Ok, so this final Cirque post is about all the fun little details and embellishments that added to the overall ambiance of "
A Night at Le Cirque des Rêves." Most don't fit into a particular category, but I've done my best arranging them below - just a heads up, it's a longer post, chock-full of pictures and ideas! Thanks to all who have read this series of posts about my combo birthday/graduation party this past May, and especially to those who have written/said such sweet things about my efforts! It's fun sharing my hobby/grad school escapism with others! ;) I hope it inspires you to at least read Erin Morgenstern's
book, if not throw an awesome
soirée of your own!
Playing Cards:
Pins like these convinced me to incorporate playing cards into my
décor (coupled with the fact that card suits match the color theme!).
I used a combination of mini decks of cards from Michaels and full-sized sets from Dollar Tree for the following
décor elements.
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I used some of the mini cards leftover from decorating my Magicians Game as pennants attached to black and white
baker's twine with clear tape. The posters are from the Library of Congress photo archive. |
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If you look closely, you can see card streamers!
My mom whipped them up on her sewing machine. |
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| Regular-sized cards lined the basement stairwell. |
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I actually just used the pin as a guide,
attaching the cards together with Scotch tape. |
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| Finished! The pattern uses all 52 cards in the deck - I chose to display the fronts of the clubs and spades suits. |
I even incorporated playing cards into my outfit! Inspired by an
Etsy item, my mom created a bowtie from a five-of-hearts card (symbolic for my birthday! AND her love, of course!), which I attached to a necklace chain using jump rings. Pretty awesome, no?
I also had fun accenting my nails - I just painted a coat of white nail polish, then used a Sharpie to draw on stripes once the polish had dried (my roomie did my right hand for me!). I then layered on a clear top coat, since I knew I was doing some heavy-duty setup before the party.
Food Table Accents:
One more use for the mini playing cards was in a centerpiece for the food table (though it ended up a bit to the side!). I just made little fans of cards and tucked them into a photo holder I had on hand.
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| Mmmmmm... |
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| A strip of Scotch tape on the back held the little fans together |
On the other side of the table (and already featured in my
Cirque snacks post) was a three-tiered tray that my mom assembled after I found
these instructions on a dollar store
craft blog I follow. I opted for three round metallic trays from Dollar Tree and used two 'crystal' candlesticks for supports, like the instructions suggested.
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My one and only in-progress shot of this
project - my mother is fast! |
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The final product! We spray painted the tops a flat black,
leaving alone the metallic undersides and candlesticks.
For a better shot of the underside, see this post. |
To hold the goodies, I fancied up some clear plastic plates from Dollar Tree with an easy-but-super-neat method of using Mod Podge to adhere decorative undersides. A central symbol in
The Night Circus is a clock, so I found an image of a vintage clock face that I liked through Google Image search and re-sized it to fit my plates before printing out copies in black and white. Once I had all of my clock faces trimmed out and ready, I simply coated the underside of a plastic plate with Mod Podge and smoothed on the clock face so that it was visible from the top of the plate. I didn't do a second coat since it made bubbles in my test run and really, the initial coat was plenty (they were disposable plates after all). Took hardly any time or money (the plates were eight for a dollar), but they were one of my favorite details of the night!
I saved my leftover clock faces, which came in handy - I used one to cover up an unsightly bunch of streamer ends at the center of my ceiling display:
I got the idea from
this pin, and when I had to switch tracks from backyard carnival to indoor party, I used the streamer arrangement to help create the feeling of being within a circus tent. I lined the room with lights (we cheated and used the tops of windowsills to support their weight, since I didn't want to mark up the walls) and had the streamers cut off at the light line. It gave a cool effect, no matter how hastily thought-out it was - especially with all the other lights off.
Speaking of
lighting, you may have noticed the little lamps on the food table in the earlier picture of the tiered cupcake tray - another
Pinterest-inspired project! I originally was on the fence about attempting it, but when I found the mini lampshades at a local thriftstore for 50 cents each, I was all over it! I picked up two glasses for bases at the same store, too, for $1 a pop (I think they might be hock glasses, according to
this chart...?). I added a grosgrain ribbon accent to each shade and made a few fitting adjustments to their light bulb clips, and suddenly I had two adorable little lamps!
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| Not the best for resting on a glass rim... |
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| ... but a few tweaks with pliers solved that problem! |
I used LED candles (provided by my brother and featured in my
vintage photo displays post and the
magicians game post) in these mini lamps, a few porch luminaries, and in decorative table groupings. I used ribbon and the paper outlines left over from punching out my elephant silhouettes to decorate the candles in a non-permanent manner, since I was returning them after the party.
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I also used these bags to send home food
and favors with guests as they left! |
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| Black elastics helped hold the paper in place |
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| Plain old double-stick tape did the trick for attaching ribbon to the votives! |
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| A decorative table grouping! |
Aren't these little tents incredible? Through Pinterest I found this
circus tent template, which I photocopied in varying sizes onto white cardstock and filled in with a Sharpie. The little flags are toothpicks and bits of black cardstock.
I also had a few plastic animals that I picked up at Dollar Tree and Michaels and spray painted either black or white, which I distributed throughout the rooms. It took a few coats of paint to cover up their slightly lurid original colors, but it was worth the effort.
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| From eek... |
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| ... to chic! |
I proudly displayed my updated animals on game tables alongside prizes. While I used this photo (left) to show my ring toss setup in my
circus games post, I neglected to talk about the chalkboard signs that displayed the game names. So, a brief sidebar, if you will. I found these cute mini chalkboards on sale at A.C. Moore for 88 cents each, so I nabbed three. After a ribbon blitz at Hobby Lobby and Michaels one afternoon, I had plenty of options for decorating them, finally settling on a combo of two varieties: a vintage stamped pattern of carnival tickets (how PERFECT?) and a classic black/white striped pattern. Since they were intended for backyard use, I had my dad attach them to dowel rods with sharpened ends for easier posting. They worked pretty well propped/duct taped to game tables, too. ;)
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| I'm in love with this ticket ribbon. |
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| Cutest balloon animal EVER |
Back to animals, though. Another animal appearance at the party were balloon animals! I was
thrilled when I found a packet of red tying balloons on eBay for a few
dollars (have you ever tried bargain shopping for specifically-colored
tying balloons?). I also had a few helium balloons, but I used them
sparingly, since helium is
a bit hard to come by these days and therefore expensive. I made balloon weights for my groupings of black and white latex balloons using a few rocks (free!), metallic foil gift wrap (from Dollar Tree!), and wire garland (on sale at Michaels for 50 cents!). They were easy, cute, and cost-efficient (balloon weights are usually a dollar a pop at their cheapest).
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| Wrap rock, secure with wire, making a loop for tying |
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| Rocks from the railroad (shhh!) |
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| Supplies |
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This was before I found out how expensive helium was, so there are lots of balloon weights... which went unused.
But they were pretty, nonetheless! |
Perhaps the most expansive decorative element (well, second to the ceiling streamers) was the paper medallions installation in the basement. Originally intended as a backdrop for the food table in the backyard, they looked even better indoors hanging in front of my brother's backlit closet doors.
See what I mean?
I fell in love with the idea when I saw
this pin (left), although I knew my version wouldn't be as densely clustered since I was covering a wider space. I tried and tried to find black copy paper, but beyond special ordering (which means big bucks), the search was fruitless. So, I decided to make all of the medallions out of plain white copy paper, then spray paint some of them black. They were a single-use type of decoration, so I wasn't too worried about the paper getting a little crunchy from the spray paint. My friend Kathryn gets MAJOR props for helping me fold the dozens of medallions I needed in one afternoon. We made them in three different sizes, then strung them on twine of various lengths - we stored them by stacking each strand's medallions on top of each other and paper-clipping them together to avoid tangles. The method worked pretty well, they weren't difficult to extricate when I laid them out for spray painting (I re-packed them the same way for transport to the party). Stringing them on twine and hanging them a bit away from the wall meant that they twirled and floated - exactly the effect I wanted. And it only cost me the price of the spray paint!
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We measured out the wall space I wanted to cover
to ensure we had enough medallions. Sorry for the grainy phone pic! |
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| I laid out each strand in my parent's backyard (Sadie was curious!). |
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I spray painted medallions at random, then flipped them over
once they were dry to spray paint their backs. |
And of course, some glamor shots of the wall at the party!
We blew up some of the leftover balloons and littered the basement floor with them for added fun. You may ask, "Aren't twenty-somethings a little too old to kick around balloons?" And you'd be wrong. ;)
And with that, the cirque posts have come to an end! Thanks for reading, and I hope you've been inspired!
The walk feels longer in the stillness of the night, no crowds of people
heading to the circus along his route as there have been every other
evening, when he raced to arrive before the opening of the gates. The stars are still out when Bailey reaches his oak
tree, his bag slung over his shoulder. He is later than he’d wanted to
be, though dawn is some time away. But beneath the starry sky, the field that
stretches out below his tree is empty, as though nothing has ever
occupied the space but grass and leaves and fog.
