Tuesday Tutorial - Aloha To Summer Party Crafts

The lovely folks at Party City sent me a box of luau goodies to have fun with.  Surprisingly, I've never thrown a luau party...previous posts have looked down on them snootily as a graduation party theme.  I think all the tiki torches and coconut bras made my one eyebrow twitch a little.  Now that I'm going to have to prove my own point, today I'm going to share two of the projects I worked on, a little sneak peek of my Aloha To Summer shoot.

I saw this adorable idea for tiki puppets at Parents.com; for us, it can will work double duty as a party craft and name card for the kid's table. All you need are brown paper cups, brown electrical tape and whatever craft supplies are hiding in your closet...foamies, feathers, pom-poms, the works!  Before the party, tape the two cups together and let your guests do the rest.

For the adult table, I created pineapple party tubes that also double as a place card and party favor. You will need:

crepe paper in light and dark green
2" X 6" cardboard tube (mine are from a craft store)
6" X 8" piece of yellow cardstock
green tissue shred
whatever lovelies you want to put inside your party tube, like wrapped candy.
tape
green ribbon or baker's twine
stickers

1.  Cut a long strip of each of the crepe paper that is the width of the tube and twice as long as the height of the tube.
2.  Fill the tube with the treats and a little shred inside both ends of the tube.
3.  Layer the crepe paper pieces and place the tube 3 inches from the bottom.
4.  Roll the tissue around the tube and keep in place with tape.
5.  Twist and tuck the bottom tissue into the tube; secure closed with tape.
6.  Twist the top closed and tie off with ribbon or baker's twine, then trim the top to look like pineapple leaves.

Stay tuned for the grand reveal!