In a relatively close future, I will be attending an event in which a very large amount of confetti would be appreciated. As in, litres of them.
These would have to be produced in the smallest time possible at minimal cost, and if possible with common household tools.
I already have considerable amounts of draft paper aside for the occasion.
Wikihow doesn't help : its tips are either too slow, or with tools I don't have ( shredder or paper guillotine )
Cutting the first few sheets of paper by hand to make confetti will go well until you get into cutting up the thin strips which do not want to cooperate. You will slow down to a crawl.
You must automate this process.
To produce the confetti yourself, use a cross-cut paper shredder which produces chips/chads instead of strips of paper produced by most others. Place the shredder over a large waste paper basket lined with a garbage bag so that you won't have to empty it often.
You can borrow, or rent a shredder if you look around and try the various flea markets and used equipment online listings. Advertise in the listings to make a contact to get the job done.
If you can get your paper supplied in rolls, you can feed several ends into the mouth of the shredder at one time and it will be self-feeding. You can use up to 6 rolls of 20 lb/85 gsm paper stock.
Paper when "fluffed up" this way will produce up to 50 times the original volume so have plenty of bags handy for the amount you will produce.
You can visit a paper shredder company such as Shred-it to generate massive amounts of your supplied paper as well as a do-it-yourself. Bring your own paper as they treat all materials as confidential and cannot supply their customer's waste for you.
A "guillotine" style paper cutter is likely to be most efficient for this. It will cut stacks of paper (older, heavier units will cut a dozen sheets or more; even the new ones that are mostly plastic will cut five sheets). Cut a narrow strip from a stack of sheets, shift over, and cut another. Cut as many as you can without risking your fingers, then collect the strips you've cut and cut the ends (length similar to width) to make your confetti.
You can convert a full stack of sheets to confetti, leaving a handling strip and some tag ends, in a few minutes. To make liters will take time, but almost certainly less time than anything else other than a crosscut shredder.
Use a kitchen shredder.
You can try other types of "shredders" such as a blender or a food processor if the confetti can be various sized chips of paper. Making confetti with food processing equipment is easy but the quality of the product is low.
It's worth a try since different equipment produces different results. Your mileage may vary.
You cannot process as much paper this way as the container fills quickly and must be emptied often. The process gets messy very quickly. There's more dust produced this way if you're not careful or not paying attention.
Once I used an hole puncher to create confetti for carnival. If you have enough time you can get one from Amazon. I remember I used a double hole puncher with multiple and colorful sheets of paper, like a magazine. I've stacked them and punched altogheter, speeding the process. The confetti were really beautiful, all round and perfect. It was fun and relatively fast!
I was young, 10-12 y.o., so if you have children you can let them play with it with no risks.
While thinking about this problem i came up with an idea :
To be clearer : Behold for paint skills !
This does have a problem, so I'm not sure I'll do it: I already have lots of draft asside, so using workbooks will be a waste of paper.
