Dinosaur Party for Grown Ups

If you are an adult and love hokey things, then this is for you- a dinosaur cocktail party!

  Each of the dinosaur accoutrements you see were made from things found in my overflowing stash of craft supplies and junk.  I love weird, unexpected things, and can’t wait to surprise people with a party dedicated to these extinct animals!

The coasters were created with Perler beads from the clearance shelf at Toys R Us (flash back to fourth grade summer camp). Online, I found hundreds of Perler bead patterns to follow, but none of them really caught my eye.  Basically, I just moved the beads around on the base until I found something I liked.  After fusing them together with my iron, I added red felt to the bottom. The felt will keep moisture away from surfaces and, personally, I think it gives the coasters a ‘classy’ feel.

Wine charms seemed to pop up at almost every party I’ve been recently.  Mine were constructed by poking a hole near the edge of four red plastic game pieces and adding tiny jewelry hoops. The section encircling the wine glass is a bit of wire twisted into a ring with the ends pinched back.  The pinched ends hold the charm and beads in place along with protecting the user from scratches and snags.  Shiny dinosaur confetti in different colors glued to the game pieces makes each charm different. This amazing confetti was discovered last spring at the Discount Warehouse, looking as if it was straight out of a Hallmark store from 1990.  Unfortunately, the Discount Warehouse went out of business after a few months, I wonder why….

Who could resist an appetizer served  on a fancy dinosaur cocktail pick? These picks were my favorite items to make.  I started by filling a sheet of yellow garage sale price stickers with dinosaur drawings.  Using a handful of ordinary toothpicks from the grocery store, I added a bead to the end of each one, leaving about ¼ inch of the tip exposed. Yellow dinosaur stickers were placed over the tip back to back.