Book Page Garland for a Graduation Party

Phillip finished grad school, after seven years of working full time and taking classes part-time. So we needed to have a party.

We ended up reserving space in a restaurant near where the commencement ceremony was, so friends and family could just go there directly afterward. I wanted to add some festive touches but knew I’d have little to no time to decorate before people got there. (It turned out to be the latter.)

I kept it super simple with a few school-themed items that I could set up in a flash – all using things I had on hand.

How I made the book page pennants:

1. Ripped out several pages of a ridiculous conspiracy theory novel that I had picked up from free bin outside Changing Hands. (I mean, I’m not going to cut up a good book!)

2. Found the center of the page by folding it in half, only creasing the very bottom of it and making a mark. You could also actually measure and/or use a template if you’re into precision.

3. Made a cut from the top right corner of the page to my center mark. Then repeated from the top left.

What I wish I would’ve done: cut from the top right and left margins of the page instead, so that the text would run all the way to the edge.

4. Punched a couple holes near the top of each pennant.

Then I just threaded some bakers’ twine through the holes and added the tassels.

Tassels

In keeping with the graduation theme, I made paper tassels for each end of the garland, loosely based on instructions I found on A Subtle Revelry.

Here’s how I adapted the project:

Cut about 4 thin strips of paper. (These don’t need to be the same width – or even cut straight.)
Folded over 3 of the strips, leaving a loop at the top. I made mine with a smaller loop and longer “tails” than the ones in the tassel tutorial, because I wanted the proportions more like the tassel on a graduation cap.
Fanned out the strips just a bit.
Stapled them in place.
Covered the staple by winding that last paper strip around the tassel and securing it with double stick tape.
Added a tassel to each side of the garland by threading the baker’s twine through the top loop.

What Didn’t Work…

Watercolor

I thought about adding some color with watercolors. However, my test pages totally curled up, even when I used the smallest amount of water possible or painted just part of the page.

The Pages

Another thing that could’ve been cool was using a book or notes from Phillip’s classes. But he didn’t have anything like that around – at least nothing that he was willing to sacrifice to the craft gods.

So I went with the conspiracy book, because I liked the page size.

I tried to make sure there wasn’t any murder on the pages I used, but it was hard to avoid. And there were still black helicopters and government officials typing things out on Blackberries – not very festive or on theme.

I hoped people would see it as decor and not try to read it.

No such luck.

One family member said they had been trying to figure out if the pages had some significance or clues. (Nope.) Another one asked me what the garland spelled. (Nothing.) It took me awhile to convince her that what she thought were large letters were actually backwards chapter numbers showing through some of the backlit pages.

I obviously should have come up with more for people to do.

What Worked (Mostly): The Decoration Bag

I loaded up a large ziploc bag with everything I (or whoever) would need to set up the decorations at the restaurant:

Chalkboard sign with “Phillip’s grad party!” already written on it – with chalk markers, so it wouldn’t smear.
A jar for markers and pens that had a chalkboard label on the front. I wrote “Please sign the program” on it with a little arrow pointing down.
Chalk markers in case one of my signs needed a touch-up.
Regular markers and pens, so people could sign the commencement ceremony program like a yearbook. These were just regular kids’ markers you’d find in the back-to-school aisle.
A wooden ruler to hold the program open. (Also because it was cute and school-y.)
The garland, carefully folded and placed between things so it wouldn’t get crunched up.
Washi tape to hang the garland.
Scissors.
This Yoobi kit in case we required a tiny stapler or scotch tape for some reason.

I had hoped to hand the bag off to my parents, who were designated to get the party started, since I guessed (correcty) that Phillip and I wouldn’t be able to leave the place where the ceremony was and get over there right away. But they were so focused on their mission that they left before I could give them the Decoration Bag.

So I set things up halfway through the party. Less than ideal, but that’s life.

At least having everything in one bag meant I could get it done in record time. And at least the guests didn’t have to wait on the food.

– More info on DIY party decor –

December 22, 2016December 21, 2016

NYE DIY: Make Your New Year’s Party Sparkle!

Here are some simple ways to add a little sparkle to your New Year’s Eve celebration. I’ve included shortcuts, in case the holidays have left you too short on time to take the total DIY route.

1. Tinsel Stirrers – A festive touch for cocktails or cupcake toppers.

Shortcut: Order a set from Etsy. There are options available from several different sellers for as low as under $1 apiece.

2. Glitter Ice Cubes – Add edible glitter to regular ice cubes. These would be fun in the punch bowl too!

3. Pink Champagne Cake Pops – Sparkly pops with pink champagne centers!

Shortcut: If you use your favorite cake mix instead of making one from scratch, I won’t tell.

4. DIY Wine Glasses Using Sharpies! – Use metallic sharpies to make a permanent mark. For a more temporary design, opt for erasable markers, like the Chalkola ones I reviewed.

Shortcut: Let guests decorate their own glasses during the party and take them home. (Party favor + less dishes for you = win win!)

5. Glitter Balloons – A balloon pump and glitter can help you transform clear balloons into shimmering ones. I love the bubbly arrangement of large and small balloons on the wall in the photo.

Shortcut: Arrange gold or silver balloons on the wall and skip the glitter step.

Here’s to the New Year!

– More New Year’s Eve party tips –

Hosting a holiday buffet
More entertaining tips in our last-minute holiday guide
Masquerade mask inspiration

Photos via their respective sites.

January 10, 2014November 21, 2018

Entertaining in a small home

The Buffet/Open House we hosted on Christmas Eve (and made a fort for) came from my grandmother’s tradition (the gathering, not the fort). A few years ago, my mom started up again. And this past year was the first time we’d hosted it. We were excited to include Phillip’s family too, even though that’s a lot of people for our little place.

As I was thinking about how to make it all work, I kept googling things like “buffet in small space” and getting unhelpful results that either linked to furniture on shopping sites or articles that focused on formal holiday spreads with lavish decorations. Since I was scratching my head over where to even fit the coffeemaker, most of the suggestions – a decorative 4-foot potted tree, for example – were out of the question.

The assumption seems to be that if you’re hosting a holiday gathering, you have thousands of square feet to spare and plenty of time to paint portraits of each of your guests for placecards. I don’t have either, but I believe you can still entertain in a smaller home and that you can keep it as simple as you choose.

I did finally find a few helpful tips, so I decided to pass those on to you, along with my own observations on what worked out for us and what I wish I’d done differently.

Scheduling

Making the party open house allows people to come and go, depending on the rest of their holiday plans. It also (hopefully) spreads out when everyone will be arriving, which is great if you’re fitting a lot of people into a small space.

To choose a start time, I checked with a few family members to see what time they’d be heading to church services or other events and made sure we were starting early enough for them to stop by beforehand if they wanted to. What I didn’t find out until later was how many people (even with cushy desk jobs) had to work regular hours that day. I wish we could’ve accommodated their schedules, as well.

Space

When you live in a condo/apartment/less-roomy dwelling, space really is the final frontier. If you’re going to boldly go into holiday party territory, you really have to think about physically fitting in food, dishes, appliances, seating, and people.

Plan ahead for the seating you’ll likely need – plus backup seating – and leave room for traffic flow. In addition to chairs in the house and back patio (it was a gorgeous day), we opened up our back gate and put some chairs in our (admittedly, not-so-scenic) parking spaces, just in case a ton of people came at once.

If your table space is limited, focus on finger foods. Also, keep in mind that some people aren’t that comfortable balancing plates on their laps. Try to have the option of some table space somewhere, even if it’s a coffee table, tray table(s), or desk (with everything important cleared out of spill-range – there will be spills). I opted to use my desk in the living room for serving, because there wasn’t a lot of room to sit around it anyway, and this allowed me to keep my kitchen table open for seating.

The best tip I read while I was planning was to split up your buffet if you need extra space. You can put drinks, desserts, and/or snacks somewhere separate from the main spread. This was huge for me, since there was no way everything would have fit on my kitchen counter.

Finally, think of the children. If you don’t have a yard or playroom that they can roam free in, find a spot for a fort or kid nook where they can play. If anyone will be bringing an infant, also think about a place in a quieter room where they can console a fussy little one, breastfeed, or set up a Pack ‘N Play if they need to.

Serving

Make it easy as possible for people to serve themselves. Pour coffee, cut cake, and clear plates as needed, and then get out of the way! As people arrived, I tried to point out where everything was and invite them to help themselves and let me know if they needed anything. In my head, I had made super cute labels for all the food. In reality, I ran out of time to make that happen.

Don’t feel like you have to put everything out at once (great tip from a caterer)! This allows you to use smaller serving dishes and just refill them as needed.

If you’re doing an open house over a longish span of time, make sure you keep everything at a safe temperature – employing warming trays, crockpots, ice packs, etc. for things that need to be kept hot or cold.

Having snacks and drinks ready to go can buy you time if everything’s not quite ready. Due to some last-minute shuffling, this wasn’t the case for me. Having the punch done so that people could have started there would have taken a lot of the pressure off. In an ideal world, everything would have been ready to go before guests started to arrive. But it’s not an ideal world – see the “serenity” section below.

Serenity

Arrange for and accept help. Ask someone who likes taking photos to take a few and send them to you. (I didn’t do that this time, which is why most of my photos are from after the party.) Make sure you have at least one person there with you early to help with last-minute trips to the store (in this case, my dad), things you just haven’t gotten to yet (Mom), and final details that set the ambience, like lighting candles and putting on music (which I always think I’ll do but Phillip always gets done). Let people bring food. Go with the flow when help doesn’t totally fit the plan.

Sit down at some point. Also eat something. I didn’t do either of these things as early I could (and probably should) have.

Be ready to ditch what’s not working or that shiny idea you just ran out of time for. Accept the things you cannot change.

December 30, 2013December 30, 2013

Make a fort for kid guests

On Christmas Eve, we hosted an open-house style holiday buffet. While that may not seem to fit in with our theme of simplicity, it was actually a great way to see both sides of the family at once and then spend a quiet, unstructured no-freeway-driving Christmas Day.

We don’t have a ton of space, so making sure we had room for everyone required creative thinking and looking at our place from a different perspective.

There will be another post about how we made the buffet work. Today I just wanted to share the idea we came up with to give our littlest guests a space of their own during the party. We called it the Christmas Fort.

To make it happen, I cleared out everything under my desk (been needing to do that anyway), which is in the living room. I removed the power strip and covered the outlets on the wall behind it, put a blanket on the floor and threw in pillows to make it comfy cozy, and then added toys and books that were safe for the under 3 crowd. (Thanks to my mom for sorting our toy box, while I did some last-minute cleaning.) The final touch was a tablecloth over the top, both to increase the fort feel and because the desk doubled as a snack station.

You could do something similar with any very sturdy desk or table. Or you could create a kid nook in a little corner where there’s not stuff they could easily injure themselves with or damage. (I know. Kids are creative too – they’re great at inventing ways to get hurt and/or destroy things. Just try to make their space reasonably safe.)

In fact, I’d originally planned to move an end table and create a kid nook between our couch and some bookshelves, covering the shelves with either some festive fabric or drawing paper. Then I realized we’d have to lose that nook to make room for the Christmas tree, so I went looking for an alternative and decided to put the unused under-desk space to work.

Overall, the reactions to the Fort were pretty good. My 2-year-old nephews were in and out. My little cousin said it was an “awesome place” and was so excited about it she made her mom get in too. (I’m sorry I missed that!) Some friends we hadn’t seen in awhile stopped by later in the evening, and their kids basically had their own party in there, giving us adults a chance to catch up.

At the end of the day, after everyone had gone home, we had to try it out ourselves.

It was a nice place to be.

***

P.S. When I was looking for under-desk fort inspiration, I came across this more long-term solution, using the same Expedit bookshelf/desk combo I have. If you’re interested, you’ll find it on Ikea hackers.