To celebrate the winter season and to showcase talents, the school my children attend has a great big event! We have dinner and silent auctions and enjoy performances from all the kids – kinder through 8th grade. Our tiny school does not have a place large enough to hold the guests comfortably, so we borrow a nearby school’s theater for the show, and their yard to put up some tents. You know where I’m going with this, right? Yup those tables needed some serious centerpieces on a budget!
Where exactly did I get these 20 centerpieces on a budget? Mostly repurposed items from my stash, a couple things I did have to purchase, and a TON of things I made from paper. The white frame pictured above is from Michaels, holds a 4×6 piece, and is double sided (too bad they aren’t in stock right now). I already had a dozen of these from another event I helped out with in a similar theme. After I ran out of the frames, I used some small floral frogs (little steel devices covered in needles that stick straight up) to hold the matching 4×6″ signs. The burlap runners also came from that other event, but I trimmed them in half to get twice as many, and topped them with a strip of black paper from this project. Okay, so a few of the globes and the paper airplanes came from that party too – the secret is out!
BUT I did have to make those ADORABLE little mini paper suitcases – putting 20 of those together would have been a giant pain in the rear if it wasn’t for my new Cricut Explore. I admit, I have no clue about the majority of the features, but it cut my die shape like a dream. I added a matching luggage tag (hang tag) to the suitcase handle with the name of the event on it.
There are a few more very cost effective items on the table (that I’ve used again and again), small mason jars, small milk bottles (can you say starbucks?) and SOUP cans! Well, bean cans really. I added a bit of dried peas and a battery tea light to the mason jars, the milk bottles were wrapped with burlap and ribbon then got some river rocks and a paper airplane on a skewer and the soup/bean cans were filled with baby’s breath and wrapped with a bit of matching paper tied with a ribbon. Lastly, I cut about a million little paper feathers out of my own patterned paper and some solid color cardstock and glued them to just about everything!
After a dinner of tamales and pozole, the parents and students were treated to a showstopping evening of entertainment! Singing, dancing, plays, poetry and even short films put together by the kids and their teachers. My son and his class made these super cute tie dyed t-shirts and danced and sang their hearts out. I enjoyed every minute of it.
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My daughter did two small group numbers with some of her friends. She sang a duet of Imagine by John Lennon, and was in a trio singing Waiting On The World To Change by John Mayer. The girl never ceases to amaze me.
