D.I.Y. cardboard stag head...

We had a Downton Abbey themed Christmas party on Thursday at Andrew's college. It was the perfect setting as it's an oldy-worldy college with high ceilings and dark wood...it was just sat waiting to be downton-abbey-ized! My friend Michelle was heading it up and she is the most incredible party planner, she transformed the college so beautifully! Seriously, I'm trying to convince her she could totally juggle being both a vicar and a party planner (the complete package for any wedding right?!).

My favourite part of the decor were these cardboard stag heads...stag heads and antlers are all over the internet at the moment so this is a perfect alternative if, like me, you'd prefer not to have a skull in your lounge :)

Sadly my photos aren't particularly great, this is due to two reasons. Firstly it was only as I was going to bed on Wednesday night that I remembered I hadn't cut out all the pieces so I had a slightly rushed early morning craft session Thursday morning. And secondly I was having far too good a time at the party so it was only as I was leaving that I thought to take any photos...so these were taken just as I was walking out the door!

But hey, they looked great dotted around the room. We used this tutorial over at Instructables, except we made the template larger. Head over there for how to make this fab DIY!

Here are some photos of the process...

All cut out and ready to be assembled...

And then everything just slots together like magic before gluing the head to the backing (I don't have a glue gun so I used strong glue instead, it seemed to work just as well). To help the head stay straight it's worth cutting the slots in each piece fairly wide, otherwise it forces the cardboard to twist.

And one final photo of it up on the wall! I stuck mine on a little bit lopsided so it has a slightly quizzical turn of it's head, I'm going with that it makes it endeering...haha!

I'm going to stop now before I allow any more awful puns pass my typing fingers :)

I hope all your Christmas preparations are going well! I've still got a little bit more shopping to do but I think I'm on track! Have a great week :)