diy prize board tutorial.

Okay! Last tutorial before the big pink cake, and then we’ll dive straight into autumn. Get excited; this one may have been my favorite thing to do, and you can fit the idea into virtually any party that needs prizes. Trivia nights, board game night, birthday parties with games, baby showers, whatever: adults love dumb prizes as much as kids do. Away we go.

What You Need:

• 1 poster-size pice of foam core, any color
• Yarn (use a basic, sturdy one; cheap is great because it doesn’t stretch as much)
• 8 large buttons
• 1 package 4.5 x 6.5 inch card stock (you can find this in the scrapbook section of Michaels in solids and patterns)
• 1 package 3 x 4 inch clear favor bags
• 1 package miniature clothespins
• Inexpensive party store prizes, small enough to fit comfortably in your bags
• Stapler
• Hot glue gun

Make the prize board:

Cut 4 lengths of yarn to fit your foam core board. Space them far enough apart vertically to allow the prizes to hang down comfortably on it: the prizes will sag the yarn just a bit, so string it tightly.

While you wait for the glue to dry, cut 8 smaller lengths of yarn and thread these through the buttons, then tie them into bows. Glue each button onto the foam core over top of where you glued the yarn to the board: these will serve to cover up your unsightly glue-covered yarn. et voilà.

Make the prize bags:

Take the desired amount of card stock (I used ten sheets for twenty prizes) and cut them in half on their longest side: this should leave you with rectangles 4.5 x 3.25 inches long. Take each of those rectangles and fold them in half, again on the longest side.

Fill those clear bags up with some cheap prizes, sandwich the top edge of the bag in between the two sides of card stock, and staple on either side to affix bag to card stock top.

Assemble the prize board:

I’d do this the day of, because yarn will eventually stretch out. I think I put this together the morning of the party, and you’d be fine with doing it that way. Simply clip each prize – starting from the bottom yarn string and working up – to the yarn using your miniature clothespins. Cut letters our or simply write “PRIZES” on top, and you have yourself a perfectly lovely prize board.

OH! So occasionally I get asked where I find the time to do things like this. Friends, I don’t want you thinking I slave away all night long creating magical parties for the Wee One; I don’t. Because I’ve learned precisely one thing in the three years I’ve had her, and that is this:

Kids just want to do what you’re doing. So let them help. It’s really that simple most days around here, because she’s great, and all she wants to do is be like her mom. That will change eventually, and she will want to be nothing like me, but for now, cameras and laying on the floor are AWESOME.

The End.

Next post, a massive pink cake.