tutorial of sorts

As I was wrapping this present the other week for a new baby I grabbed some crochet paper ribbon that I had made many years earlier and I thought I'd share how I made it. Well not the crochet part - but just the twisted ribbon. To be honest it's not really a tutorial rather a couple of steps!
First cut some crepe paper from a roll, you want to create a really long piece to twist up so cut across the short side. As to the width to cut it depends what you want to do, if you want to crochet with it start with cutting a piece that it around 1cm wide.

Twist one end and place it into the end of an electric or cordless drill. Now if you have a friend or helper close by they can hold the other end. But what I do is attach a piece of sellotape to the other end and tape it to a stable object like your bench top.

Then while the paper strip is pulled straight and taught turn on the drill. Slowly it will start to twist, sometimes it can take a while to start to twist,you can help this along by gently turning the paper by hand to help get it going. Don't pull too tight while the drill is going as the paper can break, it is paper after all.

That is all that there is to it. You don't have to limit yourself to just cutting straight strips, experiment with cutting into your strips to make fringed paper strings or triangles to create a mini bunting effect. Or once you have made enough you can get crocheting or knitting with them.