high and three inches wide through the left side wall, one and three-fourths of an inch from the back wall. The two high windows, each two and one-fourth inches wide and two inches high and the one ordinary large window, four inches high and two and one-fourth inches wide, must be marked on the back wall (Fig. 429) and cut (Fig. 430). Cut another door in the room through the right-hand side wall near the front (Fig. 431) and bend it wide open (Fig. 432).
Make Doorknobs
of large-sized beads, and fasten one on each side of both doors with a strong, heavy piece of broom-straw run through and glued in a hole punctured through the door with a coarse darning needle or hat-pin. Slide a bead on each end of the broom-straw and glue them securely in place. Strengthen the hinges of each door with a narrow strip of thin white cotton cloth pasted lengthwise on the open door, half on the door and half on the wall.
In the third box (Fig. 426) cut a large window through the back wall four and one-half inches high and three and one-fourth inches wide. Fig. 433 shows this window in detail with one shutter open and one closed.
Excellent
Window Glass Can Be Made
of white tissue paper cut to fit the various windows, allowing one-fourth of an inch extension on all four sides. Immerse the paper thoroughly on both sides in oil; with a dry, clean cloth wipe off the oil; again immerse the papers, let them remain in the oil for some minutes and a second time wipe the oil from both sides of each paper. This makes the paper almost transparent.
The window frame or sash, is made of strips of black or inked paper, one long, narrow strip pasted down the entire centre length of each window glass and a wider strip fastened across the first strip at the centre, from side to side of the glass (Fig. 434). Keep the glass and the sash divisions perfectly smooth while fastening them together.
When all are ready, close the shutters of each room in turn, and place first one and then another side flat down on top of the table and brush a little glue all around the edges of the window opening (Fig. 435); lay the glass over the opening, making sure that the edges of the glass extend evenly out on the wall surface from all sides. Do not rub the glass, press it tightly down with a dry cloth.
After the windows have been glazed cut strips of fresh, smooth, ordinary wrapping-paper, not less than one-fourth of an inch wide, and cover the edges of each window glass with the strips, paste them on straight and even to form woodwork around the window as well as to cover the edges of the glass (Fig. 436). Fit the second box (Fig. 425) in the first one (Fig. 424), mark and cut off the portion of the first box (Fig. 424) extending beyond the front of Fig. 425; do the same with the third box (Fig. 426), that all three boxes may be of equal depth, and when fastened together the long front line may be straight and even.
If You Want the Doll House to Last for Years,
reinforce the building with strips of wood (A B C, Fig. 424; D E F, Fig. 425; G H I, Fig. 426). Where any two strips meet, glue the ends together and fasten to the pasteboard walls. If you cannot obtain very thin strips of wood, use strips of pasteboard as stiff as wood.
Be sure that your flour paste has boiled well and is strong and thick, for fastening the three rooms together. Give the kitchen (Fig. 437) a generous layer of paste down the inside edge of the back wall and along the edge of the floor at the open side; then fit the left-hand edge of the floor and back wall of the living-room (Fig. 438) over the paste and press it firmly in place. Fasten the bedroom (Fig. 439) on the right-hand side of Fig. 438 in the same manner.
Close the little shutters and
Place the Doll House on the Floor
of a real room, tight up against the wall; then put weights along on the inside edges of the floor of the toy living-room and pile books up close against the back wall; at the same time do not press the side walls out of plumb; keep them straight.
When the house is perfectly dry, tack one thin strip of wood across the entire length of the top of the back wall of the house from end to end. You can manage this very readily by turning the house and laying the back wall flat on the table, the top edge of the wall barely covering the strip of wood; then you can tack at long intervals from the inside of the wall and fasten the pasteboard walls to the wood. Be sure to glue the ends of the side wall strips securely to the back wall strip.
Set the house upright in proper position and tack thin strips of wood along the under edge of the bottom of the house. Fit one strip under the house at a time and tack from the inside of the house through the pasteboard floor into the wood. Make the ends of the upright side wall strips fast to the underfloor strip. When finished, the bottom of the house should resemble Fig. 440.
Make the Frieze
for every room of three strips of tissue paper cut five-eighths of an inch wide. Fold each separate strip crosswise through the centre; again fold through the centre, and fold a third time, making eight layers of paper. Cut the folded strip like Fig. 441, unfold, and you will have Fig. 442. Try for a different pattern in each room, and let the colors vary. A soft yellow for kitchen, sage green for living-room, and a light, warm yellow pink for bedroom are a pleasing variety.
Brush a thin layer of paste the width of the frieze along the top edge of the walls of the kitchen (Fig. 424) and fasten on the yellow frieze. Do the same with the living-room, fastening on the green frieze (Fig. 425), and in the bedroom the pink frieze (Fig. 426).
Cut a Rug for the Living-Room
from sage-green tissue paper; make it ten inches long and seven and one-half inches wide. Fold the paper lengthwise through the centre, then crosswise through the centre, and a second time crosswise, making eight layers. Cut according to Fig. 443, unfold once (Fig. 444), and cut the designs K and N; fold diagonally the loose corners L according to dotted line and cut design M (Fig. 445). Open out the rug (Fig. 446).
Cover the required space on the living-room floor with a thin layer of paste, place the rug down over it, using both hands, to avoid wrinkles.
With the same kind of wrapping-paper used for the woodwork you can make projecting window-sills. Fold and crease the paper into a narrow box-lid long enough to extend across the window, including the woodwork; glue one of the lengthwise turned-down edges on the wall below the window glass.
Make three
Shelves for Books,
with the ends of the shelves turned up to hold the books in place. Fasten the lengthwise turned-down edge of the first shelf on the wall three-quarters of an inch below the high window in the living-room, and paste the other two shelves below at short distances apart.
You can easily make tiny books of several pieces of folded paper cut the desired size and sewed together through the centre fold. Hang red
Tissue Paper Curtains
in the living-room, white tissue-paper curtains in the bedroom, and yellow ones in the kitchen, as seen in Fig. 447.
Little shelves over the tops of the doors may be made in like manner, also a cunning little three-cornered bracket to fit the corner of the room for holding a tiny Japanese vase of satiny yellow ware, the straight up-and-down kind, made of a three-fourth-inch length section of common straw pasted on a wee round disk of paper. Fill the vase with tiny red paper flowers fastened on broom-straws.
A quart of bayberries, a little time, a little trouble, and we have a beautiful green wax candle, hard, brittle and smooth, that hot weather will not melt and whose expiring flame yields an incense sweet and aromatic.
There is a peculiar joy in using the raw material fresh from Mother Nature’s hands and starting at the beginning of things—a joy unknown to those who work only with materials that are manufactured—and to get the most out of the work of making bayberry candles you must begin with the bayberries. First locate your
Bayberry-Bushes;
then, just the time when out-of-door exercise begins to be a delight, the latter part of September or early in October, gather the berries and take them home for future use.
The bayberries, which seem to be nothing but tiny stones covered with a coating of wax, do not decay quickly, but shrivel up into small gray pellets that will keep, it is said, a year or more.
Look for a bush that is stiff and irregular, generally growing low in closely crowded patches like the blueberry, though at times reaching the height of eight feet. It appears to thrive best and is most often seen in sandy soil, but it will grow in almost any kind and flourish even amid the rocks on a barren hillside.
The Leaves
are oblong and from two to three and a half inches in length (Fig. 448). They usually have several teeth, or notches, near the tip and are quite narrow at the base. Sometimes they are scattered and again in close bunches. The young leaves are a pale green frequently tinged with red; when matured they are a bright green, glossy, and of a leathery texture and they are very fragrant when crushed in the hands. The bark is brownish gray and the young stems light, or golden brown.
The Berries
are quite small and grow in thick clusters on short stems. Fig. 449 gives the berries, drawn from nature and of actual size. They are green at first, but, when ripe, turn a light silvery gray. As it will take about one quart of berries to make one candle you may adapt your picking to the number of candles you want.
Keep the berries in a dry place until
You are Ready to Make your Candles,
then into a six-quart preserve-kettle pour three quarts of berries and fill to the brim with cold water. This allows two quarts of water to one quart of berries. Put the kettle on the range and let it boil steadily four hours—actually boil, remember—and whenever the water gets three inches below the brim fill it up with hot water. The boiling berries will perfume the house with a spicy balsamic odor that is delightful. When the four hours are up set the kettle back and let the berries simmer for an hour or two, then farther back where it will simply keep hot. At night take them off the range and set away to cool without removing them from the kettle. The cooling down from the boiling point to the point where the wax begins to form should be very gradual to obtain the best results, therefore the simmering and keeping hot after boiling.
Having put the berries away for the night, try to forget them, and do not be tempted to disturb the wax as it forms and floats in little cakes on top of the water, for breaking through the gathering crust will cause much of the wax to sink and cling to the berries beneath. When left undisturbed until morning, the wax forms into a large cake, hard and ready to be lifted out.
The Bayberry Wax
is never, at first, free from impurities, such as bits of dried leaves, stems and occasionally whole berries, and it must be strained. Break up the wax and put it in a porcelain-lined, shallow saucepan and set it on the range where it will melt slowly; then strain through a fine wire strainer into a shallow bowl or soup-plate. Let the wax become quite cold and hard, melt and strain again, this time through a piece of cheese-cloth or fine sheer lawn. So much for the bayberry wax. But there must also be