Step by Step Saturday with Audrey Yeager

I thought it would be fun way to ring in the new year with a “bang”, so I made some New Year’s Eve crackers!!

1. Take a toilet paper tube and cut in half with an exacto knife.

2. Cut a piece of tissue paper about 2 1/2 times the length of the tube, and wide enough to wrap around once or twice.

3. Put the tube back together on the tissue paper and add a line of double sided tape. Adhere the edge of the tissue paper. Roll the tube in the paper and seal the other end with double sided tape, too.

4. Use a paper piercer to poke holes around the middle of the tube like a perforation. This will make it easier for the paper to rip when you pull on the ends.

5. Carefully tie off one end of the tube with ribbon, twine, or even fabric.

6. Now the fun part! Choose some goodies to put inside your tube. I made some confetti with a punch, added some candy, a balloon, a noise maker, and a fortune. Other ideas are coins, small toys, and trinkets. You can even buy the “snap” strips that make noise online and stick them inside, too, so that it actually snaps when you open it.

7. Seal off the other end of the tube, and decorate the outside! NOTE: You may want to perforate around the middle again, through any additional layers of paper you add. I rolled some paper round the middle, added a border of washi tape, punched a label out of yellow paper, and added a die cut 2013.