  Current analytical and numerical modelling suggest the existence of
ubiquitous thin current sheets in the corona that could explain the observed
heating requirements. On the other hand, new high resolution observations of
the corona indicate that its magnetic field may tend to organise itself in fine
strand-like structures of few hundred kilometres widths. The link between small
structure in models and the observed widths of strand-like structure several
orders of magnitude larger is still not clear. A popular theoretical scenario
is the nanoflare model, in which each strand is the product of an ensemble of
heating events. Here, we suggest an alternative mechanism for strand
generation. Through forward modelling of 3D MHD simulations we show that small
amplitude transverse MHD waves can lead in a few periods time to strand-like
structure in loops in EUV intensity images. Our model is based on previous
numerical work showing that transverse MHD oscillations can lead to
Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities that deform the cross-sectional area of loops.
While previous work has focused on large amplitude oscillations, here we show
that the instability can occur even for low wave amplitudes for long and thin
loops, matching those presently observed in the corona. We show that the
vortices generated from the instability are velocity sheared regions with
enhanced emissivity hosting current sheets. Strands result as a complex
combination of the vortices and the line-of-sight angle, last for timescales of
a period and can be observed for spatial resolutions of a tenth of loop radius.
