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Back To School Crafts – Fun Centerpieces

centerpieces

I always get excited at the beginning of the school year!  Meeting new teachers, reconnecting with old friends… there is so much excitement for so many different reasons.  This year, I was in charge of organizing my youngest boy’s 2nd grade back-to-school party and I wanted to do something fun.  I didn’t really have a theme or a “vision”,  I just wanted to make something universal, fun, and cheerful.  Plus, it had to be cheap… no money in the budget for decorations, so I was on my own.  I went with a rainbow color theme because I figured it was gender neutral and easy to work with.  I also went through my closets to see if I could find items from past projects and lo and behold, I found ribbon, terra cotta containers, Easter grass, and styrofoam… I’m set!  Last but not least, I took advantage of the big back-to-school sales going on and purchased pencils and crayons at ridiculously low prices.

For my centerpieces, I purchased pop-up tissue balls at Target in the party section.  They were around $2.00 each.  I also purchased a ton of crayons which were 2 boxes of 24 for .50 (48 total).  I also purchased a round chalkboard for my “Welcome Back” centerpiece and that was the most expensive at $3.00 from Michael’s.  My last purchase were wooden sticks, which were about .50 at Michael’s. The sticks were needed so I could transform my tissue ball (which is meant to be hung) into a topiary.

From there, I started to improvise.  I used terra cotta containers and stuffed styrofoam inside each one.  You can also use oasis squares.  I stuck the wooden sticks into the styrofoam and took out the tissue balls from the wrappers.  Once you are ready to put the tissue balls on, make sure that you wrap them around the stick and glue the ends of the tissue balls together.    I used the thinnest sticks I could find at Michael’s…. sorry, skewer sticks won’t work.  You can paint the sticks… but why bother… kids don’t care!

To cover up the styrofoam, I hot glued paper Easter grass to it.   Last but not least, I tied some yellow ribbon around the neck of the wooden stick and had my boys hot glued crayons all round the terra cotta container just for fun!

This was a super easy project for centerpieces and I have to tell you, it will inspire you to create other things with those fabulous tissue balls.

For more details on how I made the “Welcome Back” sign and the 2nd grade teacher’s wreath,  check out my other post.