Time Flies When You're Having Fun Mantel

Welcome to my submission to The Great Paper Mantel Challenge!  Emily at 52 Mantels threw out a challenge to create a mantel using 100% paper.  I took her up on the Challenge and this is where it lead me!  I chose to do a whimsical summer theme of "Time flies when you are having Fun!"

Speaking of Fun - this was a lot of fun to put together.  These are all easy projects made mostly from things around the house.This is all made of paper products such as ribbon spools, paper straws and boxes,  with an exception - I can't lie - the three little brads in the middle of the pinwheels, and the tape and glue holding everything else together.  (I tried gluing them and every morning I came down at lease one of the Pinwheels had popped- so I finally gave in and used the brads)

I started with my favorite thing, the Kites!  These were made from Scrapbook paper and backed with some poster board. 

The tails are just newspaper strips I wet down slightly and twisted until it looked like a string tail. .

 See that piece of white paper that looks like a bikini top?! That is the template I used for the bows I attached to the tail.

I used that same wet paper twisting on the vines for the flower garland.  But this time I used strips of craft wrapping paper.  The flowers were stamped out on newspaper and a variety of yellow scrapbook paper and cut out by hand.  That took a while but was a good project while watching So You Think You Can Dance!

The clocks and picture frame are just from boxes that I spray painted with flat black paint.  I cut out a gold mat with  a border punch and used my black and white copier to copy a favorite photo of my kids when they were little.  I also copied some clock faces I found in various places and decoupaged them onto the boxes - easy peasy. 

The pedestals are made from the ribbon spools and just stacked up - I added a band of yellow to add some color.  The paper straws came into play again, this time painted black to make my clock fly. The newspaper spheres probably took me the longest to make.





I took one page of the newspaper and

cut it in thirds for long strips,

then cut those long strips in half. 

Then each side of the strip into the center

so that all of the raw

edges would be in the middle.   

Fold that piece in half long ways

and start rolling the strip up. 

Keep it nice and tight. 

 I used my glue gun to glue the end down

and then on the back side to glue it to a paper mache ball. 

I hope you are enjoying your summer because mine seems to be flying by!!

Here are the links to the other Great Paper Matels in the Challenge!

I hope you have had fun with all of these ideas.