DIY: New Year’s Eve

Although I personally don’t really get the fuss over New Year’s Eve, I do enjoy a few things about the holiday – mainly that there’s lots of champagne and glitter involved. While I can’t do much to bring down the price of champagne (at least…not good champagne), I can help with the glitter part: check out these crafts that’ll help you celebrate your New Years the proper, broke-ass way.

To start with, glitter + shoes = awesome: in all honesty, I would wear these all year round. If you want to bling up your brogues, all you need is a pair of old shoes, mod podge and glitter. It’s pretty easy from there on out, there are a few different tutorials if you need them, just leave yourself plenty of drying time. If you’re looking for something less permanent, consider star stickers (which can be glued for a bit more permanence).

If you’re handy with a needle and thread, you can whip yourself up a matching sparkle headband. This mostly involves sewing sequins and stars onto a piece of ribbon, although I’m sure glue would work here too. If you’re not so much into the sewing, you can print out PDFs of paper party hats, then all you have to do is fold them together, tape and glue.

If you’re throwing a party and need decoration ideas, consider covering a cheap paper lantern with glitter – all you need is spray glue, glitter and a drop cloth for that one. You can also whip up some quick garlands using paper doilies, paper baking cups and some metallic paint. Speaking of metallic paint, if you’ve got some leftover – or if you somehow have gold and silver leaf laying around – you can paint champagne glasses (obviously you’re going to need paint that is safe for that purpose).

For party favors, just start cracking eggs – confetti eggs are a bit of a delicate project…and obviously not for the vegetarian/vegan crowd, but they’re a lot of fun to break open. Basically you crack open the egg, drain the yoke, wash and dry and then fill with confetti using a funnel. The egg can get sealed with a layer of tissue paper on the top, and decorated however you want. Likewise, constructing poppers out of upcycled Christmas wrapping paper is a wee bit time intensive, but well worth the effort. It mostly involved cutting cardboard tubes to size, covering with paper and filling and then twisting the ends to seal.

Lastly, there are noise makers – which are super easy to construct from an old coke can or water bottle. All you need to do is fill with dried beans, pebbles, pasta, etc., seal up and decorate. There’s an option to add a wooden dowel as well. Now all you need to do is work on your toasts. Here’s to finding out if the Mayans were right!

Images courtesy anniespandex.com, ellinee.com, ohhappyday.com, radmegan.blogspot.com, and thegogreenblog.com