Recycled Party Supplies

Have some leftover party supplies?   Don’t just throw them out.   You can recycle them into fun decorations and activities for your child! My daughter just had her 3rd birthday and her party was a Hello Kitty theme.   There were Hello Kitty invitations, balloons, tablecloths, Happy Birthday banner, plates, napkins, and even Hello Kitty thank you notes. Who knew there were so many Hello Kitty things out there? After the party was over, we had lots of leftover Hello Kitty party supplies.   My daughter loves anything having to do with Hello Kitty so I hated to just throw all this stuff out.   So I came up with a few ways to recycle the supplies so that she could continue to enjoy them long after her party was over. I used the two Hello Kitty plastic tablecloths, leftover Hello Kitty invitations and thank you cards, and the Hello Kitty banner that reads, “Happy Birthday”. The two tablecloths were used at the party but were in great condition – no sticky icing and no tears.   They are a standard rectangle size so I taped them together lengthwise to make a huge square tarp splattered with Hello Kitty. We are always making homemade forts with sheets and blankets draped over chairs and this worked great.   Not only does my little girl absolutely love having a Hello Kitty fort but I don’t have to worry about her dragging out all my clean sheets anymore!   My little girl loves to wave at the mailman when he drives up to deliver our mail.   I’ve talked to her a little bit about how the mail system works but we always have more fun when we throw a little drama into our learning and act it out. I used the leftover invitations and thank you cards as our mail.   On the envelopes, I addressed them to all of her stuffed animal friends.   Then I set up the friends around the house and gave them each a basket to serve as their mail box.   Rachel had so much fun playing mailman and delivering the mail to all of her friends!     Finally, the Happy Birthday banner was in perfect condition.   How could I just throw that away?   I decided to re-work the letters to turn it into a banner that says, “Rachel” and hang it in her room.   Some of the letters were already in the banner.   Others were easy to fix like cutting off two pieces of the “B” to make it an “E”.   Changing the “D” to an “L” was also pretty easy. Making a “C” was a little more challenging but I was able to pull it off by using 2 “P”s and a little creative scissor work. The pictures and letters on the banner all attach with grommets.   I was able to carefully slip letters on and off the grommets until I had the banner arranged just right.   And now Rachel has her own one-of-a-kind personalized Hello Kitty banner.   What fun things have you done with leftover party supplies?   I’d love to hear your ideas!