DIY paper banners for Cinco de Mayo

Several blogs offer instructions for making simplified papel picado (perforated paper) banners. These would be fun to whip up for a Cinco de Mayo shindig or birthday party. Find directions here:
Papel picado streamers by Studio DIY
Papel picado in purple and pink at Green Wedding Shoes
A downloadable template for papel picado from Happy Thought
Arrow-inspired garland by Lovely Indeed

Also see instructions for mini papel picado-inspired cupcake flags and straws. Consider succulents planted in cans for table decorations or party favors, too— like this or this. Little cacti are usually quite cheap at Home Depot.

Easy-to-make St. Patrick's Day decorations

If you've got paper and tape, you can make some easy St. Patrick's Day decorations. Remember the wall of 3D paper hearts? You can use the same template to whip up some quick shamrocks.


To make these:
1. Download this heart template and print it on green paper. Or orange paper, if you want extra points. Nothing wrong with an orange shamrock, is there?

2. Follow the instructions in the original post for forming the hearts.

3. Cut some stem pieces and fold a crease most of the way up the center. These can be long rectangles, slightly curved if you like.


Each shamrock requires three hearts and a stem.


4. Tape three hearts together so their points meet in the center. Tape a stem on top.


5. Apply wall putty or a rolled piece of tape to the center of the shamrock, and stick it to your wall. A surface covered with these would be awesome, and then you could call it an "installation" and get extra respect.

Oscar bingo on TV

My annual Oscar bingo game made an appearance on the ABC talk show LIVE with Kelly & Michael this morning. Thanks for the mention, Carly, Kelly, and Michael!

For an animated look at what Kelly was actually thinking, click here. To see Michael's secret thoughts, click here.

And for more Oscar party ideas and general inspiration, check these out:

An Oscar fashion quiz: Who wore the dress?

An Oscar trivia quiz: An impossibly hard test that will stir up feelings of inadequacy

Cocktail recipes for your 2013 Oscar party: A round-up of nominee-inspired drinks from fancy LA restaurants

Oscar party potluck recipes: A nod to each of the films up for Best Picture

A recipe for Crabby Snacks: You know, from Silver Linings Playbook. Someone attempted to figure out what crabby snacks and homemades are. I love the internet.

Have a great weekend!

Printable letters for party banners

HP has a big library of printable files, including these letters and numbers you can print and string to make banners. Nothing says "I love you" like using up an entire ink cartridge on someone you care about.

(Or use the smart tip Krysalia left in the comments on this post: get the letters printed by a photo service. Twenty 4x6 prints might only cost you $2-$3.)

Oscar party decorating

If you need a quick DIY decorating idea for an Academy Awards party, you might like Ty's film-wrapped candles. This project uses old negatives wrapped around flameless LED candles. (Get them 3 for $1 at Dollar Tree.) Me, I'd be tempted to wrap film around the outside of glass candle holders and use real tea lights inside. I know you oughtn't, since film is flammable (as folks aggressively pointed out in the comments on Ty's project) but I like to live dangerously. I've got a million tea lights and zero LED candles.

Update: I wrapped some photo negatives around a glass votive holder and put a real candle inside to test it (see image). Burned it for over two hours. The glass got lukewarm to the touch, but nowhere near hot enough to melt anything. The glass was pretty thick, so that helps. I'm not telling you to do this. Don't sue me if you start your house on fire. I'm just reporting my experience; do with it what you will! And never leave a burning candle unattended.

Printable 2013 Oscar ballot and bingo game

The Oscars are on February 24th. Whether you're hosting an Academy Awards party or planning to lounge on the couch in your PJs, it's fun to mark predictions on a ballot and try your luck at Oscar bingo.

Folks at your party will be counting the number of winners on stage, hoping the presenters will botch their lines, and cheering for the orchestra when it cuts off a speech. Movie theater gift cards, boxes of popcorn, or little Oscar statuettes from a party store make good prizes.

A bingo refresher: The first person to mark off five squares in a line wins. It could be a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line, and the center square counts as a freebie.

There are 20 different game cards in the downloadable file. Save the PDF to your computer, open it in Adobe Reader, and print the number of pages you need at 100% size. (Then select the best sheet for yourself, of course.)

Download the Oscar bingo game
Download the Oscar ballot

Like every year, my standard disclaimer applies. It might be possible to get a bingo ten minutes into the telecast, or maybe your group won't have a winner at all because my psychic powers have failed this time.
Good luck!

To join the bingo mailing list for next year, sign up here.

Looking for 2013 Oscar bingo cards?

Update: You can grab 2013 Oscar bingo right here!

A quick note to answer an FAQ: yup, I'll be making my annual Oscar bingo cards and a ballot again this year. I'm waiting until a little more information about the ceremony becomes public, but it should be early February. I'm getting so many emailed requests that I've made a little signup form. Add your email address and I'll send you links to download the free printable sheets when they're done. (See last year's set for an example.)

Sign up here!
Update: I've sent out the email to the folks who signed up for this list. If you missed it, you can grab 2013 Oscar bingo right here.

I'll also post them here on How About Orange, but if you're one of the worried persons concerned you might miss it, join the mailing list so you can sleep at night. If you've already emailed me this year to inquire, I've probably added your name to the list already.

Printable birthday party game sheets

Anyone in need of birthday party games for adults might enjoy this one. For my husband's birthday, I collected photos of celebrities and asked party guests "Is this celebrity older or younger than Alex?"

The photos came from Google image searches with the "large" size selected in the search filter. I saved each photo on my iPad and put them in an album to make flipping through them easy. You could also use magazine clippings. Or just read a list of names without using photos, but guests who don't know what a particular celebrity looks like will be at a disadvantage. To find the ages, I just Googled "[celebrity's name] age" and it popped up at the top of the search results.

Guests could number their own pieces of scrap paper. Or you could get all fancy and make your own answer cards personalized with the guest of honor's name, which is what I did.

I also made this generic version in case anyone wants it. Download the game card PDF here.

It turned out to be really fun. Alex did fairly badly, which was even better. It's good for some laughs! I had no idea Keanu Reeves is 48.