Party Activity: Decorating Paper "Teacups"

     Here is a fun party activity and a great way to make sure no one gets their drinks mixed up.

Materials:
*Paper cups
*Scissors
*Glue
*Cardstock
*Tape
*Crayons

Directions:
*Cut off the top and bottom of one paper cup and split it along the seam.  You should end up with a band that looks something like this (ignore the handles for now; they will come into play later):

Note: if you're using Hannaford paper cups, you might be able to skip this step and use my above template, but since there is no standardized shape for paper cups, it will not work for all brands.
*Trace it onto cardstock.  You can either trace it onto as many sheets as you want or you can trace it onto one and photocopy the rest.  Cut out the shapes.
*Create handles.  You can either print and cut out my handle design (see above) or create your own.
*Fold over the flaps on the handles.  Glue together the remaining portion of the handles, not including the flaps.
*Once the handles are dry, glue them to the paper cups to make them look more like teacups.  The handles are not necessarily durable enough to be used to drink and are there for aesthetics, so make sure the partygoers are aware of this.
*When the day of the party arrives, give each partygoer one of the strips of paper and some crayons or markers to decorate.  Once they are finished with their design, tape the paper to one of the teacups.

Paper Clock

Materials:
*Patterned cardstock
*Gold cardstock
*Pencil
*Brad
*Scissors
*Glue
*X-acto knife
*Protractor (optional)
*Hole punch
*Gold number stickers (optional)

Directions:
*In a program such as Paint, create two circles, one as large as you would like your clock to be and the other about 1/2" less in diameter than the first.
*Print the circles and cut them out.
*Trace the bigger circle onto the back of each sheet of cardstock.
*On the gold sheet, center the smaller circle inside the big circle you have traced and cut out.
*Cut out your circles.  The patterned cardstock will give you the background for your clock and the gold one will give you its frame.
*Either print out numerals, trace them onto the gold paper, and cut them out (I went this route and it was rather time consuming) or get some gold number stickers.
*Using your protractor (or by eyeballing it), mark out at the edge of the background clock piece in pencil every 30 degrees.
*Adhere your numbers to the clock at the 30 degree intervals, making sure to place them about 1/2" away from the edge.
*Glue on the frame.
*Print out two copies of the key template from my Key Bookmarks and Centerpiece post, with one key larger than the other.
*Cut out the keys, using an X-acto knife when necessary.  Instead of cutting out the diamond shape at the top, however, fit the two keys together diamond to diamond and punch a hole through them.
*Slide a brad through the keys.  Find the center of the clock and push the brad through it.  Adjust the key shaped hands until they reach the desired positions on the clock.

Key Bookmarks and Centerpiece

     These key bookmarks make lovely party favors.

Materials:
*Gold cardstock
*Ribbon
*Pen
*Scissors
*X-acto knife
*Ribbon
*Vase
*Marbles
*Branch

Directions:
*Print out a copy of the key template below.  Alternately, if you have a Silhouette CAMEO or some other sort of die cutting machine that allows you to import designs, you can import the template and let the machine do all the work.

*Cut out the key shape and trace it onto the back of the sheet of gold cardstock as many times as you would like bookmarks.
*Cut out the keys, using an X-acto knife for the fine details.  If you're doing this by hand, as I did, it could take quite a while, depending on the number of keys you want.
*Cut off lengths of ribbon and tie them through the tops of your keys.
*Place the branch inside the vase and fill the vase with marbles or accent gems heavy enough to hold it in place.
*Hang the bookmarks from the branches to make a centerpiece for your party.

Playing Card Streamers

Materials:
*Deck of playing cards
*Mounting tape
*Ribbon
*Scissors
*Tape

Directions:
*Cut 26 lengths of ribbon to the desired size and curl them if you would like.
*Using mounting tape, secure a piece of ribbon between two playing cards.  Repeat with the remainder of the ribbons and cards.
*Tape ribbons to the ceiling.

Red and White Paper Roses

     Brian didn't want me buying artificial roses for my birthday party, so he promised to help me make paper roses.  He ended up making all four of the white roses and one of the reds, while I made the remaining three reds.

Materials:
*Cardstock in red and/or white
*Floral wire
*All purpose adhesive
*Rose template
*Scissors
*Pen

Directions:
*I got the template and instructions from elli.com.  They have an excellent pictorial tutorial that is easy to follow, but I did make a few modifications to it as I went along, which I will mention below.
*First of all, I substituted floral wire instead of bamboo skewers.
*Secondly, you'll notice there is no template for red roses.  I just used the one for white roses on red cardstock.  The only problem with this method is the leaves will not print correctly.  I eschewed leaves entirely, but if you do want to use them, you can print extra leaves onto white cardstock or you can trace the leaves onto green cardstock.
*Instead of hot glue, I used all purpose adhesive.  Brian tried using hot glue for the roses he made and it worked out all right, but I think the all purpose adhesive was easier to work with and it has held up just fine.
*To make the roses look more rose-like, I cut some of the bigger (four- and five-petal) rose pieces apart, adding in an extra set of two-petal pieces and multiple extra three-petal pieces.
*To give the roses more of an Alice in Wonderland vibe, you could try mixing together red and white pieces when constructing your roses.
*For instructions on how to make the teapot vase these roses are in, see last week's blog post.