Garden Party Paper Fan DIY

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Last updated on January 4th, 2025 at 09:42 pm

make a paper fan for picnics and garden parties

This little homemade garden party paper fan may be a little old-fashioned, but it’s certainly pretty and practical as well. Make a selection of paper fans and give them out as small favors for guests at an outdoor tea party or summer garden reception.

If you want to make a Victorian paper fan theme just use the same technique and follow the supplemental instructions below. See How to Make a Wallpaper Fan for a decorative home accent made in a similar fashion. And do check out these Wallpaper or Gift Wrap Butterflies – they would look amazing at a garden party!

This is a great paper recycling project as you can reuse pretty wrapping paper, left-over paper napkins or whatever you have that fits. As well, you now have a use for all those extra paint stick stirrers that are often given out when you buy paint. If you only use one while painting, you’ll have some left to make these pretty paper fans.

You Will Need:

Paint stir stick or large craft stick
Heavy weight card stock paper
White craft glue (clear drying)
Ribbon
Gift wrap, tissue paper, clippings etc.
Metallic Pen
Printed Garden Fan Template

Project Instructions:

Trace the Printed Garden Fan Template onto heavy weight card stock. You will need two pieces of the template pattern cut from card stock; one for each side of the fan.

If you want your paper fan larger than this, print an extra template, overlap it with the first template to your desired size, tape them together, then trace this larger template to your card stock.

Glue your choice of tissue paper or gift wrap to one side of the card stock, pressing out any bubbles or wrinkles. Allow the glue to dry completely. Repeat for the second template piece.

If desired, cut the paint stick to a suitable length. I made mine about 9 inches long. If the stick is a little rough then you may want to sand it smooth before proceeding.

Glue the cut end of the stick in between the two blank sides of card stock, lining it up in the centre and leaving the decorative sides outwards.

Make sure the fan is securely glued together, because you want the ladies at your garden party to be able to fan themselves without the fan coming apart.

Tie a bow around the top of the handle and secure the bow with a little glue. The bow will take a little abuse if these fans are used. Add an inscription on the handle with a paint pen, detailing the event or date or names.

Optionally, you may want to finish the entire fan with a final coat of polyurethane or some kind of outdoor sealer to protect against humidity, etc. This isn’t absolutely necessary but will give your fan a longer life.

Homemade Victorian Paper Fan

Follow the directions for the Garden Party Paper Fan, but add any Victorian style embellishments that you might like.

These may include scrapbook embellishments, lace scraps, cut-outs from paper doilies, Victorian clip art, or contrasting paper designs cut into heart shapes and framed with lace.

You’ll find more on using paper doily cut outs, plus a selection of Victorian clip art, in our project to make aVictorian greeting card.