As I was cutting out a snowflake this morning, I started to think of variations on the kids craft. My guys taught me how to make garlands of snowmen holding hands. I said to myself, “Self, why not make them fancy using stamps?” Clearly, self had a great idea, so here you go:

1) Start by picking out some stamps that are not too big. Measure them to figure out what size paper you will need.

2) Cut a strip of paper to the size of your stamp. Mine was roughly 2″ x 2″, so I cut a strip of patterned paper to 2″.

3) You are going to make accordion folds on your strip of paper. Your stamp is going to need to fit, so measure your first fold to get you going.

4) Your paper should look something like this once you are done folding. Make sure the back side is facing out. This is where you are going to stamp so it doesn’t show.

5) Stamp your image on the back side. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect, you are just using it as a guide.

6) Cut out your shape making sure that you leave the paper connected on each end. It’s also important not to cut any pieces too thin or they will tear.

7) Ta da. Your image is cut out. Now clean up your mess.

8) My owls have eyes so I used my handy-dandy punch to make the eye holes.

9) My owl garland is complete. But then I had another thought. I said to myself, “Self, what if I layer the stamps?” Self said, “hmmmmm….”

1) So I grabbed a couple of small stamps.

2) I measured and folded and stamped, just like in the owl tutorial above.

3) But then I stamped the other image on top. Never mind that I forgot that they are in reverse. Duh.

4) Then I cut out both shapes together, making sure once again that the ends were connected and nothing was too thin.

5) And here are my pretty birds in a row. But they needed something to make them pop.

6) So I added some leaves and a little bling. I can’t wait to make more of my stamps dance. I hope you give it a try.

Enjoy.