DIY Party Decor

1. DIY Party Decor Course Intro: Hello, welcome to the What She Make in DIY Party decor course. I'm Shira. I'm a maker, a mama, a creative soul. I've made everything from lipstick to silk screening, to baking all kinds of things. And in this course, you are going to learn how to make some party crowns. How to construct giant numbers or letters. We're going to go over how to make giant paper flowers, and also a few options for some dynamic party signage. For your class project, I want to see at least one piece of decor complete, and if you are ready to jump in, let's get started. 2. Party Hats: Welcome to the first lesson, and it's all about these party crowns. Now there are a couple of things that you can do here. I've used some pre made crowns, as well as some cut crowns, or even used a head band turned on its side. So the first thing I wanted to do was get my elements. So essentially what you're going to make is like a medallion on the front of the crown. This is what takes it from just a hat with some jagged edges to party event. I printed out just the letter one, an oval as well as a star. All of these things are interchangeable however you would like to do it. But once I got those things cut out, I then cut each piece out from felt. I tried to choose some very bright pieces of felt that I pin down my patterns, I guess you could call them. I'm cutting these out in order to have some different colors, each element in a different color. And I'm using the number one because this is for my baby's first birthday. But you can use whatever the age is of the person or just a star with a backing on it. It's totally customizable to your event. You can even cut out a letter for the person's first name, we're just whatever you are celebrating, you can cut out elements for that. Here I'm cutting out some backing and guys, I'm just using file folders here because I wanted something that had some pattern as well as a little bit of stiffness. So I'm cutting out a backing for my felt and I'm, I'm just building up this medallion piece. It goes backing, then the felt oval, and then the star and the number one. And this is me just alternating the colors to give it some pop. And I'm going to take my glue gun and glue all of those elements down here. I'm taking a file folder and I at first just even it out and then I cut some little jagged, some zigzags in order to make it a crown. I'm punching a hole on either side. Because this is a crown that is adjustable for a variety, a variety of sizes. I'm using that backing that I cut out earlier to get everything down on it. And that backing, once I build up the medallion, is what's going on the front of each crown. The reason I used a hole punch to cut one hold on either side, because I'm going to put a drawstring through there. You can use shoestring, you can use cording, but you basically want to have something that your guests can use to just adjust it to their own head hair with I have locks, so width is a big thing. But the idea here is to be able to make it adjustable for kids, adults, whoever you have it. That's the finish crown. Again, this is totally customizable. You can make file folders come in so many different, just varieties, so many different designs. You cut one in half, cut out some jagged pieces, or buy some pre made crowns and stick your medallion on. 3. Party Sign and Floral Backdrop: This lesson is all about signage as well as the background. A backdrop here you see, I am cutting out the word one because this is, again, was for my baby's first birthday. But this guy is completely up to you. You can cut out the person's name. I like to print it out. Printed out first in a font that I like. And then I use an Exacto knife to cut all the letters out because I do not like to waste anything. I wanted this to be, I'd say a more sturdy background because I'm going to glue some things to it. I retrace this just on some recycling. I think this was packaging for some envelopes or stickers. Again, I'm going to cut that out with my Exacto knife. You can of course use scissors. I just find using the knife cutting mat is just easier for me to work with. I'm putting down a little bit of a covering here and I'm covering this with glues because I wanted to cover my words. I had a bit of a theme here, but you can use fabric, you can cover your words. Wrapping paper. Just glue down the wrapping paper to your letters and cut that out. Of course, I'm using felt, but this is by no means the only thing that you can use to cover letters to give them more of a pop, more of an interesting feel. I'm just going to glue my moss down. But again, think about all the different things that you could put on here. It could just be glitter, it can be little beating. All kinds of things will work. Here I am using a canvas, drop cloth. I pick this up at Home Depot. I cut the edging off so that I can have some ties for either side of my sign. I use these ties, I use the whole ***gth of the drop cloth binding edge. And I'm pinning down some fabric strips. Now of course, this can be strips of tablecloth that you get from the dollar store. It can be fabric, it can be bedding that you've cut up into strips. I'm sewing mine down. You can absolutely just hot glue a guys. You don't have to be nearly as extra as I'm being right here. Sewing it down is an option. But hot glue I realize is probably more accessible for most people. However you like to do, get your strips down on that binding like in the middle, and then just lay out your letters. I added a couple of flowers for, you know, a little more decor, but how is this for a sign to go up? I could see that like swagged on a wall. It could say happy birthday. It could say happy anniversary. Congratulations. This, of course, is across my baby's high chair for her first birthday, but easily something that can go up on the wall. And now let's talk about the flower garland in the background so I have some twine. And as you can see, I had collected a gaggle of just flowers and foliage, different projects. And I'm going through my collection and just pulling the flowers apart and pulling out different petals just so I can get to the. When you pull those flowers apart, they usually have a hole in the middle. I'm cutting this twine because I'm going to string the twine through the hole in each petal. I know I've seen these flowers at Walmart, I've seen them at the Dollar Tree. If you're in the States, wherever you get your foliage, I usually just grab a bunch and whatever color theme that I'm going for. Twine is available universally as well. I did tape the end of the twine, you saw wrap just plain scotch tape around it. And that helps me to be able to pull it through each flower. But what I'm doing is just going through the middle of the flower a couple of times and pulling it. And you don't even have to make a knot, you just have to loop it in such a way that it's not going to really be able to slide. I just wanted to stay where I put it and not slide down to where the next flower is. I'm going to work my way down this line of twine that I have. This, of course, depends on what your theme is. Where are you going to hang it, how long you need it to be. You can probably just take the ***gth of your wall or even your doorway. This would be cool in a doorway. And get the ***gth that you need the twine to that ***gth, cut several pieces and then get your flower pieces going through it. You're going to see at the end here, I put mine just against the wall. But again, this could be in a door opening. This could be a way for your guests to have a special entrance into the party area, or it can also just be backdrop or flanking some other signage. Oh, H. So as you can see, I've just been working my way, kind of looping my way through these different petals. Eventually, I'm going to have a whole heap of them, just in a big old stack that several strings of flowers that I've looped. You may come up with several other ways to use this backdrop, but this is how I used it, but maybe you'll come up with something even better. 4. Giant Paper Flower: All right, this is one of my favorite projects. This is the giant paper flower. Of course, you can make it, not so giant, but I'm going to make this giant. What you see here is me drawing out, I would call this a rose pattern, but the key here is to start with your largest petal size. I like to have one pattern piece. I'm going to cut out the largest piece, and then I'm going to use that piece to cut out several petals in that same size. How many you cut out is going to be dependent upon how fluffy you want your flower. I tend to use six to ten pieces. It's a little bit of trial and error to get just the preference of how you want your flower to look. As you can see, I cut down one more layer on my pattern piece, stack up some paper, and then cut out six to ten pieces in that size. So I'm going to continue to do this all the way through until I get to my smallest piece done, the smallest one. And now I'm just going to cut a base circle. And I have my stack of all of my petals. I cut out a base circle, so I just have something to tape my petals to. You can also use hot glue. But I go through and this is what gives it shape. You're going to cut a little slit just at the bottom. I think that's about three or 4 " tops. But for all the pieces, save for the smallest ones, you're going to this split at the bottom of the petal. Then you put one side over the other to make that little pucklef. You can see that. And then you tape it down. Now I'm going through all of my largest petals. The larger ones, not the bitty ones. I'm just making that puck. Then I take the biggest pieces, the biggest petals first. I'm taping those down to the outside edge of that little base circle that I made. Now this is probably going to be a sturdy if you use hot glue a lot more. If you use maybe a card stock heavier paper, I'm it's not quite construction paper, but it is a thin paper that I'm using. You go around your outside edge with the largest petals. Then when that is to your liking, you start on the smaller petal next to that. I'm going through, I'm making that little lap over puckle. These are the ones that I also start to roll down the top edges. Because think about how a flower is, it's not just straight up petals. I fold those over a bit to give it more of that flower feeling, and then I start stacking those inside and taking them down to the base. Super, super simple. It's just a matter of doing all the steps now. I'm just lining up my tape and I'm going through each size petal until I get to the very smallest ones. It's already looking like a flower. Honestly guys, you could probably stop here and have a pretty cool piece. But I do like to have that sensor swirl of the rose. I'm going to work that swirl out by rolling up some pieces and giving them some shape before I. Tape that down into the center of my flower. I'd say my next to the last smallest size petal that I'm doing, the stand up puckle with the slit and then the overlapping and taping that again, you can make these in a variety of sizes, variety of textures, colors. This is a super customizable project. Also different flower shapes. I chose that rose petal shape, but you can do ovals. That will give you a different flower. You can do like one more point that would give you a different shaped flower. You can make your center to be a, you can do the entire thing. And then make the center to be a different color. Make little loops in the center to give a different flower feel. So many variations. Again, I'm rolling down the edges just using a mechanical pencil as like a little edge roller there, like a curl in iron, but cold. And for paper, this is me just making sure I get this center exactly how I want it. I'm rolling these pieces up to give that center swirl of a rose. I'd like to give that little bin before I tape it 'cause I find that it does what I want it to do a little bit easier. So I line all these guys up on a piece of tape before rolling it up into the shape that I want it to be. Again, this is not totally necessary, it's just my preference for when I'm making the rose shape. There are several different options. If you want a different shape, like I said, you can do just play around with different petal shapes. And there's a variety of ways to do the sensor shape. I'm featuring this one making little loops or cutting even strips could give you an entirely different feel. I like to secure the very center into those other larger petals first because it's easier to put it inside the center in one unit rather than trying to do it separately. I build out the center first, and then I put that senor right into my larger flower. Oh, so here's the moment of truth. I have my big flower in the center that I just built with all those petals. And I'm just getting it down in there and trying to secure it the best I can without completely destroying the flower. Hot glue works well here too. I'm using a pen to get my tape down, but that's it. That's how you make a giant paper flower. A. 5. Big Letters and Numbers: Okay. Let's talk letters and numbers. I'm going to do the number first. This is the number one. As I've said, this is from my baby's first birthday, guys. I use all kinds of recycling. If you want to go out and get foam board, that is also just fine. But here I'm going to cut some diaper boxes. Just cut out the number one, it's really big block shapes. If you'd like to refine it a little bit more, you can maybe blow up a number on the projector. Do people still use projectors, but find a way to make it larger? But here I'm just doing a moderate size. I like to freehand all of my numbers and letters. And by freehand, I really just use a ruler and guestimate things. The important part for me is that because you're going to need two pieces, both are exactly the same. I cut out a one shape twice in two different pieces of cardboard. And now I'm just going to cover it with some beautiful napkins. Yes, y'all. These are napkins. I got them from Ikea or anywhere where they sell like some kind of decorative napkins. Target is good for that. Walmart is good for that. And the front piece, or what's going to be the front piece, I cut strips in order to give it a fun party feel. The other side, I just glue it down flat because both those front sides are going to show. And I'll show you in a little bit what I mean by that. I'm just going to continue my little fringy party strips all the way up and that's just folding the piece in half and fringe on one side so that one side is glued down and the other side flopping in the breeze there with some party fringe. Then I trimmed that up and this is the most important part. Paper cups, guys, paper cups and Elmer's glue. You can use hot glue if you're doing a larger piece. But as long as you alternate the cups making one side up and one side down, going all the way up, all the way around your base piece, it's perfect and it will work. I've done this in big letters for a voting event, I did VTE in very large letters. It works every time. You just have to give it a chance to dry. But that's your giant number. Think about like number 16 for a sweet 16 or a 25th anniversary. Easy. This is how I do my letter. Of course, you can choose to do letters in the same way I just showed you this number. Or you can do numbers in the way that I'm about to show you this letter. These are just options. But I wanted to do the flower holder in a rainbow letter A. The first thing I'm doing is, like I said, y'all is just me and my ruler. I'm just drawing out my letter. Again, I'm using some recycled cardboard, but my idea here is to have the letter as a base and then have the sides to stand up a little bit in order to contain my flowers. So I thought about just folding them up by scoring the cardboard, but I didn't really like that look. So I'm going to end up just cutting the cardboard off and then hot gluing it in a way that gave it more structure. I hope that's really clear. Please feel free to message me with any questions I'm laying out or checking the flower arrangement to see if that's going to do what I needed to do and it is. I'm continuing with just making the sides to make this a shaped open box or a shaped tray I think is a better way to put it. Now here I only have straight lines and angles, but of course you could probably use a piece of, you can bend your cardboard or use a piece, a poster board in order to go around curves to do something similar, just in a different shape. I was checking my flowers again to make sure they all fit because the inside is going to show. I have another great napkin pattern that I picked up at Ikea. I'm just wrapping this completely. I'm wrapping it around every single part that's going to show that's the sides, the inside, not really the back, but I wrap it anyway. Just giving you options. You don't have to, but the parts that are going to be obviously seen, those are parts that I just wrap like a present. And because it's a thin napkin, it molds really easily to the cardboard. And it sticks really well with just white glue. So once I complete wrapping that all up, now I'm just gluing in some full flowers. And I chose colors to make a bit of a rainbow effect. But you can do all the same color, you can do all white. I think that would be so pretty white napkins, White flowers for like a special occasion. I could even see this being done for a wedding event. Just very large guys. Are you seeing the vision? Are you seeing it? There are so many ways to do this project and so many events. It can be used for all silver. Oh my goodness. But yeah, this is how I do. I would call it a letter tray with some flowers in the middle. 6. The Hoop: This is the last big project. I hope you have some great things that you can do with these projects. This is what I call the hoop, although guys, it's a fo hoop. I take a giant piece of recycled cardboard. I think our baby gate was in there and I'm just drawing a circle. Can you just do the hula hoop thing if you've seen that project? But I wanted to be able to have this to again or to use in a different way. I'm cutting out cardboard. And what you see here is me just cutting out or marking out some circles. Because I want that kind of dynamic effect that you have seen or you may have seen on a hula hoop. So I'm cutting some circles as I printed out some letters and the size that I needed. And I'm drawing or tracing that in the middle. And that is what I want to get out of this piece of cardboard. So I'm going to cut away all of the pieces that do not fit within what I want to see. All of the negative space basically is what I am cutting out here. Just with my utility knife, cardboard is a little more heavy duty and I don't use my exacto knife for this. But the utility knife is going to go around all of those smaller circles around my letters in the middle. This could be someone's name, this could be just one letter. This can be the number of the age that the person is turning or the number of the anniversary. Like I've said throughout all of these projects, guys, these things are customizable to your needs. I'm just giving you some ideas on how to wyatt as well as do it on a budget. I've used a lot of cardboard, a lot of recycling here. I'm just trying to make my smaller circles work with my letters. I'm doing some creative, creative cutting, creative negative space there. Make sure everything stays connected. If you notice between my letters, I do have a small little rectangle that I left so that it all stays connected. And I was just making sure my E at the end there was still connected. Because this is all going to be one piece, just like it says one, but for different reasons. Again, this is the outside negative space. The space outside of the circle, you guys can see the circle is not perfect. But it doesn't have to be for this project. If you can't draw a straight circle, do not worry. You don't need it to be perfect. But this is our piece, this is our sign. How easy was that? We just did it and now we're going to decorate it. Here is where once you get your piece cut out and make sure everything stays connected, now it's just a matter of putting on some fun patterns. I mean, for me that's patterns, you may want to cover it in all one pattern. I've got my ever present napkins in some cool patterns. I'm cutting out circles, stacking them just to give it a cool vibe there. The main circle, the largest circle is getting covered in that pink and white pattern. The smaller circles, I have different patterns for that. There are 1,000 ways you can do this. Really let your imagination free here for the center. Now of course, you can do a glitter, you can do a fabric, you can do a fur. How fun would that be? I am choosing moss because it fit my theme for this particular project. I'm just covering my letters in glue and I'm shoving that moss on there. I did put some spacers in between there so that I can make sure that my numbers aren't just my numbers, My letters aren't running together. I know where to cut when I trim this after it dries. But same effect with a variety of materials. Then for this, you may not need to do this depending upon what you use. But for the most, I found that it was easiest to flip it over to at least do the first trim just to make sure my lines were all going to show. Then I do my second trim with it, the right side up. Pressing it into the boundaries of the letters also helped as I went. That is the finished product. How about that? That's how everything all together turned out for my party. I hope you enjoyed this series. 7. DIY Party Decor Thanks and Outro: Thank you so much for taking this D I Y party to Core course with me. Please feel free to share your projects. I can't wait to see pictures. I would also like to tell you about my creative journal. It's called Unleashing Creativity, the Inspiration Journal. It is available on Amazon for 14, 99. And I'm telling you this is what I use in order to break through any kind of creative slump or any kind of wall or feeling stuck. I use this technique, this kind of journal. And I've developed this one just for my students and my audience. So head over to what Shimkin.com where you can pick up one of your own. Thank you again. See you in my next course.