In my previous life, I was a professional fundraiser for a nonprofit. That means lots of events... on the cheap. For an event surrounding Valentine's Day, I made these large Hershey Kiss type centerpieces. They were super cheap and a HUGE hit. Needless to say, clean up was easy. Everyone wanted to take them home! And we were fine with that because... they barely cost us anything! We weren't losing something we could use again.
You need very little materials.
- newspaper
- aluminum foil
- wide, wired ribbon
- pipe cleaners
Here's how it works.
First, take two large pieces of aluminum foil and overlap them in a plus sign.
You determine how large you want the kiss to be by how long the foil is.
Next, take a single pipe cleaners and wrap a long piece of wired ribbon around one of the ends.
Move the ribbon down just a hair and fold the pipe cleaner over to secure the ribbon a bit. You could even add a bit of hot glue if you're worried about children pulling it, etc.
(sorry for the flash glare)
Lay that aside while you build the kiss.
Open up the newspaper and lay it flat. Then pull the corners to the top like you were cinching a up a bag. Remember, to make the kiss bigger, use more newspaper. The newspaper will be the core of the kiss and will give it shape.
After you've cinched it up, you'll want to wrap your hands around the middle of the paper and press down. This will flatten out the bottom and create a base for the kiss. Remember, a kiss has a circular flat base.
Make sure the newspaper is in the center of the plus sign of foil, then begin pulling the corners of the foil up to meet at the top of the newspaper.
Make a pyramid with the foil.
When you get all the aluminum corners to the top, insert the pipe cleaner down into the kiss.
(You can insert the pipe cleaner when you are molding the newspaper, but I prefer to put it in as one of the last stages, right before you close up the kiss.)
Then start shaping the foil to look like a kiss.
You may have to press down on the kiss to get the base to flatten and you may have to be creative with the foil, pulling some sides out and pushing others in to get the shape you want.
As a final touch, you can add stick on letters to the ribbon to create a message... U R Cute, your children's name, etc.
These make great centerpieces! You can make them any size. Or, you can make them smaller and make several to sit around as accents. Also, you can hide treats inside if you don't mind someone ripping them apart to find them!
Happy Valentine's Day from Everyday Celebrating!
OH.
Don't forget to enter the giveaway! You have until Noon EST on Sunday! :)
Never too old to learn.*
Posted by: taobao | November 14, 2010 at 07:56 PM