How to make a number from napkins?

For a child’s birthday and a beautiful photo shoot, you need an original props. Today, figures from napkins are very popular - they can be seen at many children's parties. Indeed, such decorations on birthdays are beyond competition. They are lightweight, inexpensive, children can play with them and get only pleasant experiences.

How to make a number from napkins? “You don’t need superpowers for this, you can cope with this task by making a little effort and spending several hours of free time.” But the emotions of a happy child who receives such a figure will more than pay for all the cost of effort and time.

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Materials required for work

To create a festive composition will require different materials.

Napkins

Plain napkins without a pattern. Of course, the larger the figure, the more the number of napkins will be needed.

Important! One package is unlikely to be enough for you, so take several packs of 100-200 napkins in each at once. The more magnificent the decor, the more beautiful the numbers from the napkins look.

However, wipes are not the most important thing.

Important! Wooden figures are less common, as a rule, they are not decorated with napkins, but painted with multi-colored paints.

Cardboard

Do-it-yourself empty boxes, shipping packaging from household appliances can be used as a blank for the figures from napkins. In general, those materials that are often simply thrown away are used in this case, and there are such features here:

• From the packaging from under the products, small numbers are obtained. Milk or juice bags are cut and inserted one into the other. Their outer part is masked using papier-mâché (glued layer of jammed paper).

Important! For pasting, take thick PVA glue, because it will be very disappointing if the cardboard swells and falls apart. Or you can choose a package with a foil surface, for example, a juice box.

• It will be necessary to work with cardboard - correctly cut, glue, give the product rigidity.

Styrofoam

It is much more convenient to work with foam, because it is lightweight, like cardboard, but at the same time, it is stiff. You can easily find foam panels in any hardware store. If you would like to make the numbers thicker, then thin sheets can be glued together using glue for ceiling tiles.

But polystyrene also has disadvantages. The material is rather capricious - it crumbles, sticks to hands and tools, it’s still a pleasure to work with it! So what to do?

• The most successful option is to use a professional tool for cutting with heated nichrome thread. Such a hot wire is capable of cutting polystyrene, like butter.
• You can also make a soldering iron cutter with a fixed copper wire. These options are suitable for those who are going to make numbers of napkins with their own hands in large quantities.

Important! The foam is cut exactly along the metal ruler - you should attach a ruler and draw a torch along it. A vacuum cleaner hose can be placed next to the cut point so that the work area remains clean.

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Volumetric figure for first birthday

For a unit for a year, with our own hands we will make a base from the napkins hollow inside.

If the unit itself is easy to build on paper and cut, then how to calculate the length of the sides? You can do everything by eye, but you can turn to the help of a mathematical formula: P = 2 (a + b), where a and b are the sides of the figure.

Important! Do not forget to make a margin for gluing the parts together.

So, for work we need:

• Double corrugated cardboard.
• Hot glue.
• Dummy knife and scissors.
• Hot glue.
• Stapler. Napkins

Getting started:

1. Cut the number from the template. Transfer to cardboard and cut 2 parts.
2. Correctly calculate the length of the sides of the future figure, cut the sides.
3. The figure can expand downwards - if you have it that way, then the sides will look like a trapezoid.
4. Using masking tape, fasten the parts together. Fix them from the inside using hot glue. Attach the second part of the unit and fix it with tape.
5. Strengthen the inner part in advance, install tight-fitting cardboard pieces into it. They will appear as rigid ribs and the decor will not bend.
6. Paste the number on the napkin decor.

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Making a flat base for a cardboard figure

Our base will be played by a sheet of sufficiently dense packaging cardboard so that the finished composition does not bend and undeform under the weight of the decor:

• To make the number 8 from napkins, prepare a template: print or draw the number manually. Or build a number right on a piece of cardboard.
• On a square sheet of cardboard, place the number diagonally so that it is larger. The size of the finished figures for the birthday will be 63 cm.
• Using a pencil and a ruler, draw a diagonal - this will be the axis of our eight.
• Estimate what size the product will be, and mark on the diagonal its beginning and end. Take the protractor and set aside 90 degrees from each mark - draw perpendiculars to the starting axis. Thus, we marked the boundaries of our figures.
• What's next? The number eight is two rings at which borders intersect. On the axis of the eye, put a mark that divides our axis into two parts: belonging to the larger and smaller ring. Also, postpone the protractor 90 degrees from the mark, draw a perpendicular to the axis.
• Now it's up to the compass. Attach the size of each of the rings, open the compasses to the desired radius, draw two intersecting circles. So we got the figure eight outline.
• Now from the same centers draw two smaller circles - these will be the holes in the figure eight.

Important! The numbers with a thin “canvas” do not look very beautiful. However, too small holes should not be made: the decor of napkins can deviate towards the hole and “eat” free space. Too small a hole can be completely covered with napkins.

• Shorten the lower part slightly - make an even cut so that the figure of eight can stand leaning on the wall without falling over on its side.
• Cut out the number. To do this, use a stationery knife or scissors. If you are more comfortable with a knife, then do not forget to put a cutting mat under the cardboard.
• The figure is ready for decoration.

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We decorate the number with napkins

Now that you have learned how to make the number 8 from napkins, let's try to figure out how and what to decorate it with.

Important! I would like to note that for decoration you can use not only napkins, but any other thin paper - corrugated, tissue, quiet. The colors should be selected accordingly: for girls - delicate (blue, white, pink, lilac), for boys - brighter (light green, red, blue).

You can decorate a number in different ways:

• Flowers.
• In the technique of “facing”.
• Fringe.
• Make a figure figure.

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Napkin decor

The most common decor for numbers is flowers. They are suitable for both girls and boys. Flowers should be fluffy, easy to pick, because you have to make more than one flower.

Important! To save time, choose the options of those colors that turn out to be the most magnificent: roses or asters.

For a beautiful magnificent aster you will need:

• Scissors.
• 3 napkins.
• Threads.

Create a flower:

1. Fold the napkin with an accordion and wrap the middle with a thread - so that you get a bow.
2. Spread the petals toward the center, moving toward the edges.
3. In the middle, make a bud by squeezing the paper tightly.
4. Spread the lower petals to make a glue pad.

Important! Combine colors using wipes of different colors for one bud. Also, along the edge of the napkin, you can draw a line with a felt-tip pen.

To create a rose, we need the same materials:

1. Fold the napkins in a stack and cut out the petals (several semicircles).
2. Then unfold the rose by shifting the petals and fasten the tip with a corner.
3. At the end, fluff the flower.

Important! Try to make the edge of the flower wavy by zigzag with scissors. A flower with teeth along the edges looks a little more interesting.

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Trimming

The figures, which are decorated using the cutting technique, are beautiful and very fluffy. It is best to take corrugated paper, although monophonic napkins also work well:

1. Cut the paper into squares.
2. Put a pencil in the middle of the sheet, squeeze it with paper.
3. Place a stick of paper on the surface previously coated with glue.
4. Thus filling the entire surface, spread the decor with your hands.
5. Cut the excess with scissors.

Also, in the technique of trimming, you can make flowers, for this you will need:

• Several rectangular paper sheets.
• Plasticine.
• Stick for cutting.

Getting started:

1. Mash hands with plasticine.
2. Wrap the stick with paper so that most remains free.
3. Stick it in a small piece of plasticine.
4. Similarly, create 3 petals.
5. Fill the space between them with the same petals, but of a different color.
6. Close the middle where plasticine is visible, cover with a piece of squeezed paper.

Important! Foam blanks - the most suitable for decoration in the technique of facing. No glue is needed here - the stick pierces the soft material, and trimming remains in it.

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Fringe

Fringe is the easiest way to take less time than all the others. But for this option, you need a long strip, so we take not napkins, but paper in silence, and begin work:

1. Fold the paper into a neat rectangle.
2. Incise.
3. Spread and fluff the fringe.
4. Glue the fringe with double-sided tape to the workpiece and wrap the number.

Important! Fringe looks more interesting if glued in waves. It is desirable that the colors of the paper be contrasting - so the waves will be noticeable from afar. Combining different colors, you will get a very bright and original number.

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For whom to make numbers?

In conclusion, I would like to say that the numbers decorated with napkins will appeal to any adult birthday person. Not only for a birthday, but also for any other holiday, you can make a figure out of napkins.

Important! The figure - does not have to be covered with the same flowers. Use different shades: on the front side - more delicate shades, on the sides - dark. Thus, the figure will look more voluminous.

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Stock footage

Also make sure that the decor is held tight, but skewers should not be used for these purposes if it is assumed that the child will play with a number, because the festive composition should not only be beautiful, but also safe.