A few weeks before Alexa’s birthday I chose a color scheme and put some crepe paper in my shopping cart. “I’m going to make some decorations with this,” I told H. I didn’t have the slightest idea what I was going to do. And I promptly forgot about my vow.
Then, a few days before her birthday, I sat down with all my crafting supplies — there are so many of them I have a small shoebox full (don’t act like you’re not impressed) — and started in earnest. I created three strings of garland and a name centerpiece. I would’ve done more, but an hour’s worth of crafting wiped me out. I had to take my vitamins and carb load afterward to compensate for the effort.
H and I put up all the decorations while my Dad entertained Alexa, and I think it looked beautiful, exposed washi tape and all (Who doesn’t keep clear tape in their house? Me, me!). It won’t win any awards or anything, and I doubt anyone would want to Pin it (except maybe me), but I like that it looks like a 5-year-old did it. This is a party for a child, after all.
My fancy supplies included a mini stapler, ribbon, construction paper and crepe paper. I made a pom-pom banner, a triangle banner and a rectangle banner. Oh, and the colored washi tape to hold everything up (this party was totally McGyver’ed). I didn’t use templates. I just eyeballed everything, hence the super professional presentation. Oh, I also made that little black fan on a last-minute whim, as you can tell by the precision.
I was least pleased with the name centerpiece. I need to work on my cutouts. Apparently I’m a bit rusty in the scissor department. The name bothered me a lot when I first finished it. It wasn’t symmetrical. The A’s don’t look like A’s. But when I went to tear down the decorations I just couldn’t bring myself to recycle it. It now hangs on the door to Alexa’s room. I smile every time I walk past it.
