Let the Confetti fall..(New Year's Eve part 3)

Our balloons were ready to fall and the races were over. Now what should we do? Confetti poppers seemed like the perfect solution. The was a great project! It is simple to do and yet would be acceptable for many different age groups.  To make our poppers we used a tube from a roll of wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, construction paper, cardstock, a hole punch, yarn, beads, tape, glue and other random craft supplies. This is a great project to use up left over craft items. If you put it on the table someone will find a way to use it!

We started by cutting our wrapping paper roll into quarters. Toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls would also work well.

Cut paper to fit the size of your rolls and glue in place. Once your paper is covering the tubes the fun begins. You can now unleash the crafty ones...or let the kids use the craft items. Either way will get the job done. Decorate your tubes however you like, but don't place anything so it hangs over or from the bottom.

Once you have made your tube glamorous it is time to make the bottom. Trace around the bottom of the tube onto cardstock or other heavy paper. Cut out a circle a little bit smaller than the one you traced. 

Glue the cardstock circle onto a 4" (estimated) square of tissue paper. Poke a hole through the center and thread yarn through the hole. Tie a bead (or 2, which worked even better) onto the yarn. Make sure the bead is on the side of the tissue paper with the cardstock showing. Cut the yarn however long you are going to want your pull string to be.

Now you can glue your tissue paper around the bottom of your decorated tube. Put a line of glue around the outside of the tube and attach the tissue paper square so that the cardstock circle acts as a stop for the confetti that you will be putting inside. Hole punch a hole in the top of the tube on either side and thread yarn through to hang your popper.

You can make a cap for your confetti popper by cutting out a circle about 4 inches in diameter. Cut a slit in the circle from one edge to the center.

Fold the circle into a cone or maybe hat shape? Glue the edge down and cut the tip off to provide a small hole to thread the yarn through. I put a bead on both pieces of yarn first and slid it down on the string so that it would help support the cone. Slide the cone down onto your tube.

Add the confetti.  We just cut up  pieces of construction paper and filled our poppers with those. A few added beads were a nice surprise when the string were pulled. The noise they made when they hit the floor was really exciting for the kids.

You are now ready to hang up your creation. We just taped ours to the ceiling but then we had to put a little pressure on the tape when it came time to pull the string. It worked and the kids did not mind a bit but there is probably a "proper" way to secure things such as this.

We were now ready for midnight. We only had to wait...and wait...and wait. We made pizza, watched a movie and waited. My 2 year old, J, was just about done. At about 10 he was tired. By 11 cranky! By 11:30 he was telling us all to go to bed. At 11:50 he was climbing into bed no matter what! We convinced him to come back out into the livingroom and the fun began! (again of course, since we had fun earlier too)