Thanks to my obsession with board games, I have hundreds of those small red and green plastic houses that come in Monopoly games. Hundreds! I've made earrings out of them, but I still have lots left over. Hmm, red and green...why not a Christmas garland?
I started by drilling a single hole in the chimney of each house. I used a hand-powered drill so I could sit at my dining room table (I could also have used the drill press in the garage, but it's a bit chilly out there.)I experimented with different ways of stringing the houses, along with plastic beads, on bead-stringing wire. A string of just beads and houses was visually boring, so I dug around in my game stash. Luckily, most games favor primary colors so there were lots of red and green bits to choose from.
I ended up with white and yellow tiddly winks and green, red, and yellow Risk pieces. I had to drill holes in the winks, but the Risk pieces were shaped like Roman numerals (why?), so I picked out the fives and tens, whose holes I could thread the wire through easily.
Here's the final garland:
It's a few feet long. I'm pleased with how it turned out. Now I'll try making ornaments out of other game pieces. Can I have an entirely upcycled tree?