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There are a lot of great paper products out there, themed cups, plates, napkins, etc.
You can find lots of them at these sites -
www.orientaltrading.com
www.birthdayinabox.com
If you want to save money though or if you just don't want everything totally matching then your gluestick is your best friend. I personally set a goal for each party to buy no more than one printed product. If you want to do the same it can be as simple as just buying a coordinating color of the other products. If you want to get more personalized, pull out your gluestick...
Cups -
If you want to decorate your own cups just print or draw an item related to your theme (a crown for a princess party for instance), cut it out, and gluestick it to a color coordinating cup. Just make sure you let them dry before you stack them back up. An alternative is to purchase individual drinks and just make and glue on themed labels.
Plane party cups - the text above the plane says Happy Birthday Josey and below it says Pilot______ It is always a good idea to write the guests names on their cups (By the way, those are themed without being themed napkins underneath, little clouds)
Silverware -
More often then not I just use coordinating colors. That's not to say it's impossible to get the silverware in on the themed action. I have glued feathers to the ends to make Captain Feathersword's, ants for a buggy party, and written Railroad on the fork and Crossing on the spoon and placed them crossed over each other for a Thomas party. If you use your imagination who knows what you might come up with. If you do end up just going with coordinating colors though, no problem, just wrap them up in your themed napkins!
Shown here are pig tail spoons (with barn napkin rings and pig out cups)
Napkins -
Napkins instantly become themed when you slip them into a homemade napkin ring. It's easy. Just cut out strips of colored construction paper. Shape them into a ring and glue the ends together. Glue a themed picture (for example a wheel for a car theme) over the spot where the ends are glued. That's it. Wrap your silverware up inside, slip on the napkin ring, and you're all set.
Super Mario 1 up napkin rings
Plates -
Plates are a tricky one. This is normally my one themed purchase if I make one.
Plastic plates are mostly what will help you out if you want to decorate your own. I discovered after purchasing gold plastic plates for a Dora pirate party (for gold coins of course) that you can etch designs into plastic plates. Just turn them upside down and draw whatever design you want onto the back. It will show up on the front! Remember though, if you do any words or numbers you need to write backwards, the mirror image will be on front.
Another nifty plate tool is the clear plate. The problem with plates is that you can't really draw on them or glue things onto them (not the front at least) but the clear plate solves that. You can decorate plates solid color plates any way you like and just glue the clear plate on top to be eaten off of. The only issue with this is that you are then buying twice as many plates as you need. The solution to that would be if you find a great deal on either the clear plates or the plates you use beneath them. You may just end up cheaper still.
Now you can't glue onto the plates but you can certainly glue around the edge on the underside (flower petals, sun rays, spider legs). If you plan to do this it helps to just think about circles and then try to decide what goes with your theme that could be drawn starting with a circle.
By far the most difficult strategy is cutouts. I have to admit though, cutting is not my strong point. I find it hard to cut a straight line so this may be easier then I think. You can make cut outs on one colored plate and attatch to another plate so that the color of that plate shows through. A good example of this is the alien plates I made for a space party. I cut out two eyes and a mouth from lime green plates and attatched them onto a black plate.
Dora Pirate Adventure themed plates (notice the backwards 3, this is what happens if you don't write the mirror image of what you want)
You can find lots of them at these sites -
www.orientaltrading.com
www.birthdayinabox.com
If you want to save money though or if you just don't want everything totally matching then your gluestick is your best friend. I personally set a goal for each party to buy no more than one printed product. If you want to do the same it can be as simple as just buying a coordinating color of the other products. If you want to get more personalized, pull out your gluestick...
Cups -
If you want to decorate your own cups just print or draw an item related to your theme (a crown for a princess party for instance), cut it out, and gluestick it to a color coordinating cup. Just make sure you let them dry before you stack them back up. An alternative is to purchase individual drinks and just make and glue on themed labels.
Silverware -
More often then not I just use coordinating colors. That's not to say it's impossible to get the silverware in on the themed action. I have glued feathers to the ends to make Captain Feathersword's, ants for a buggy party, and written Railroad on the fork and Crossing on the spoon and placed them crossed over each other for a Thomas party. If you use your imagination who knows what you might come up with. If you do end up just going with coordinating colors though, no problem, just wrap them up in your themed napkins!
Shown here are pig tail spoons (with barn napkin rings and pig out cups)
Napkins -
Napkins instantly become themed when you slip them into a homemade napkin ring. It's easy. Just cut out strips of colored construction paper. Shape them into a ring and glue the ends together. Glue a themed picture (for example a wheel for a car theme) over the spot where the ends are glued. That's it. Wrap your silverware up inside, slip on the napkin ring, and you're all set.
Plates -
Plates are a tricky one. This is normally my one themed purchase if I make one.
Plastic plates are mostly what will help you out if you want to decorate your own. I discovered after purchasing gold plastic plates for a Dora pirate party (for gold coins of course) that you can etch designs into plastic plates. Just turn them upside down and draw whatever design you want onto the back. It will show up on the front! Remember though, if you do any words or numbers you need to write backwards, the mirror image will be on front.
Another nifty plate tool is the clear plate. The problem with plates is that you can't really draw on them or glue things onto them (not the front at least) but the clear plate solves that. You can decorate plates solid color plates any way you like and just glue the clear plate on top to be eaten off of. The only issue with this is that you are then buying twice as many plates as you need. The solution to that would be if you find a great deal on either the clear plates or the plates you use beneath them. You may just end up cheaper still.
Now you can't glue onto the plates but you can certainly glue around the edge on the underside (flower petals, sun rays, spider legs). If you plan to do this it helps to just think about circles and then try to decide what goes with your theme that could be drawn starting with a circle.
By far the most difficult strategy is cutouts. I have to admit though, cutting is not my strong point. I find it hard to cut a straight line so this may be easier then I think. You can make cut outs on one colored plate and attatch to another plate so that the color of that plate shows through. A good example of this is the alien plates I made for a space party. I cut out two eyes and a mouth from lime green plates and attatched them onto a black plate.
