Archives for February 2011

Hello all, My name is Edith and you can usually find me blogging over at Edeenut Creates. My good friend Tara asked me to join her today on Dandy Giveaway and share a fun and simple decoration idea for any party.

While deciding how to decorate for a recent Valentine’s Day party, I saw these cool looking paper plate balls and thought they might be cool to make. The instructions are found here at Family Fun, so you can make your own if you desire.

My basic idea was to slip a string of white Christmas lights inside each ball and poke some light tips out through the holes illuminating in the dim party room.

The light idea was put aside after more consideration and so were the paper plate balls in fact. But I still really like the balls and this image makes them look so fun for a party. Even though I didn’t actually use the paper plate balls for decorations I thought I would still share how easy and inexpensive they are to make if you want to make your own.

While I was contemplating the whole pink paper plate ball idea, I tried to find some pink paper plates to use. The only ones I found were in packs of 10 and would have been pretty pricey because for each ball you need 20 plates. The pack of 10 plates were almost $2.00 each.

I bought a pack of 100 white paper plates and a can of pink spray paint. The paint was $3 and the plates were $1.50.

In my back yard, I made sure the wall was protected with paper and cardboard, then working with 20 plates at a time, I sprayed a thin coat of paint on each one. They were in direct sunlight and so they dried fast.

By the time I sprayed the last one I could go back and move the first one off the paper to dry completely on the wall. But by this point though they were pretty much dry. I just didn’t want them to stick together if stacked up.

When I was completely done with 60 plates I was out of paint. I think I could have done 40 more plates though if I would have not done two coats of paint on some plates. Because I was out in the bright direct sunlight my eyes didn’t quite see the color of pink on the plates as it really was so I added another coat thinking it needed it. But after going inside with the plates I could see the color would have been fine with one coat.

Here is one ball hanging up above my table. I used clear nylon thread to hand it so it looks as if it’s floating in mid air. Even though here you can see the ceiling fan chains hanging down.
Also, you can see the pink color indoors is really rich with two coats. But if you want a deep rich color you could always do as many coats of paint as you wanted.

This painting method also makes these polyhedrons easy for any party idea. You could paint them in any color you want to go with your theme. Blue, red and white for the 4th of July would be very fun. Green for Your St. Patties Day get together. Make them for a baby shower, or Birthday. The possibilities are endless.