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.

Barney's Candy Land Party

Both of my daughter's birthdays are in June so I'm having to plan both of these parties simultaneously!!

I originally wanted to do just a Barney party for her, but then quickly realized there just wasn't that many Barney things. So I combined two of her favorite things, Barney and Candy and created Barney's Candy Land.

In my backyard, I'm going to create a life size version of the Candy Land board game and have many stops along the way, the traditional stops that are in the game, as well as Barney stops that correlate to one of Jerrica's favorite Barney movies.

My goal is to have 8 Main Stops on the board game, 1. Jerrica's House, 2. Grandpa's Farm, 3. The Big World Adventure, 4. Imagination Island, 5. Musical Zoo, 6. ABC Land, 7. School Time, and finally the end will be Barney's House.

The obstacles will be the traditional, Peppermint Forrest, Gumdrop Mountains, Lord Licorice and his Licorice Forest, Peanut House and Gramma Nut, Lollipop Woods, Ice Cream Sea, Gloppy and the Chocolate Swamp, and the Gingerbread Tree

I'm pretty much going to make everything myself (with help).

Each of the stops will incluce a variety of singing, dancing, an activity, craft or game.

And I am going to have Barney, Baby Bop, and BJ there. I haven't decided if I'm going to have them be at the end of the game, (when they win) or if I should have them show up when they start and help them through the game, any ideas and suggestions would be wonderful!!!

I'll be posting pics, and more updates soon!

A Chunky Monkey Party

So I'm still in the early stages of planning her party, but here's a general of what i've got so far.

Theme: Chunky Monkey Safari
Invitations: a Passport

Going to have a Customs station, where they will get their passports stamped and they will receive fake money

Disguise station- where they can get their faces painted like different jungle animals
Med Table- where they can get their typhoid shot (fake toy shot) and take their malaria pill (red jellybean)

Then they will be able to buy their survival kit which will include their jungle safari guides (that i'll make), a safari visor, binoculars, and a bug juice

Then I'm gonna turn my backyard into a jungle with palm trees, vines, different animals, tropical flowers, and the majority of it I'm going to make myself.

And they will have six different sections that they will visit that will have an activity at, and those will be labeled in their safari guide books.

My goal is for them to actually go on a safari and see different animals, obviously stuffed not real. But I'm still mapping out my plan.

 Keep checking back because I will be posting step by steps on how I do everything, and how to do it yourself!  And feel free to leave any tips or suggestions, or ask any questions.