One thing I got asked several times (both in person and online) was how I pulled off the floating banner at the Gender Reveal Party. It's actually really simple and I'm happy to share this little trick with you guys! You Will Need:
So this is the banner we're talking about today. I bought this design on Etsy. It's one of those you pay for it, download it, and then print it out. Once I had it printed out I was ready to cut out the letters and hang them up. Using Bulldog clips I was able to tie fishing wire to the handles and measure out how much wire I needed to get from point A to point B. In this case, the window on the left to the window on the right. Then using the tape I simply taped the letters to the fishing wire where they needed to be. I don't have photos of it, but in order to get the middle word "or" properly placed had to bull dog clip those vertically instead of horizontally. Just something to keep in mind when you attempt this.
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It's pretty customary to play games at a baby shower. I wanted something that went with theme. I also wanted to avoid a lot of overly common games/disgusting games I've seen online. So I started brainstorming and came up with an idea for 'badly explained fairytales'. Inspired by all those tweets where people 'badly explain' a movie plot. As I said we had decorations all over the room so I didn't want to use any of the ones we made centerpieces for. This was an opportunity to try and incorporate other stories I loved but couldn't work into the centerpieces! Now, I wrote these and you can feel free to change them or make your own. If you do I'd LOVE to see what you come up with! I really messed people up with these ones. Number 10 was supposed to be my trump card that no one would get, because I thought the others were too easy. But as it turns out A LOT of people were stumped by some of the easiest ones. And the answer key:
For one last decoration I wanted to do The Princess and the Pea. It's a classic story, though an admittedly strange one, and one that anyone could recognize. A bed stacked high with mattresses. I was going to make it easy on myself and just use a doll bed but somehow with all the Barbies, Monster High dolls, and 18" dolls- WE DIDN'T HAVE A BED! So here's how I solved this issue. YOU WILL NEED:
I went to a craft store looking for a wood box or cardboard box that might fit my needs. My husband found these cheap cardboard pencil boxes on an end-cap and we decided it would make the perfect bed. Then I used my hot glue gun to glue the lid down to the box. I also glued small wood beads to the underside of the box to create little bed legs. I painted the box a nice wood brown. And while that dried I cut out two headboard shapes from some scrap cardboard. I order a lot of things on Amazon so I had plenty of boxes to steal cardboard from, lol. I also painted those wood brown and glued them to the box. I bought a large square dowel rod and had my husband cut it down into four equal lengths. Then I glued them to the sides of the box to create complete headboards. I also later painted those the same brown as the rest of the bed. In the meantime I started working on the mattresses. Taking a piece of cardboard 4.5 x 8 inches for each mattress. Taking a sheet of felt for each cardboard, I hot glued two of the edges and then filled under the sheet with stuffing. Then wrap the felt over and glue those two edges down. And there's one mattress down. Repeat until you have a whole stack of mattresses to fill up the bed. I recommend using different colors for each mattress. I also made a little pillow out of felt, hot glue, and stuffing. I made a rectangle cut of felt and glued the edges together, making sure to stuff it first. And for added decoration I made a little felt crown and glued it to the pillow. Finally I added a 'sheet' under the mattresses to just give it a little extra touch. All I did was cut and glue down a piece of felt and then stacked the mattresses on top of it.
Outside of the centerpieces we wanted to keep lots fairytale references throughout the party. We also turned this into part of a game and asked people to list the fairytales around the room. So first things first I wanted a really pretty banner on the wall behind where my husband and I were going to be opening gifts. After searching online and in-stores I was about to give up on this idea. But I found a lovely mother on Pinterest who threw an ADORABLE 'Little Read Riding Hood' birthday party and she made a banner like what I was looking for. She doesn't show how she made it, but she did say she used Poster Board. Which, say no more, I can buy poster board! So I would like to link her page (button right above the photo). And explain what I did. YOU WILL NEED:
I sketched out a ribbon shape, cut out the pieces, and hot glued them together. Then using my hot glue I attached the pre-cut letters I picked up at Michaels. We used sticky tac to attach it to the walls at the party hall. And then we bought some paper flowers off of Amazon and added them around the banner for an added little something. Next decoration is ironically a this 'Little Red Riding Hood' inspired decoration but was not from "Oh Sugar Events" (but I did see it on Pinterest)! I just can't seem to find it to link it here. But I know it was under a page with a fairytale baby shower theme! This is just a simple basket with goodies in it and a little sign referencing her trip to grandma. YOU WILL NEED:
I had a picnic basket my husband and I bought back when we first started dating. It is one of those nice sets with a cheese cutting block, wine glasses, etc. So I needed to line the inside of it with a picnic cloth to (a) hide the slots for glasses and table wear, (b) add that traditional picnic look, and (c) keep the inside of my basket clean. I couldn't find picnic table cloth anywhere! But I did find picnic table cloth colored dish towels at dollar tree. So I'll take it! And in order to save ink as I'm printing so much for other projects, I just sketched out a sign and taped it to the basket lid. Then the day of the party we loaded the basket with cookies for guests. Another Fairytale I wanted to reference was The Frog Prince. As a kid I had a lot of fairytale books and one I remember vividly was a coloring book that told you the stories as you colored the pages. There was an adorable telling of this story and I always loved that version. So I took my handy toad from Halloween and turned him into a prince. For the record everyone in my house hates this giant rubber toad, which makes me love him all the more, lol! YOU WILL NEED:
For this I took some scraps of gold paper from the Once Upon A Time Banner and a small ring of Wire from my genie lamp to create a crown. I simply used a little bit of hot glue to attach it to my frog. I know I'll be able to remove it when I'm ready but it will hold it through the party without an issue. We also referenced Jack and the Beanstalk with an adorable candy jar loaded with Jelly Beans. I was going to mix up the colors and have pink, purple, and blue; but when I went to the store not only did they not have the LID for the candy jars in stock, but they ONLY had pink Jelly Beans. I guess I should consider myself lucky that they had the main color I was there for! YOU WILL NEED:
I went to Party City to get an apothecary jar and some jelly beans. Since they didn't have the lid to the jar I bought a scoop and made it look like it was all part of the plan. I also created a a label on Picmonkey (one of my favorite editing sites). I'll include a photo of it in case you want to use it. Then I wanted to create a beanstalk sprout and settled on painting a beanstalk and cutting it out. We also referenced Cinderella with a cute basket of yarn and mice. This was also on Pinterest BUT the link only takes you to a photo no website. I don't know who the original person was but I wish I could reference them. You Will Need:
I took a an Easter Basket and filled it with packs of yarn. Then taking a sheet of cardboard I drew the two iconic mice from Cinderella, Jac and Gus Gus. Then I cut them out and painted in their details. I also used the wire from the Aladdin lamp to create their tails. Once they were dried I hot glued them to a chop stick which I then slipped inside a ball of yarn so that it appeared they were standing in the yarn basket. On the day of the party we laid out sewing thread and extra items to add to the look. For a bonus touch I also made food labels for the food we supplied (half was done by the party hall and half was brought by us). So I thought I'd include some of those to give you some ideas. I love 'Swan Princess', specifically the animated trilogy by Nest Family Entertainment. So it was a MUST for centerpieces! YOU WILL NEED:
I started by painting the "transformation" water on the cake board. I took the Swan "Plant Holder" which I got on Amazon, and stuffed it with Styrofoam. Then I added flowers to the center of the swan. I also painted the swan to look like the movie. Finally I Hot Glued the swan down to the cake board.
I should have taken more photos of this process, so that is my bad. But I can easily describe how it was done. When you think of Rapunzel, next to her hair, the most iconic part of her story is the tower. YOU WILL NEED:
I started by designing the tower. I used a container I had that my roommate got from work. It was some sort of industrial spool kind of container. But it's about the same size as a small oatmeal container tube. As you can see in the picture I also used the toilet paper tubes, Styrofoam, and a cone from an old cotton candy machine. But you can use whatever you like, including making a cone out of paper if you desire one. After gluing all the tower parts together I started painting the tower. Then I glued craft moss to the tower to add some dimension. To make the lid on the styrofoam ball, I used paper to create a sort of cone style lid. Then glued construction paper to give it a shingle-ish look.
Then I braided some really long strings of yellow ribbon to create her hair dangling out the tower. Once finished I glued all this down to the cake board. I don't know about you guys but when I think of fantasy and fairytale type stories I think of King Arthur stories. So for me, 'Sword in the Stone' was a great choice for a centerpiece! YOU WILL NEED:
So, I sprayed the Great Stuff Foam directly onto the cake board. This worked, but as the foam sets, the board warped a little bit. I recommend putting the cake board under some sheets of parchment paper and then spraying the foam down to get the right amount of coverage. This way you can lift it, cut it flat, and then glue it to the cake board. You live and learn *shrugs* Once it expands and dries you can take it and begin shaping the foam to look like a large stone. I did this just using a kitchen knife, as you can see in the second picture below. Then I painted the stone and base to look like the one in the movie. Once painted I stabbed the center of the foam with the envelope opener. Then using my hot glue gun I attached a vine ribbon wrapping around the stone. I also hot glued a small bead to the underside of the cake board to combat the warping so it would sit flat on the table. You shouldn't need to do this since I explained how to NOT screw that step up, lol, but it's worth mentioning.
One of my favorite stories, a must watch, was Aladdin. I loved Disney's whole franchise as a child. (Though let's be honest, the first and the third were the best movies.) And probably the most ICONIC Aladdin item is the genie lamp. YOU WILL NEED:
Get your hot glue gun heated up and your materials together. I printed out a photo of the magic carpet (8x10) and glued it down to the cake board base. Next I took my Magic Lamp that I purchased on Amazon for $12. The one I purchased has a lid that opens up, which is key to making the centerpiece the way I did. Then I measured out an acceptable length of decorative wire, which you can find in the floral section at craft stores. It needs to be thick wire and completely poseable. I fed the piece of wire up through the genie lamp so that a good chunk of it sticks out. Then once I got it placed, I rolled up the extra wire to give it a base inside the lamp. Because this had an open lid I was able to add lights to my centerpiece. BUT the lamp is very small, despite the above photo's diceptive look, so you need to find string lights with a TINY battery box. I bought this from Michaels and it worked like a charm! I ran those lights through the hole in the lamp and wrapped them around the wire. Then I stuffed craft Styrofoam into the lamp to keep the wiring from wiggling around. Just make sure you have room for the battery pack. Using stuffing and my hot glue gun I wrapped it around the wire and lights to make a "magic smoke" affect. And finally I hot glued the lamp to the cake board to finish it off.
Our baby shower theme was "Once Upon A Time", a fitting theme to match our fantasy nursery. Despite tradition I was allowed to help out and thus took over the decorations. There were eight tables seating people and multiple other tables for food and party games. This post is just to give you ideas on how to make some generic centerpieces. You Will Need:
Two of the centerpieces I created were based on 'The Last Unicorn' and 'The Polar Bear King'. These are two my favorite stories! I had a Polar Bear figurine already but I ordered a Unicorn figurine from Amazon. Get started by heating up your hot glue gun and grabbing a cake board. I bought my cake boards (glitter gold and silver) at Meijers. Then using your hot glue gun attach your figurine to the center of your board. And then simply surround your figurines with a floral item of some sort. For 'The Last Unicorn', I used a lilac garland to wrap around the board. I also hot glued those into place. (I picked lilacs because of the quote from the story, "The Last Unicorn lived in a lilac wood and she lived all alone". ) For the 'Polar Bear King' I replaced "floral" decor with stuffing or buffalo snow to create a winter landscape around the bear. I also used a Ken doll crown for his additional adornment. Not a lot of people are familiar with the Norwegian fairytale so I figured a crown would help give people a clue as to what the story was. I created one other centerpiece I thought to include on here. I did one for 'The Little Mermaid'. It wasn't very original and not really something I could show you a step-by-step for, so I'm just including it on here. I took plastic silverware and spray painted them gold. I hot glued my candelabra to the cake board and used craft foam to keep the silverware upright. Then using hot glue I attached shells and various sea items around the candelabra. This is just the first post on this topic. I have several tutorials coming as well as some game ideas. So stay tuned for more!
For our gender reveal we once again turned to Beauty and Beast for a them. Our party theme was "Beauty or a Beast?" so of course I had to go hard on these decorations! I wanted this gorgeous banner I saw on Etsy but it wouldn't be here until after the party date so I decided to make my own. YOU WILL NEED:
The little roses I bought on Amazon had wire stems and a really stupid white fabric around the roses. I cut the wire and the outer fabric off. I used the head to determined where the center of my banner was going to be BUT DID NOT glue it down yet. I drew the stem for the rose and then doodled up a fancy border. The pack I bought had 11 banners in it so I used one as a guinea pig to figure out my design. Then took a piece of paper and my pencil and copied my design. NOW the beauty of chipboard is that it's easy to indent. So, take the piece of paper you've doodled and place it over your next banner. Trace the doodle with your pencil and it will leave an indent in your chipboard. This will help you to make sure your banners are uniform. Color in your designs and then glue your roses into place. Next I took my banner pieces and strung them together onto a turquoise piece of yarn and measured it out to fit across the china cabinet. And now the finished product the day of the party-
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I love parties!I'm pretty sure I love to throw them more than I like to attend them. Holiday parties are my personal addiction. But there's still Birthday Parties, BBQ's, and more that need to be thrown. ArchivesCategories |