DIY Rainbow Paper Chain Wall Hanging

I don't know about you, but staying at home has left me a little stir-crazy and itching to do something with my time. This paper chain wall hanging was just what I needed to clear my mind and keep my hands busy. This project took me a little longer than I expected (most of an afternoon and two nights after putting my daughter to bed), but I have to admit that the repetitive motion of looping and gluing was very cathartic.

First off, I will say that this was not my idea. Find the original DIY over at The Pretty Life Girls. They have a full-blown tutorial for this awesome project, so I'm just going to reiterate their instructions and add in some tips of my own that I found helpful as I Did-It-Myself.

Let's get started!

Supplies:

• Cardstock- I used five colors (cream, rose gold, coral, blush, and a brown cardboard color), the original used four and repeated the cream in the center. +Cream: 10 sheets of 12"x12" paper +Rose Gold: 5 sheets of 12"x12" paper +Coral: 5 sheets of 12"x12" paper +Blush: 4 sheets of 12"x12" paper +Brown: 3 sheets of 12"x12" paper

• Paper cutter (recommended) or scissors

• Hot glue gun + glue sticks

• Dowel

• String for hanging

• Pattern template (more on this below)

Step 1:

Plan out your design. I used Google Sheets and made the rows and columns into squares and colored them in to see what I liked. I will link my plan here and I will also give instructions for creating your own at the end of this post.

Every square in my plan represents two paper links. One that faces outward for your to see and one that loops through to connect the next outward-facing chain. For example, to make the first column marked "A" on the spread sheet above, I needed 15 outward facing links and 14 connecting links, so I planned for 30 cream strips . (Technically I used 29 because the last outward-facing loop does not need a connecting loop at the bottom, but it makes it easier to double what you need when counting.)

Step 2:

Cut your strips. As I mentioned above, each square represent two links. I cut the paper into 1"x6" strips. Since I used 12"x12" paper, each page gave me 24 strips (cut down the middle to make two 12"x6" sections and then each section cut into twelve 1" wide strips for a total of 24.

Step 3:

Start making your chain. I referenced my plan template and counted out the strips I would need in each color for each column (remember to count TWO for every square on the template.) Make your chain by forming a loop with a strip and hot gluing the ends to secure. This will be your first outward-facing loop. For the next piece, loop it through the first one before securing the end. Keep going until you have made the entire column, changing colors as needed according to the template.

Some Tips: The Pretty Life Girls recommended making the connecting loops tighter in order to make the image more distinct. To quote their instructions:

"For instance, on the first ring of every row you would glue the strips together right on the edge of the paper, but on the next right you would put your glue about an inch from the edge of the strip to make it tighter. By repeating this pattern with every other ring, there will be less space between the rings and the design will show more clearly."

This was very helpful to me. However, I'd like to add in some things I learned along the way. I glued the first strips right along the edge, like they said, but when I tried gluing the connecting strips about an inch down, it still didn't seem tight enough to me. So on all of the connecting strips, I would cut about an inch off of the end before looping it through and then I'd still put my glue about a half an inch down before securing the ends. This made it just a little bit tighter and made the outward-facing loops really stand out.

Here, you can see how the top loop in my hand is a connecting link and is slightly smaller than the outward-facing loop below it.

Step 4:

Slide the top loops onto your dowel rod and tie your string on the ends to hang!

That's it! Now you have a simple, yet beautiful, wall hanging that will surely add interest to any bare corner of your home!

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Talk about getting a lot of bang for your buck! This project was relatively simple, inexpensive, and easy to customize. It is so versatile and you could easily create a pattern for any design you wanted. A desert sunset, cactus, and seashell were some of my other ideas. You could even spell out a name! If I had the space, I would definitely be making more of these!

Happy chain making!

♡Arlynnda

Bonus instructions for creating your own planning template:

Step 1:

Open up a new spreadsheet in Google Sheets. Resize columns and rows to be square by selecting them and widening them as needed. I also scaled the entire spread sheet to 50% so I could see the whole thing at once.

Step 2:

Remove unneeded columns. I removed columns U-Z. Select your columns, right click, and remove.

Step 3:

Start shading in your squares with the colors you need to create your design.Select the cells you want, press the little paint can option at the top and then choose your color. You can create custom colors by selecting "custom".

Step 4:

Continue until you have finished your design!