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Visit
your local public library and check out different books on
Spain. These look great as part of table centerpieces or as
general decorations placed throughout your party area. They
can either be laying flat or they can also be propped up in
a half open fashion (remember to visit both the children's
AND adult's section of the library.) Cookbooks also look great!
These
look REALLY great…but you'll need someone who has a very
simple computer graphics program and the basic knowledge to
use it. Download some nice photos from the Internet of Spain
(you should be overwhelmed by the selection you find on the
Internet) and load them into the graphics program. You can
do this by 'right clicking' with your mouse on any picture
you like, then selecting 'Save As' among the options. Save
these to a disk on your hard drive. Across the top (or in
any other place, depending on how creative you want to get
with it…) put the words of the location (i.e. Barcelona,
etc.) Then, in one of the corners put a large number (i.e.
40, 27, etc.)…essentially, you are making a large stamp.
Once you have the image the way you want it, print it out
and decorate cut the edges all around in the fashion of a
large stamp (Fiskar scissors do a great job.) These look great
just about anywhere. HINT: These can be done in assembly-line
fashion and can be cranked out relatively fast once you get
into the 'groove' of it.
On
a TV set, play a travel video/DVD of Spain. You should be
able to find one at your public library. Remember, this is
for 'decoration', unless of course you'd LIKE your guests
to watch the movie as part of an activity. The really great
part about this is that you don't even need to have the volume
on (in fact, especially for adult parties, the guests will
probably more enjoy their conversations more than the movies…)!
An
acoustic guitar propped up makes for a GREAT table centerpiece!
The great part is that it doesn't even need to be tuned nor
do you need to know anyone who can play it…only who might
HAVE one that you could borrow for the party. An acoustic
guitar also looks sharp as a prop at the entrance to your
party.
Make
some tissue paper flowers. Cut colored tissue paper into 5"
X 5" squares (or buy them in packages pre-cut, which
is what I do.) Take six sheets and stack them evenly on top
of each other. Fan-fold the stack in ¾" folds.
When finished, use a twist-tie to secure the center of the
tissue paper. Now, pull up each piece of tissue paper ONE
AT A TIME, ALTERNATING SIDES. Soon, a flower will appear.
Experiment with different colors, alternating colors, sizes
of tissue paper and the size of the folds to achieve a wide
range of variety of tropical flowers.
Of
course, there's GOT to be music playing. Visit your local
library for Spanish acoustic guitar selections (look in the
International section.) If you don't have any luck at the
public library, try tapping the shoulder of your local college
student and have them take you to their university library…your
jaw will likely drop at the selection! A word about volume:
make sure that it's heard, but not so loud that your guests
will have to speak over it for their conversations.
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