How to Make Pin Wheels

I am using these for one section of Jerrica's party and rather than spending money on them, I decided to make them myself.

All you need is
card stock paper any color that you want
scissors
pipe cleaner
hole puncher
pencil or dowel rod

Ok first thing you do is start off with one piece of cardstock paper, this will be the color of your pin wheel. As you can see in the picture, my cardstock was pre-cut. But if you are using a standard size, you fold it in a triangle, as you can see in the pictures, then fold it the other way, and cut off that strip that is at the bottom. What you will end up with is a square, like shown in the picture.

Once you have folded your squares both ways, open the paper, and it will look like a big X.
You are going to cut along the folds, cutting towards the center. You DO NOT want to cut all the way to the center, stop about a half inch away.

How To: Paper Pom-Poms, Paper Flowers

These are really cheap, and look amazing for any party. The best part is you can find tissue paper in almost every color to match your color scheme.

All you need is a pack of tissue paper in your color, 8 to 12 pieces per color.
Pipe cleaners
Scissors
Fishing line or other string, to hang from ceiling

Ok, you put all of one color together, just for this tutorial I am only using 6 pieces of tissue paper in lavender, but I recommend 8, or 12 for a very full pom pom.

You want to make sure they are all layered on top of each other and fold them like a fan, flipping from one side to the other like in this picture.

Fold it about a half inch, and then flip the paper over and fold it about a half inch, and keep repeating this process until it's folded like a fan.

This is how it should look like when this step is done

The next thing you are going to want to do is fold it in half.

Then you are going to want to scrunch it together on the flat side, and cut the tops off. You only want to cut about a half inch off the top, with ROUNDED edges.

If that part is too complicated for you, it is not absolutely necessary to round your edges, it just gives it a fuller look. You may leave the edges straight if you wish.

The next thing you want to do is take a pipe cleaner and tie it in the middle. You want the remaining part to be on the side and twist it a couple of times. 

Now this is the part that you should stop at unless it is the night before the party. If you flluff your pom poms/flowers too early, they will become flat. What I do, is make how ever many I am going to have for the party, and put them up, then the night before the party, I fluff them. 

The next step is you choose a side, and slide your fingers through the folds and hold it like a fan,

 you very carefully pull one side of the tissue completely down, and then you pull the other side. Be very careful because the tissue paper is very thin. You alternate sides until the one side is completely full. 

Then you repeat the exact same process on the other side, and you can rearrange them however you like.

As you can see the pom pom/flower I am holding upside down by the pipecleaner. You would then tie  your fishing line, or jewelry line to the ceiling or where ever you are hanging it. Good luck! If you have any questions, let me know.

Tori's Invites- Jungle Safari

       So I have been playing around with what I want to do with the invitation for Tori's Jungle Safari party and I've finally decided I'm going to make them myself. I went to a craft store and down the scrap-booking aisle, and kind of layered different papers and finally settled on a dark forest green for background, a lighter color that had monkeys on it, and then a pale pink card stock that will actually have the party information on it.
      I was walking down the clearance aisle and found this broken bamboo thing, as you can see in the picture, and I thought it'd be cool to incorporate a piece of bamboo onto the invitation. I'll post pictures once I've had the invitation actually done.

Chunky Monkey Binder

For every party, I make a binder with labeled tabs so that I am organized. I make a tab for Invites and Guest list, decorations, games and favors, entertainment, food, budget, to do, and misc. and put lined paper in each section and fill it out as need be. I've found this really helps in party planning. I also put post it notes in each binder, for when my pages are filled out, and need to add additional info to that section.