Party DIY: confetti system garland & decorated jar candles

So, as promised, here is a brief run down of the DIY decorations we did for the little sister's 21st. Taking direct inspiration from the amazing confetti system garlands, and using this great tutorial we managed to create our own (not as polished) tissue paper garlands! We also (with the help of our Nanny's jar collection) roughly recreated the gorgeous jar candles pictured below.

THE INSPIRATION:

THE PROCESS:

We managed to find a ridiculously large wad of multi-coloured tissue paper sheets (from memory there were about 460!) and decided, although they were much brighter than planned, they would be perfect for the job. Using our very dodgy guillotine we cut the sheets of paper to fit. We estimated that, to border our entire pergola area, we were going to need around 120 individual tassels. Yes, 120. Ridiculous! Luckily, I am currently looking for work, so I managed to get them all twisted and fluffed out(ish) in about 24 hours. We didn't entirely follow the tutorial, but I think essentially we managed to recreate the look.

The tassels covered our entire coffee table - it was completely satisfying to see them all done...

Below is our dry run, we did this just to make sure the length and estimated number of tassels lined up ok... This was pretty exciting...

And two days later, they are still going strong! I don't think I'll be taking them down anytime soon!

With the help of our favourite octogenarian, we also recreated the awesome jar lanterns using the leftover tissue paper.  I've never seen jam/relish jars look so good!

 

This is one of the simplest most effective things I've ever done. All you need is a glass jar, craft glue, tissue paper and tea lights. I covered the jar in glue, and then used randomly ripped and snipped pieces of paper to cover each jar. There was absolutely no method in the selection of the paper/colours/sizes, and that, I think, is the charm of this little DIY adventure. It was so easy and looked SO lovely! I'm definitely going to be keeping a couple of the good ones for myself!

And although the decorations were such a small part, they completely helped create a fun and intimate atmosphere. It was so great to see it all come together, however minor the decorations were. We danced all night, everyone had a great time, and a few of the crazies managed to see the sun rise!