Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Party Leftovers

Everyone I know over-plans a party. It's not a bad thing. You plan for more attendees and expect less. This inevitably leaves you with left-over party supplies: paper plates, napkins, party hats, balloons etc.  You could do one of two things (of which I have done both), you can store them away for the next party or toss them in the recycle bin. For today's post, I thought I'd show you how I turned a couple of my old party supplies into Christmas crafts with the kiddos.

Christmas Tree

materials:
party hat
hot glue gun
empty toilet paper roll
2 popsicle sticks
fuzzy pom poms

Glue popsicle sticks inside the empty toilet paper roll on opposite sides of one another.

Next, remove the elastic string from the party hat.

Then, add bigs gobs of glue to the tops of the popsicle sticks and place your party hat on top or the sticks, pressing the sticks into the party hat sides and allowing glue to dry.

Last step, glue your colored pom poms all over the tree. Voila!  You're finished! Easy huh?

We put our little tree on cake-plates and surrounded it with our Playmobile nativity scene. I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't have a Christmas tree in the manger, but it's better than the cardboard stable that came with the nativity scene.

Paper Plate Wreaths

materials: 

paper plates

scissors

hotglue gun

yarn

pom poms

plastic toy of your choosing

ribbon

First, cut the center out of your paper plate.

Next, secure yarn on back of plate and then wrap around the entire plate. (Be patient with yourself, this takes a while.) 

Once yarn is wrapped all the way around, secure yarn at the back of the wreath with a knot or glue.

Now, you get to design your wreath! We glued pom poms and a white plastic dino to ours. We had to man it up a bit ya know.

 Last, attach ribbon and hang on window or door! Easy peasy!

I got so pumped about this little project I made another wreath for our entryway mirror with hot glue and white feathers!

 I was going to add felt trees, but decided to leave them off.

I gotta say... I love a hot glue gun! It can do so many, many things. What Christmas crafts have you been making lately? xo