Candle Wraps y Water Bottle Labels

Using the same papel picado images from the invite I got from Aesthetic Nest's Fiesta Forty party I made water bottle labels and candle wraps.

Water bottle labels!

Supplies: 

Labels, printed on regular paper

Water bottles

You can get a PDF of the water bottle label here. If you want the original file so it can be edited, let me know and I'll send it to you.

We never drink bottled water (we have plenty of reusable water bottles - Sigg, Kleen Canteen, etc) so I figured we'd make use of the bottles of water we'd gotten free with our grocery delivery and use them for the party. We also had plenty of iced water in pitchers for people to refill their bottles. 

Because I'm party crazy I thought it'd be fun to make labels for the water bottle. I took the labels off of the bottles and measured one. Then I just used the papel picado images and the words Fiesta Fifty to design a label. I printed them on regular paper and cut them down to size.

Then I just wrapped the label around the water bottle and tapped the edge.

The custom water bottles were a hit at the party and were very quick and easy to make. 

Candle wraps!

Supplies: 

Candle wraps (printed on regular paper)

Battery operated tealight candles

You can get a PDF of the candle wraps here. Let me know if you want me to send you the original file if you want to edit it.

Another quick and easy craft I did was make candle wraps for battery-operated tealights (like the Christmas and Valentine's Day ones I made). I used the same font (Sala de fiestas) and papel picado images.

I cut the paper down to size (I measured one of the candle wraps I had made before to get the sizing).

And then I just wrapped the paper around the candle. N helped me with this part.

Candle off v. Candle on

I used these throughout the house - some near the wet bar, on end tables in the living room, etc.

Bunting, Circle Garland y Mini Papel Picado

Mini papel picado!

Supplies:

Fancy paper punch

Card stock

Sewing machine

To go with the papel picado theme I wanted to make mini papel picado for the cake. Since it would be too hard to cut tiny folded tissue paper I decided to just use card stock and a fancy paper punch. 

I punched the pattern around the edges of the card stock. 

And then cut the paper into 1 inch strips.

Then I cut that into 1 1/2 inch rectangles. I sewed them together, tied the ends to chopsticks and put it on the cake.

Bunting and circle garland!

Supplies:

Paper (cut into circles or triangles)

Sewing machine

To make the house more festive I wanted to make some simple bunting and circle garland to hang in various rooms.

First I cut out the shapes. I made three kinds.

I cut out triangles for bunting...

...and circles for the circle garland. For this I did two styles - some with random sized circles and some where the circles were all the same size.

Then I got to work sewing them together. I measured some areas to see how long I needed the strand to be. As I sewed the circles I didn't space them all equally apart because (especially with the random sized circles) I thought it looked neat to have them randomly spaced. For the bunting I tried to keep them evenly spaced. That didn't always work out but it still looks nice.

Done sewing! (I spread the sewing out over a few nights - I'd sew a few strands each night so I wasn't trapped in the hot craft attic for an entire noche).

Ready for the party!

Random sized circles.

Bunting

Happy Birthday banner

I wanted to make a Happy Birthday banner for the fiesta and kind of made this up as I went. I think it turned out marvelously. I am going to keep the "Happy Birthday" part for future use (along with all of the other decorations we made of course) and I'll be giving my mom the "Gayle" part of the banner.

Supplies:

Circle cutter (or template)

Paper

Ribbon

Hole punch

Using the same font as other party decorations (Sala de fiestas) I first printed the letters out on coloured card stock. I spaced them out so there would be enough room to cut circles around them.

I cut out 4 inch circles around each letter and then 5 inch circles of plain card stock. Next came cutting out the diamonds in each letter - I didn't trust my caffeine addicted shaky hands so N was entrusted to cut them out.

I used a 1/8" whole punch and punched two holes on a plain 5" circle. Then I used this as a template and punched holes on all of the plain 5" circles.

I bought the cheap 50 cent ribbon at Michaels - blue, 1/8". I threaded it through the holes of all of the circles (I did each word separately)

Then I used double-sided tape to tape on the letters. 

 

 A close up

Done and ready to hang. 

 

Hung up for the party!

(we actually had it hanging on the garage by the streamers and balloons but I wasn't able to get a photo of it before the decorations were taken down so I just hung it on the fence later for a photo)

Papel Picado

To go along with the Fiesta theme we thought it'd be great to have papel picado as decoration. I tried to find design templates online but couldn't find anything so we decided just to wing it. 

Supplies:
Tissue paper
Exacto knife
Ribbon
Tape

We bought tissue paper in pink, orange, blue and green. I cut it down so we had rectangles that were 10" by 9" each. Then I made a crease an inch from the top to make sure that we didn't cut the area that the ribbon would go.

The tissue paper was folded like an accordion and then we just cut it using exacto knives. The first few I ended up recycling because I wasn't too happy with how they turned out but after I did a few I got the hang out of. N "got the hang of it" right away and his turned out much better than mine. When they're mixed together maybe it's not too obvious whose are whose. :-)

After they were done (we made 42!) we figured out where we were going to hang them so we would know how long each string of them needed to be.

The top edge got folded down and I put the ribbon under the flap and just taped it down. I also added a small piece of tape to hold the papel picado onto the ribbon so they didn't slide around.

Then we hung them up for the fiesta!

 

 

Fiesta Fifty!

My madre is turning 50 in a few days so we threw her a surprise fiesta!

 

I was inspired by a Fiesta Forty party (as seen on Aesthitic Nest). She was nice enough to post her party invitations on her blog post so I was able to use the papel picado images for various things at my party. I just changed the colours to match our party colour theme (because regular people have party theme colours....)

N and I made a ton of decorations (I may or may not have gone overboard with the party fever) and my sister y brother-in-law came the night before the party to help with decoration and food preparation. I was glad to have the extra help as I was mega stressed and frantic the day of the fiesta. Luckily most of the relatives were fashionably late and everything was done and ready at party time. 

All of the relatives came over and my mom arrived a little later. She knew something was up but we all yelled "surprise" anyways. :-)

We feasted on Mexican food (burritos and tacos in a bag) and drank margaritas while hanging out playing lawn games and talking. I was thankful that it didn't rain and we all dealt with the sweltering heat. We had our picnic table, a card table and another table set up for plenty of seating outside.

Later all over the 21+ went to the Shout House while N and I stayed at home to control the children. We played every game you can imagine plus a handful of made up ones and watched a movie. We ended the night wearing glow stick bracelets and running around the yard in the dark.

Here are photos from the party.

Updated with Tutorials:
Papel Picado
Happy Birthday Banner
Bunting, Circle Garland and Mini Papel Picado
Candle Wraps and Water Bottle Labels

Food and drinks!

The menu: Tortillas, tostadas, bags of chips for the tacos in a bag, tortillas chips.
Burrito/taco toppings: cheese, sour cream, guacamole, mild salsa, hot salsa, spicy taco meat, regular taco meat, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pico de gallo, chili con queso, refried beans and chipotle black beans.

I made mini papel picado for the cake (purchased at Costco).

 To keep food cold I had filled two tin container 1/2 way full with water and froze them. Then I added more ice go around the bowls. This photo was taken after most of the ice cubes had melted but the bottom layer of ice lasted the entire party.

 

At the wet bar we had a margarita machine on one side and a fridge stocked full of soda, vino, cerveza y aqua on the other.

Apparently I'm party crazy. Why else would I have made water bottle labels?

 

Decorations!

The TV in our kitchen is connected to our computer so we had mariachi music playing upstairs and downstairs. The tv also played a powerpoint that was just "50" with the background colour changing every few seconds.

This table was set up next to the wet bar. We had cups, straws and markers so people could write their names on their cups. The cooler was full of ice for the margaritas.

 

We made a ton of papel picado y bunting/garland. 

Don't worry - we don't awkwardly have a frame hanging with matting and 5 black pieces of paper. This frame is our last name - we took pictures around town of each letter, printed them and framed them. I wasn't down with posting my last name so I just blocked it out. :-)

 

I made candle wraps with 50 and more of the papel picado images.

 

I made my mom this photo as a birthday gift but thought it'd be great to use as decor. :-) It's a photo of my mom y one of my brothers.

We wanted to cover up our ocho artwork so made this "50" to cover it. 

  

Outside we also had streamers and balloons (blown up and strung to a string). hung between the house and the garage. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture until after the streamers were all down due to wind and kids and the balloons were popped due to heat and kids. It looked nice for a while though. :-)

It took a lot of work to prepare for the fiesta but it was a huge success and my mom had a great time!