Project: Under The Big Top

The Annual School Carnival.

It's pretty much our PTO (parent teacher organization) fundraiser of the year.

Our PTO, like our school, is tiny.

As in tiny I mean like 12 sets of parents (which usually only a third come to meetings) and 4 teachers.

We had lots of donations and help with food.  It was great.

The decorating was the fun part.

It was a project, yet fun.

This year's theme was:

UNDER THE BIG TOP!

Totally a fun theme to decorate around = I loved it.

To decorate, we (like 4 of us) used what we had so that we didn't have to spend anything.

I took a lot of stuff from home to use.  Is that weird to be able to use your normal home decor to decorate for a circus?  Yeah, probably.

Made some stuff, too.

(pictures from my craft room at home)

Like: a 40-foot or so banner; another red tissue pom pom (had 2 already, which were totally ashy since they've been hanging by the woodstove all winter, so they needed a good shake); lots (and lots) of letters cut out of paper, felt and fabric; signs; and yeah, and whatever else (we shall see in the rest of the pix).

IN THE FOYER:

Pay here please.  Thrifted shutter (really long) that I had already painted black made a good chalk board and sign; the old school desk from our library at home; entrance curtains taken from my bathroom closet.

bulletin board in the foyer made over with a red table cloth; signs for prices, games, and times made with scrap fabric; the theme in "balloons" made from embroidery hoops, fabric, felt and yarn

ENTER THE CARNIVAL:

One of the moms decorated the booth for the wheel of fortune game since that was the game she ran.  I love her outfit!  We all decided to dress up circus-y.  (She was a gypsy, there were clowns, and a harlequin. I was a lion tiger tamer.  We couldn't find our kid lion costume, just the tiger one, so Ezra was my tiger.  I had a whip and hoop for my tiger to jump through.  Weston took a picture of us, but it turned out super duper blurry.)  The big top is the p.e. parachute from school draped over (and tied to) a canopy tent thing that our PTO president owns.  The blue rug is from my kids' bathroom.

The cake walk is always the most popular event.  When you win you get to pick a whole cake or plate of cookies!  The blue curtains are my bathroom curtains, and there's a red pompom. 

1. Theme "balloons" close-up.

2. Instead of doing p.e. the day before the carnival, I got to do an art project with the kids.  One of  the projects was painting the cans for the can toss.  I love how they turned out.

3. "Cakes" sign, just in case no one knew where the cakes were.

4.  The caricature booth that my brother-in-law did.  The fabric draped around it is what Kate picked out for the curtains in her room.

5.  The "focal point", or center of the front wall.  Frame I spray painted red last year, with embroidery hoop with fabric and felt.  Red curtains from my bedroom, white and black curtains I hadn't hung up at home yet.

6. The PTO Pres.'s balloon animals booth that she did.  She did some great balloon animals.

7.  The other project I did with the kids at school.  We traced their hand, cut them out, and then they painted and decorated them with scrap fabric and paper that we had used for other things in the carnival.  They did the same thing to paper plates to make them look like balloons.  We taped curling ribbon to the back and taped them to the wall at the carnival, spacing the hands from the ribbon to look like they had just let them go.   I got the idea from a picture I remembered drawing in my journal like 12 years ago.  Kate's is the green hand and blue plate on the left, and Ezra's is the blue hand and red plate in the middle.  I wish that I had gotten a closer picture.  They turned out cute.

8.  A big photo-op board that a guy from our church made.  He is so talented!

9.  One of the games, the fishing pond.  I got that rug from IKEA a few years ago. I love it's stripey-ness.

Lots and lots of light and balloons and color!


Ezra the tiger!   One of the teachers in costume.  Kate adores her.

One of the former students waiting at the cake walk.

My adorable sister, Wendy, and her darling little Ellie.  My brother-in-law, Andy, and his artistic self running the caricature booth.  There was always a line for his booth. (THANKS, ANDY!)

After the games portion was done, the lights came back on for dinner and the auction.  It was a fun and busy night, and very successful, fundraiser wise.  Thanks to all who helped out, came out, and donated!

We left with a bunch of balloons.  They hitched a ride home.  They are still here in my house, deflated, yet here.

And, just so you know, this is what my craft room looks like post-carnival, after making stuff (and I always think of stuff last minute, so everything is made in a hurry, which equals a mess) with 2 preschoolers under foot each making just as much of a mess as I do:

Like a major fabric/paper/whatever else bomb went off in there.
Yeah, gotta go clean that.
It's worth it, though.