6.08.2010

Recycled Art Birthday Party

H's party was a success! The kids all had a great time...(which most kids do at parties, right?) :D & everything went sooo smoothly, which is nice (that may have been due to the party being postponed for 2 weeks). So finally, here are some party details...
The Decorations:

The four banners/buntings hung over head were made from 4 inch triangles of fused plastic bags, sewn together by sewing machine(mine had 43 triangles each).

For the tablecloths, I taped sheets of newspapers together then flipped them over (try to avoid obits & any scary news) :D. I wanted to lighten it up some so I rolled some paper off the kids' art paper down the center & punched the edges with a scalloped border.

The centerpieces are soda bottles cut in half (more or less)...use a craft knife & remove the labels. The bottoms were filled with markers, crayons & colored pencils for the art projects. The top half of the bottles were filled with flowers made from leftover fused plastic bags & newspapers (a mini tutorial coming on that soon).
The favors were stored on the gift table is a box they fit in perfectly tied with a plastic bag "ribbon" and finished with a newspaper "pompom". The candy dishes are made from the bottom of 2-liter soda bottles.
The Cake:
Is easier than it looks...although it was HOT and Humid the day of the party (of course) so frosting it was not so easy.
First I traced the plate onto a large piece of paper...to get the general size I needed.
Next I sketched out the design I wanted...you can just as easily find an image on line and print it out in the size you need...& cut out templates.
I baked the cake in a jelly roll pan...I didn't want the layers too thick. Watch the cake closely...it will cook a lot faster than in a regular cake pan...mine were done in about 10-12 minutes. I used two boxes of cake mix (if I did it over I would use homemade cake...which is denser & less crumbly)...1 cake mix per pan.
After the cake had cooled I used the templates to cut out cake pieces. Then arranged on a cutting board & frosted. I then moved them to the plate & touched up any frosting. The green arrows & 8 are cut out of fondant, rolled out thin, with the same templates. Then just placed on top of the cakes. I didn't put candles in until just before we were getting ready to sing.


The Activity:
I invited all the kids to bring a small grocery sack of things they could use for art projects that they would otherwise throw away or recycle...and we had saved up a bunch of stuff as well. The kids had a great time making whatever they wanted (there were a lot of musical instruments) :) They actually worked on the project for about an hour of the 2 hour party.
They also decorated their newspaper hats(while waiting for everyone to arrive)...which they then wore as party hats.
Don't remember how to make a newspaper hat?
...here's how
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3 comments:

KayC. said...

I loved everything! My favorite has to be using the top half of the pop bottles for vases. The cake turned out great...and H. looks so happy! Did you take pictures of their creations?

cindy-stitches-n-stuff.blogspot.com said...

Hi Anna, I'm cindy from stitches-n-suff. I'm visiting all of my followers this week. You are such a talented and fun mothers. All of your ideas are darling. I love my welcome banner that you sent me. It's in my grandmas room.

It looks like your an amazing cook too. I love it!

come visit
beg hugs
cindy@stitches

Anonymous said...

These are wonderful ideas! I'm a newlywed and am already planning parties for our future children. Thank you sooo much for even more useful ideas and things to look forward to in the future!

And I love all of your "upcycling"...one of my favorite things to do is to update and redo various things.

:o) Mrs. McB at mcbsmusings.blogspot.com

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