Keeping It Simple With Paper Chains

We've been reading up on a ridiculous amount of party ideas lately. Birthday parties, baby showers, backyard barbecues and the one thing that's made the great one's well, great... is their ability to keep things simple. One of the first crafts we all made as kids was the paper chain and it still brings us a little bit of sunshine and happiness whenever we see one, there's a few more of our favorite examples after the jump!

Paper chains appeal to our need to repurpose discarded paper and to keep things thrifty or economical. They are a super simple way to spruce up any environment, even if there's no party to be had. Who says you can't make special "Thursday afternoon chains" just because?

Your kids are sure to love them as much as you and best of all they are an activity that keeps your little ones entertained with immediate results of their actions. It's nice to see your chain grow and grow as you add more and more pieces! Pre cut strips for little one's and make sure to have a glue stick handy for those who aren't quite ready for a stapler!

Make sure to send us in your paper chain party photos! We'd love to see them!

(Images: Flickr Members jodigreen, kudzuplanet, kaitlin sheaffer under the Creative Commons license)

Comments (4)

i remember being in preschool and being so lazy, that I refused to finish a paper chain we had to make. Every person in the class had long chains decorating their space and mine was a stubby little thing... Jebus, i've been lazy since birth.

posted by chusmabilly on June 11th 2009 at 12:50pm
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In 2006, my family had planned a huge vacation (our first ever) to Disney World for right after Christmas. So in addition to the never-ending question, "How many more days until Christmas?" we also enjoyed, "How many more days until Disney"? So, I finally had the kids make a quick (and crappy) paper chain from old office paper, each link marked with a number, and each day they got to cut off a link. it worked great, except...

They had so much fun making that chain that they continued to make another super long one. Long enough to wind many, many times around my mom's perfect, Victorian decorated 10' Christmas tree. Complete with numbers (which they didn't seem to understand was not an official requirement for a paper chain). And 3 years later, that ugly ass chain still graces every Christmas tree!

posted by akbuilt on June 11th 2009 at 1:02pm
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good quick idea for party decorations - especially with all the pretty scrapbook paper I have left over from this and that...

posted by farrah on June 11th 2009 at 2:02pm
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the wind sock idea is super cute. i know a family that does the kids birthday count down for the month. every night they tear off a link till its there birthday! they are super excited for this 10 second task. i will have to tell her about the trip and christmas count down. my son is still too young!

posted by jackied302 on June 11th 2009 at 9:36pm
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