art party: decorations

Our art birthday party was a success! It rarely rains on summer morning in Denver, but our party day was cold and drizzly so we had to move our art activities indoors. Luckily, we have a half-finished basement and the kids could go crazy with sand and paint without causing too much damage. I tend to rely on our large backyard for events since our living room and kitchen are pretty small, but we managed to find enough indoor seating for all of our guests. Even though it was a bit cozy, everyone had a good time celebrating with our five year old.
 
Balloon, globe, & pom-pom cluster:

Can you see our very large, wet dog enjoying the rain?

The beauty of this decoration is that it is simple to put together and makes a big impression. You can blow up the balloons the night before, since a little deflation won't look bad. I chose the hanging lights over our kitchen table for this cluster since it is a nice focal point. The globes came ready made, but the pom-poms were made by hand.

Pom-Pom Materials Needed:
Tissue paper
Floral wire
Heavy duty scissors
Ribbon

Stack approximately 6-10 layers of tissue paper on top of each other. Make accordion folds down the entire length of the tissue paper and wrap a short length of floral wire around the center of the stack; I prefer to use floral wire to ribbon because of the extra stiffness. You can cut the edges of the tissue paper to give your pom-pom a different look: a rounded edge makes it look wavy, while a triangle edge makes it look a bit sharper, and just leaving the edges straight looks more like a traditional pom. Slowly peel each layer of tissue paper up or down towards the center, until you have a three-dimensional shape. Attach a length of ribbon to the wire to hang the pom-pom, and gently shake or fluff the paper to make it look full.

The more sheets of tissue paper that are used, the more difficult it is to cut the edges and fluff the layers without them tearing. For the largest poms, use full-length tissue paper; cut the paper into smaller sections for medium or small poms. For more visually interesting poms, alternate the colors of tissue paper or use different colors on each half of the pom. I used 'happy birthday' tissue paper for some of the poms, and any seasonal paper could be used for the individual occasion. After tying the poms around the hanging kitchen lights, I added some curled lengths of ribbon. This was a fun, inexpensive party decoration to make. My little one is very excited to hang these decorations in her room when we finally take them off of the kitchen lights.

art party: paint chip banners

My oldest one is turning 5 years old at the end of the month and we are having an art party. Preparations have been going on for a while now, and I plan on posting the projects as we complete them and/or after the party. A few of the decorations have already gone up around the house, since it can be a long process and last-minute decorating isn't my thing. Here are the small paint chip banners we made.

Materials Needed:
Paint sample cards
Large paper punch
String
Clear tape

The most important step is to gather lots of paint sample cards from home improvement stores. We have been grabbing a handful every time we go to Lowes or Wal-Mart, and the kids love picking out a variety of fun colors. We used a large circle paper punch and were able to get two circles out of most of the paint cards. After we had a giant stack of circles, I measured out different lengths of string and taped circles to each one. I connected three strings of circles together before taping them up on all of the interior doors. I hung the banners high enough on the doors that the kids can't reach them, and reinforced them with enough tape that they won't be coming down without lots of work. I am glad to have a small part of the party planning completed, even if it is the easiest step!