Tissue pom poms and birthday things!

My third grandchild just turned a year old. First off, I can't even believe that I'm old enough to make that statement. Being a "Grammy" is my favorite role in life! It's truly the best. I especially love being able to help out with their birthday parties. My daughters have seemed more than pleased when I've asked them if I could make the cake and help with decorations. Since Milly's party was to be at our house, I told her mommy that if she would just buy the paper products (plates, cups, forks, etc.) that I would take care of the other decorations and the cake. I decided that I was going to try to make all of the decorations using things that I basically had around the house.

For the party, we'd decided on a monkey theme. I googled some images online of monkeys and bananas. After printing those off, I had decorations for...zero dollars. I used a frame that I have in my bedroom that holds my daughter's wedding picture.
Since I love monkeys and I've started collecting things for my Grandchildren's monkey themed room at my house, I set some of it out on the table.

The cake

Let me just say that I'm NOT one of those people who make beautiful cakes! Duh! I am, however, pretty crafty and very determined. The only things that I purchased to make the cake were 2 cake mixes and two large tootsie rolls (for his tail). I had sketched out a picture of what I was attempting to make it look like. Of course it isn't perfect, but Milly did make monkey sounds when she saw it. That's how I knew that I'd done all right!

I looked through my stash of scrapbook paper for colors of pink, green and yellow. I made a birthday banner by printing off the words and cutting them out (I hope to have a cricut machine one day). It took time to cut and paste it together but it didn't cost me a thing!

I was most excited to try out the cute tissue paper pom poms that everyone seems to be making. They look more difficult than they actually are to make. I searched online and saw a lot of variations on how to make them. After working with them a bit, I figured out the easiest way to make them in my opinion. Here are some quick and easy steps on how to do it.

I used paper that was 18" x 26". Stack 10 to 12 pieces to make a nice, full pom pom.

I added the safety pin because after I made the first one, I found it difficult to reach into the pom without squishing it to grab the wire in order to wrap fishing line around it. By hanging them with fishing line, it looks like they're suspended in the air!

The yellow one is done with pointy edges. The pink and green ones are with rounded edges.

This is by far the trickiest part. You need to pull the layers out very carefully. They rip so easily. I pulled about four layers out on one side and then turned if over and did the same on the other side. Then I pulled the rest out to fill in the center.

Wrap the fishing line around the safety pin and hang from the ceiling.

This was such a fun party to decorate for. Now, you tell me whether you think the birthday girl seemed happy or not!