Papercraft challenge 3: birthday in autumn

As part of our PIXMA Papercraft Challenge, we tasked crafters and families to create beautiful papercrafts for occasions throughout the year.

This time the challenge for designer Pippa Hiscock was to create decor for her birthday party – which falls in autumn – to brighten up gloomy and rainy days using templates from Canon Creative Park, a Canon PIXMA printer and her favourite photographs.

A birthday party is always a fun celebration, no matter your age. The seasons play a role in party planning – a summer birthday might be best spent in a garden or park, while it might be wise to host a gathering at home during autumn since the weather is a little colder. Adult birthday parties don't have to be dull. Even if it's raining outside, you can create your own fun for you to enjoy with your loved ones. Bring out the child in you and play around with the crafts on Canon Creative Park.

With hundreds of templates to choose from, including cake toppers, bunting and fun games, the theme can be anything you want, as long as it brings you that childlike joy. Creating your own party decorations is an affordable way of decorating and a unique way of personalising your party. You can then recycle your paper templates afterwards or keep them for future events.

• Creative Park app or website
• Canon PIXMA printer, such as the PIXMA TS5340a
• Canon Matte Photo Paper
• Canon Plus Glossy II photo paper
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Glue stick/glue gun/glue dots
• Food picks
• Sticky tape
• Your favourite photographs

For her birthday party, Pippa decided to search on Canon Creative Park using the keywords "birthday" and "party", and she was able to find a vast selection of eye-catching templates. "I wanted a big decoration for the wall so that we had a nice backdrop for plenty of funny photos, so the "happy birthday" garland and photo props were the obvious choice," says Pippa.

Once she had the bigger elements sorted Pippa looked at the details, and what is a birthday without a cake? "Of course there would be cake, so the mini bunting cake decoration was perfect," she continues. "These just had to be cut out, folded and glued over string, then either hung on the wall or tied to wooden skewers for the cake."

Offering her advice to those approaching this for the first time, Pippa says to pick a few attractive but simple decorations, such as a garland or a name banner, to start with, and to check the difficulty rating on each template. "Things like the birthday banner bunting make a big impression at your party and are really easy to make," she says.

"Some of the templates were quick and simple, and some were more of a challenge that required more time and concentration, but I enjoyed making all of them," says Pippa. "It was so nice to spend time crafting with a cup of tea, and I ended up with some really colourful decorations for the party."

Pippa set up her Canon PIXMA printer on her home Wi-Fi and then connected using her smartphone and the Canon Creative Park app. This way she could simply search for the templates she wanted to use then just click print.

Once she had printed her chosen templates, Pippa cut out all the models. Then it was time for the crucial scoring phase before folding the paper templates. This ensures the final product remains strong and sturdy. After you've scored and folded your templates, glue together any remaining sections following the instructions provided, and remember to leave your papercraft creations to dry fully before using them as decor.

Pippa used photographs to make fun, personalised flag picks to place into cupcakes. This is a great way of making your party unique. You could also do this for an engagement party with photos of the happy couple, or use your favourite holiday snaps or pet portraits. "I have made cupcake toppers before but never using photos," she says. "It was really fun looking for pictures of the guests to print." She even recommends making them with your friends on the night so they can pick their own photo.

Pippa printed her favourite images on Canon Plus Glossy II photo paper using her PIXMA printer, cut out the figures and then simply attached the photographs to the toothpicks using biodegradable tape. You could make these double-sided by printing out two copies of your photographs or write a fun message or name on the back.

Don't forget, it's easy to add your personal style to the existing templates on the Canon Creative Park app with the addition of drawings or even ribbon, whatever your crafty heart desires. "The birthday bunting was easy to personalise by choosing a lovely bright neon cord to hang it on," says Pippa.

You can even get together with friends and create homemade gifts, or if you want to take it to the next level, you could try building intricate fine art papercraft models.

Pippa and her friends had fun at the birthday party. "We had a great time and ended up taking some funny photos using all of the paper photo booth style props and masks," she says.

Everyone also loved the personalised photo flag picks. These made for little unique party gifts which could be reused at other celebrations. "The photo sticks on the cupcakes made them all laugh and I could give them cake to take home after the party," she says.