Although the girls and I enjoy watching the famous ball drop in Times Square on New Year's Eve, we also enjoy making the moment it turns midnight (signifying the start of the new year) a memorable one. This year we have plans to accomplish that with homemade confetti. What kid doesn't love a bunch of confetti falling down over her head like snowflakes? I fully admit that it will end up being the parent's responsibility to clean it up, but the memories are priceless!
- Age Guideline: 3 Years and Up
- Time Required: 30 minutes
This confetti craft can easily be modified to suit older children if need be.
Materials Needed:
- Construction paper in a variety of colors
- Gold and silver wrapping paper
- Hole puncher
- Small bowel
- Utility knife
- 16 oz. plastic water bottle
- Balloons
Instructions:
Decide what colors you want to have in your confetti. You can use a select few colors, or use every color you have. We make our confetti with construction paper, but you can use whatever type of paper you want.
Make your own colored paper if you don't have any. This can be done by coloring or painting plain typing paper. Make sure you color both sides though. In fact, you can color one side green and the other side blue if you want. The goal is to have plenty of bright and lively colors falling in the air when the clock strikes midnight.
Cut tiny circles out of your colored construction paper or homemade colored paper with a hole puncher. Even younger children can use a hole puncher when supervised.
Place the tiny circles in a small bowl.
Once you have a decent amount of homemade confetti, get out some gold and silver wrapping paper. Cut tiny circles out of the wrapping paper to add to the bowl of confetti. We are going to do this to add a little shine to the confetti. Of course, if you don't have any gold or silver wrapping paper left, you can skip this step.
Now you have your confetti, so you need a way to prepare it for lift-off. We are going to use a balloon to do this.
Cut an inch below the spiral opening of a 16 ounce water bottle with a utility knife. Discard the water bottle, keeping only the top piece for your craft.
Place the spiral opening portion of the water bottle inside the opening of your balloon. Make sure you have removed the bottle cap before doing this. You can discard the bottle cap or save it for a future craft project.
Each child should have his own balloon with plastic opening.
Pour some of the confetti into the plastic opening so that it can slide down into the balloon.
Set the confetti launcher aside until it is about a minute before midnight. Then hand out one confetti launcher to each child. I plan on making one for myself too, so adults feel free to get in on the fun.
After counting down and reaching the New Year, pull back the bottom of the balloon as far as you can while still holding onto the plastic portion coming out of the top of the balloon. Let go of the bottom of the balloon and watch the confetti fly up into the air above your head.
Tip:
You can also use tissue paper to make confetti. It floats down a little slower than the construction paper because it is much lighter.
Push pops can also be used to launch confetti into the air.
Practice using the confetti launcher before putting the confetti into it so that you know exactly how it works.