One of the first things I found on my search for sea-themed party decorations were paper plate jellyfish (aren’t they adorable?!?). And while that was the plan I was actually inspired to use what we apparently have a plethora of: little plastic fruit/applesauce containers.
My favorite to use are the various fruit cup containers that we seem to have hidden in every random cupboard because I happen to prefer the shape but we also used applesauce containers that are the same size just more squared (I am happy to report that, while in season, I do actually serve fresh fruit although I don’t know why I feel the need to defend the fruit cup.).
Initially I was thinking that I needed to paint all of the containers white as a base. Don’t even know where this concept came from but it did actually make a nice base for several of the jellies. I also should mention that for some reason (again the logic behind this currently escapes me) all of our jellyfish are two-tone. Which, in fact, I really like the look of.
So to sum up, first step, paint.
I sealed all of the fruit cups once they were painted to make them glossy (since “M” was helping we used her washable Crayola paint, if you used acrylic paint you may be able to skip the sealant step). You can see the unfinished one on the left (which also happens to be an applesauce container) and then the sealed one on the right. I made the eyes out of construction paper and we glued them on.
Next step. I drilled holes into the tops of the jellyfish. I decided to drill two holes so that I could string a piece of string through the cup.
Then add the jellyfish tentacles. My first thought was to use ribbon exclusively. I had planned to use some wired ribbon, some rick rack, and various other things I could find in the bargain bin. But then I had a brainstorm. How about using tissue paper cut into long spirals? And while I was being creative I actually decided to do half white tissue paper, half wax paper. Now here is my greatest tip when doing this. Ready? Stack the paper! You can do several jellyfish worth of tentacles in one minute. Do I do this?!? Not until the second to last jelly. Apparently I had used up all my brilliance coming up with the initial idea. Oh well, can’t win them all. In the end for each jellyfish I think I had 4 tissue paper tentacles, 4 wax paper tentacles, and a total of 4 ribbons (which to add variety I used two ribbon colors for each jellyfish to match their two-tone paint job and I tried to use different texture ribbons for each color) none of which were the same length (on purpose). All tentacles were then hot glued into place. I can’t wait to hang these up for “M’s” birthday party! Right now they are hanging in my room greeting me with a rainbow of aquatic color every morning (no, I am not hoarding them for myself I happen to have a ridiculous notion not to decorate until the night before the party), but I think soon they are going to be great decor for our Under the Sea-big girl is turning 4-birthday party.
Want more ideas for Under the Sea decorations? Just click this link!
These are awesome. I will have to make one with Goblin. They look fab
Thanks! We had fun making them. I actually am astounded how many fruit cup/applesauce containers we gathered over the past few weeks (although I suppose I should be happy that we are eating that much fruit). I’m actually thinking of using them as decoration (maybe a mobile of some sort) after the party because they turned out so well. Maybe a windchime? Dunno, I’ll think of something.
I love this idea!! They are almost muppet-like. Just adorable- perhaps we will make them to hang from our ceiling when we study the ocean. Popping by from TGIF. Come visit me over at http://thehandleyhome.blogspot.com/2012/07/childrens-travel-log.html.
The jellyfish turned out adorable! Great thinking to use fruit cups! We’ve had our own jellyfish fun and did it with mod podge : ) Thanks for sharing!
These are adorable!
Thanks Rose!
This is such a fun idea! I know some kids who will just love making these. Thanks for sharing this project.
These are too cute! I’ve seen some made of paper plates and other things before, but the fruit cups are much better! Love the variety of the tentacles too…these are the best ones I’ve seen! Thanks for sharing at Shine on Fridays!!
Thank you so much! I loved the paper plate ones (after all they are what I was planning to do) but I really think ours turned out awesome!
These are SO stinkin’ adorable!!! We LOVE jellyfish (or the idea of them anyway!) around here so this is definitely going on our to do list!
Yay! Thank you so much. Now I need to come up with another idea for fruit cups because we buy things in bulk around here
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These came out so cool!! What a clever project. I am featuring this at TGIF today! Thanks for linking up & I look forward to seeing what you link up later today =-)
Have a great weekend,
Beth =-)
Thanks so much Beth!
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They look great!.
I never thought to use the clear plastic containers! Thanks! We will be adding this to our Ocean Theme crafts. They look like they held the paint much better than the Styrofoam bowl version we did and would be more manageable in size. I did make jellyfish decorations out of plastic trashcan liners that turned out really cute, but they were beyond the little one’s skill sets, plus being a suffocation hazard. I could, however, use the same tentacles. I found that the plastic held up better than the tissue paper, which they shredded in moments. Thanks for posting! Found you via Pinterest. http://www.littlestarslearning.blogspot.com/search/label/Ocean
Yeah the tentacles were the first thing to go. My little nephews came running in for my daughters birthday celebration (they were being used as a decoration) and in one foul run managed to mangle quite a few of them. It was one of those “gasp! oh well, what are decorations for?” moments. If I had thought of it, and now that you mention it, I have lots of leftover pieces of plastic dollar store tablecloths that I have been using for various things, those would be great!