Sunday, May 6, 2012

Popcorn and Candy Party

I teased you the other day with this post and then I disappeared! Sorry about that. To say it's been insanely crazy busy around here is the understatement of the year!  I will try to do better.  Although...I have to say, there are not a WHOLE lot of projects being done around here lately with end of the year school stuff going on.   But I do want to share something I put a lot of time into last month that turned out so cute.  I was extremely proud.

I found this on a blog one day and instantly fell in love.  I knew I wanted to do something similar as a decoration for my daughter's first communion party.



The tutorial said that I should be able to find at any home improvement store.  I also found this...

which also said that she got the boards at Home Depot.  Guess what I couldn't find...anywhere??  Not at Home Depot, Lowes, a local lumber store - no where.  I was SO frustrated and disappointed.  But then I thought about this bench that has been sitting on my front porch for many many years.

Bench that needs to be re-done
Old bench that I've been meaning to fix up

It has definitely seen better MUCH better days!  I have been wanting to fix it up and repaint it but then I decided it had a new purpose in life!  So I got to work...taking it all apart, sanding and putting it back together in it's new form.

Here I am using a power sander!!

Me using a power tool!

and here is is after I nailed it all together.  But...I got it a little crooked so hubby had to re-do it for me.

Spacing a little off
My first attempt at a little fence - spacing a little off

Then I painted it yellow and VOILA!  I think it turned out so cute!  Here it is decorated for a party that I'll tell you about in a minute.
Finished product - little fence with fabric flowers

The no sew fabric flowers were SUPER easy to make. Here's a link to the tutorial.

I did end up using the flowers and fence for my daughter's first Communion party (which I'll post about soon), but another event came up a few weeks ago that was perfect for this cute little fence and flowers.  I had the opportunity to decorate the teacher's lounge in my kids' school for a popcorn and candy party for teacher appreciation week.  I had more fun with this than anything I've done in a while.  I shopped around for apothecary jars, pretty bowls, and made fun decorations with my Silhouette Cameo.  Here are some pics of the teacher's lounge all decorated for the party.

Candy and popcorn party - fabric flowers, big lollipops.

I used this Pinterest find for the giant lollipops and the hard candy on the wall.

Source: parents.com via Stevie on Pinterest


The candy table...

Popcorn and candy party
Popcorn and candy party
I ordered the cute candy cups and two of the cute little apothecary jars from TomKat Studios Party Shop.  They have ADORABLE stuff - very affordable and they shipped to me lightening fast.

Popcorn table...

Popcorn and candy party
Popcorn and candy party





I made these little banners with my Cameo - the one over the popcorn says salty and the one on the fence on the candy table says sweet.

"Salty" banner
I also had a fun candy bar game.  I passed out clues to the teachers.  For example - Famous swashbuckling trio of old.  Then they had to guess what type of candy the clue referred to -  in this case, 3 Musketeers.  They had to fill it out and turn it in and at the end of the day I drew one out and that person got all the candy that were the answers.  I put the candy on a tray in the teacher's lounge so they could get help when they got stuck.


Candy bar game


All in all, it turned out really cute.  The teachers had a great time with the game and raved about the decorations.  And the jalapeno ranch flavored popcorn I got was a HUGE hit.  It was all gone before lunch!


I just hope it made them feel appreciated because they do such wonderful work!!

1 comment :

Charisa said...

Everything looks great! I'm sure the teachers appreciated everything that you did - nice work!