Wordy Thirty Birthday Party

Karen and I decided to throw our Middle Sister a Surprise Party for her upcoming 30th Birthday.  We decided a "Wordy Thirty Party" would be a great theme after we searched the internet/Pinterest for ideas. Val really enjoys a good read and is going to school to be a "Book Doctor." Here are some of the decorations that we did.  It turned out great and it was a lot of fun to put together.  We spent a fun night of playing games, eating and lots of laughing! (P.S. The only book harmed in the production of crafts was an old Encyclopedia for the letter A - the only one of the set that we found at my Grandparents house.)

Here is our version of a book wreath after seeing this one.  I cut 2 -  8 inch circles out of card stock to be more durable, glued them together, then I rolled and glued/taped pages down.  On top of that I cut 2 - 6 inches pieces of card stock, glued them together, then again rolled and glued/taped pages down.  Then I cut a 4 inch piece of card stock out, lettered it with stickers, inked the edges with black ink to make it stand out a bit.  Then I laminated it and taped it down onto the other rings with double sided tape.  Used masking tape on the back to attach a ribbon to hang the whole thing.

We made two of these hanging garlands.  The hearts were made out of the encyclopedia pages after seeing this tutorial.  (BTW, these were super easy to put together and I totally plan on doing this as a Valentine's Day Garland in Red Tones:)).  Then flowers were added to the ends to hide where we taped it up.  Found the tutorial for the flowers here.

Here is a closer look at the Garland.

Here we made several items.  Karen pre-made the poofs, so all that needed to be done party day was the "poofing" - Mike and Zoe took care of that:)  Here is how to make those.  We also had two vases that we  decoupaged encyclopedia pages onto and placed tea lights in them.  In the center is a mini sign with a quote: "Don't Drink to Get Drunk. Drink to Enjoy Life." - Jack Kerouac.  Instead of making Jack Kerouac's favorite drink we made Mojitos, a favorite drink of Hemingway.

Here is the "corsage" we made Val to wear.  We just took one of the flowers, cut out circles, on the Silhouette and attached them with double sided tape.  Then used a big safety pin to attach it to her!

The dinner table!  Made a table runner out of torn out book pages.  Embellished the ends with a fancy daisy punch.  Then cut the sides of the runner with decorative scissors.  Some light dinner reading - haha!  We used books Val had as a center piece, then took a bowl, filled it with cut and rolled encyclopedia pages.  On top of that was a sucker ball (Styrofoam ball with dum dums stuck in it).  Then we made a party sign with book worms and stuck that in there as well.  Beside the center piece was a "book" I made with the silhouette and then it was filled with book marks that we had all made.  Everyone that came to the party made a book mark with a special message, book quote, or drawing for Val.  Then I laminated them and tied ribbon to them.

Close up of our center piece.

Close up of the "book" that held our handmade bookmarks.