TISSUE PAPER ICE CREAM SUNDAE PARTY DECORATIONS

We recently had a ladies' event at our church that I helped decorate for, and I always like to share those events with you in case you're looking for banquet or party decorating ideas also.  I'm usually searching for ways to decorate a lot of tables for a little bit of money.  It's challenging most of the time, but with lots of help from friends and some hard work, things always turn out cute!

Our theme for this event was "Sundaes on Mondays", and it was a craft night focusing on making a variety of craft projects to give to others through various ministries in and around our church.   And, a sundae bar was our treat for the evening of course, so it was pretty easy to continue that theme through to the table centerpieces.  I started with inspiration from this photo and we went from there to make these work for our event.

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The process to make the sundae layers is basically the same as making a tissue paper flower, but even simpler.  I bought several packs of light pink, hot pink, and mint green tissue paper from Hobby Lobby, and a pack of white from Dollar Tree, but I really like the Mini Pack (24 sheets) from Paper Mart tissue paper as well (they're a larger size, and work especially well for the large flowers).  I also need to note that we used a variety of milk glass for our sundae containers.  We had 25 tables to decorate and I wanted 3 per table (plus a few more for sign-in tables), so we had a lot to gather up!  I took all of my pieces that would work, including several sets of goblets, and borrowed from a few friends at church who collect it as well.  We also added in some vintage sofa fountain glasses.  So, other than the effort of lugging things in from home, the containers were zero cost.

Here's a quick run down of the steps.

1) I only used 2 sheets of tissue for each of the layers.  Make an accordion fold for the entire piece, then trim it just a bit longer than the diameter of the container.  You might have folded paper left over after you cut your piece to size that you can use on another container.
2) Fold the piece in half and staple in the middle, then round the ends.
3) Turn the piece on it's side and spread out.
4) Separate the two layers of tissue paper and fluff out.
5)  Roll a piece of scotch tape and attach the bottom layer two or three places around the edge of the container to secure.  You might need to pull the edges together and tape so there's not a separation in your layer.
6) Repeat the process with another color, cutting it slightly smaller than the first layer.
7) Roll a couple of more pieces of tape and stick the second layer to the bottom layer.
8) Repeat the process again with white to make whipped cream, then use a dab of hot glue to attach a red pom pom for a cherry on top.

To set the tables, we used a round plastic tablecloth from Dollar Tree (did you know you can order the round ones from them online?  I didn't...Game changer!), a variety of 12x12 pieces of scrapbook paper in our color family, and some tissue confetti from Hobby Lobby (party section, I had plenty with just one bag). Then, we used a variety of sizes to group 3 sundaes per table.

We also added simple decorations to tables in the foyer that were set up for sign up for each craft.

One side of our Fellowship Hall was set up with the decorated tables for ladies to sit at while they ate, and the other side was set up with tables and supplies for all of the crafts.

We also set up some backdrop spots if the ladies wanted to take photos through the evening.  Our church has several fence panels that we use for party pics, so I made a few tissue paper tassel garlands and used some of the tissue flowers from one of last year's events to dress them up.  We used a fence panel for the stage background too.

Girls in kindergarten and up were invited as well, so it was a fun evening for moms and daughters to attend too.  One of the crafts was dedicated to girls 5th grade and under, and they were able to help at several of the other craft tables once they finished their craft.

There were about 5 or 6 different crafts that the ladies could choose from to complete that evening, including these cute canvas toiletry bags that were decorated with stencils and fabric markers.  They were filled with a variety of toiletries and passed out among the homeless after the event.

We also had a group working on fleece baby blankets for our local Hope Pregnancy Center.  These are so soft and easy to make for a good cause!

The evening was a huge success, and we think that all who attended had a great time and were blessed by working on a craft project for someone other than themselves, and hope that the receivers of our projects were blessed as well.  We're hoping to do more similar events in the future.

You might remember that I used 2 sundaes on my Valentine's table, they were fun to have around for a while!  These would be such cute decorations for birthday parties or a dessert fellowship, too.

Here's of a few other of my favorite event decoration posts:

Spring Luncheon (also used for birthday party decor)

Spring Luncheon with Individual Table Ideas

Travel Theme Ladies Retreat

Fifth Grade Graduation

Christmas Banquet

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