Monday, August 31, 2009

Move over Martha!! A party and a tutorial...


My niece, Ashlyn, had her tenth birthday party this weekend and wanted me to help decorate for it. I took what she said she wanted, pink and black polka dots, and ran with it.
I took this picture and modified it. I love the Wal-Martha tissue paper flowers and did buy a kit on clearance, but the colors did not go with our theme.
Here is the Birthday Girl herself. Happy Birthday, Ashlyn!!

Here is the table all ready for Ashlyn's friends. My sister in law was having the girls make and decorate the cupcakes so we set the sprinkles out on the table. Now, if this party had been at my house for my girl, we would have put those sprinkles in a glass cheese shaker or something. I used a Wal-Martha scalloped circle punch{bought on clearance thankyouverymuch} for the confetti on the table.


Ten candles...Black and white polka dot napkins from Target complement the theme.

A shot of the tissue paper flowers and garland I made. Scroll down for a tutorial...

Ashlyn and I came up with the idea for the girls to tie fabric strips onto flip flops. Cory and I tore fabric strips the night before and got everything all put into these cute polka dot goody bags. The girls also got glow bracelets and nail polish.

I made the banner for Ashlyn's present from us, but it will also look great when her parents redo her room for her. She wants it hot pink with black polka dots and I get to help!!

Here Lilly is helping me make the garland that was hanging with the tissue paper flowers. I used that same Wal-Martha punch and glue sticked those paper cut outs to thin satin ribbon.

Just sandwich the ribbon in between the circles.
Now onto the tissue paper flower tutorial...
You will need tissue paper. Several packs. Pipe cleaners. Fishing line to hang.

To make a large flower you will use all 8 or 10 sheets of tissue paper, whatever comes in your pack.
Fold it accordion style, like a fan. Back and forth.

You can see the folds, just keep going back and forth until you reach the end.


Once you get it folded, you will want to cut the ends. You can either round the corners or cut the corners off, making a pointy end. I did a little of both.

Here is a round edge.

Don'tcha just love it when the lights come on??
Okay, so here you are going to fold it in half lengthwise.

You will then cut the corners. Do not leave out this step. It will result in a flower that is very hard to open. I found this step missing from most of the directions I found.

Here is what it will look like opened back up.

Here is where you will take a pipe cleaner and wrap it around the middle. If you are making smaller flowers, you can cut the pipe cleaner in half. You will also want to make a loop with the ends of the pipe cleaner to make for easier hanging.

Now you will just open the fan up and start pulling the papers apart.

Just pull the single layers apart carefully, working toward the center.

Repeat on the other side.

There you have a pretty tissue paper flower!!
If you want to make a smaller flower, just cut the paper in half and use half the amount of papers. Like, if its a pack of ten, use five sheets.
To hang the flowers like I did in the top photo, get a dowel rod and screw two eye hooks into the top, string fishing line through the hooks and just tie on the flowers with fishing line. You can hang it from the ceiling with teacup hooks, or like we did using pushpins since it was temporarily in the kitchen.
One thing I would also recommend is to paint your dowel rod white. That way it will not show as much in case you don't cover it well.
Hope y'all like it!! I would love to know if you replicate this look!! Let me know if y'all have any questions.


















18 comments:

Jen~ Lipstick and Laundry said...

AWESOME! You did a fantasic job... What a great party! I am going to use your tutorial for those tissue paper flowers!

Anonymous said...

you're amazing :)
everything looks SO stinkin adorable.

mysteryhistorymom said...

Love the party decorations, Elise! AMAZING! I want a black and pink polka dot party now.:) Lori

Katherine Ann said...

So glad you posted the "how to.." I'd love to make those for an upcoming shower!! Thank you!!!

Monica Wilkinson said...

Adorable! With all our theme-lovin' I'd say you and I would make a dangerous pair planning a party! :)

Loved all the polka dots!

Erica said...

Those are so cute! I'm going to make some for my daughter's b-day coming up :)[I'll make sure to post a pic]

How is school going? We are starting kindergarten after Labor Day. This is my 1st year teaching "real" school :)

Erica

jamie said...

Such a pretty party! I love the black and white polka dots with the hot pink, so fun!
And thanks for the tutorial! I've been wanting to try these for awhile!

cakegirl said...

Too cute. Sounds like my kind of party if they were decorating cupcakes!

Joanna said...

Oh the party turned out great! That must be a big color scheme with girls turning 10. Kayla turned 10 in June, the colors were pink, black and zebra. We did the flip flop thing too!

Oh I made those flower things for Kelsie's party a couple of weeks ago. That step was totally not there! No wonder the flowers looked odd! I will do this step next time for sure. Thanks for sharing!

mommax3 said...

Love it! In a few days my daughter will be having her 10th birthday party. Hers is a movie/popcorn theme, I'll show everything we made when were all done.

I love the circle garland, I just might need to do that! Thanks for the great ideas!!

Michelle said...

Oh my, you did such an AWESOME job on that party...bet the birthday girl LOVED it! Thanks for sharing the tissue paper flower tutorial :) Man, I just love visiting your blog!!!

Have a wonderful day!
~Michelle :)

Nichole said...

What a cute and fun party!

Thank you for posting the tutorial! I've been wanting to make these for a baby shower that a friend and I are throwing. I tried to make one but I couldn't get the tissue paper apart w/o tearing it. I didn't have your handy little tip of cuting the pieces out of the middle!

Fran. said...

Oh, Elise you are so clever and creative! I just love how you make everything seem so simple! and in the end it's all so pretty and put together!! I just love that simple circle garalnd you did! what a great way to use up scraps!! It would be kinda cool for Christmas or any holiday! Take care, Fran.

Jill said...

TOOOO cute!!! How about helping me on Sept. 17, Nov. 16 and Nov. 23 ?
LOVE your decorations!! great job!
Blessings!
Jill

Ruth said...

What a fun birthday party. Great ideas! Move over Martha for sure.

Ruth

The Runyans said...

I LOVE all of this. I want those puffy hanging from the ceiling cool madoodads in my craft room. I need to make some.

LOve it all!

Christina said...

OK I am definalty gonna try this again tonight! Thanks so much...love your blog and your sweet family!

Magic Brush said...

So cute! We may try these for a seminar at our church!!! Thanks for the tutorial!