Dance the Night Away . . .

Ok, so I have been away for quite awhile. Life just got way too busy to spend time writing on the computer but now that it is starting to slow down a bit, I thought I would start to play catch up. 

I decided I am not going to catch up chronologically (that would make too much sense!) because I am just way too excited to share with you what has taken up most of my time - the 5th Grade Candy Land End-of-the-Year Party/Dance.

I have been busy making, creating, gluing, wrapping, painting, cutting, you name it so here's the recap -

It all starts with an invite -

Now I did not make these but I sure picked the right person
to do the job!! Thanks Michel! 

Each page unfolds to create a long invite and
each square is a different color,
just like on the Candy Land board.
So clever!

Lollipop bonus!
The kids were so excited to receive these invites and
it sure set the tone for the dance.

Now . . . onto decorations, which my friend B (yes, no other letters, just B, kind of like a rock star!) and I are were in charge of creating and boy, did we get creative.

I took large and small paper plates, put them front to front and
wrapped them with cellophane wrap.
Easy, peasy candy.
The small balls are left over from a Relay for Life event,
they are the balls found in a ball pit.

Some of the red plates candies I added white
swooshes to to make them look (kind of) like peppermints. 

I added pink swirls and painted small dowels to make
lollipops!

Can't honestly tell you the number of hours so
let's just go with lots!

I stuck Dum Dum lollipops (lots of them) in
round styrofoam balls and stuck them on top
of painted vases.
For some reason, I found this one really fun!

Next onto centerpieces -
these I did not love but used them anyway.
These are lanterns wrapped like candies.
They are a tad too big for the vases but I worked
with what I had. I added 6 swirl larger
lollipops and then shredded colored paper to cover the
floral foam.

This was my next attempt at centerpieces -
these are small foam wreaths I already had.
I wrapped them with tissue paper and then cellophane.
They were too wrinkly for me to love . . . 

so I added the round writing which kind of
made them look like a Life Saver.

I also added gemstones to cover the dashes and dot above
the i. I am always good for a little extra bling!

B designed this and I had it printed and added it to our large frame
for the photo booth.

This large frame is made out of some sort of foam insulation sheet
(B knows exactly if you need to know).
It's lightweight and easy to cut.
We added it to a PVC pipe stand and it worked like a charm
(more photos to come!).

First big dilemma, which bucket looked more like a gumdrop?
I went with the one on the left - Dollar Tree $1

I spray painted them with spray adhesive and then stuck
epsom salts all over. They are super messy and you will drop
the salts wherever you take them,
but they still looked cute.
Some of the buckets I had to paint since Dollar Tree
only had them in 3 colors, so I bought plenty
of yellows thinking they would be the easier to spray paint.

I am all loaded up and ready to head out to decorate the club but that is for another post!