When I think back to New Year's Eve as a kid, I remember watching my mom get dolled up for a big night out on the town. I'd stay home with my grandparents, watching whoever was performing on New Year's Rockin' Eve and trying to keep my eyes open long enough to see the ball drop. I didn't have nearby cousins or friends to spend the night with, so I missed out on crazy kid parties like the ones you so often see mommy bloggers putting together. Luckily, the little ones in my life today have quite the kid gang ranging from 3 to 7 years old, and they're excited to spend New Year's Eve together.
In trying to find some things for them to do, I found Joanna Gaines' confetti popper tutorial on her Magnolia blog, and I loved the idea! I had some initial reservations about confetti poppers since they sounded a little like an exploding mess — but if there's any time for that kind of mess, it's New Year's! Plus, I figured that if anyone knows what kids will find fun on the last night of the year, it's Fixer Upper's mom of five. It can't be easy to keep a brood so big with such a wide range of ages entertained, but Joanna makes it look like second nature.
Before I started mass-producing confetti poppers for the big day, I needed to do a test run to ensure proper popping. The poppers didn't come out perfect on the first try, but with the help of my trusty assistant and resident kid in charge of fun, Lucas, I was able to tweak the method to make sure it's the most fun for the kids. While putting them together, I realized that making them all ahead of time might actually defeat the purpose, and I could maximize the fun by getting the kid gang in on the creation process.
The awesome thing about these confetti poppers is that they give you a lot of opportunity to upcycle. Pieces of wrapping paper, tissue paper, and ribbon can all be used from opened holiday presents.
Here's the full list of what you'll need:
- Cardboard tubes (such as from paper towels, toilet paper, or wrapping paper)
- Confetti (can be purchased or made with tissue paper)
- Ribbon
- Tape or glue
- Scissors
Making Confetti
To make confetti, I took scissors to some scraps of tissue paper. I first cut the paper into long strips.
Next, I cut each strip into a bunch of small pieces.
Repeat with as many colors as you can to up the festive feel.
It didn't fill up much of the tube, but I was maybe still a little concerned about the mess. I know, I know — I have to let go. Still, I thought this might be enough confetti for my first popper.
Assembling the Popper
Cut a strip of wrapping paper large enough to wrap around the cardboard tube of your choice.
Trim the paper down so that you can have candy-wrapper style ends (think: mints, Tootsie Rolls) on each side of the popper.
Glue or tape the paper to the tube so that it stays in the middle. Leave the ends open.
I tied off the ends using ribbon and a simple knot.
The finished popper looked cute, but I was curious how much pop it would pack.
In came my trusty assistant, ready for anything involving flying paper. I instructed him to twist the middle so it would break and confetti would rain down.
I wish I could say it went off without a hitch, but it didn't quite work out that way.
It turned out that my idea to break open the middle wouldn't work, as the cardboard wasn't that easy to rip apart. Only the paper ripped during the twist. Also, there wasn't enough confetti for a pop, as I had thought might happen.
Back to the drawing board, but this time with an extra set of eyes and ideas. I assembled the popper as before, but didn't put the confetti in it yet.
Speaking of confetti, I needed more. I tied off just one end of the tube before making some. My assistant took more of a hands-on approach than I had when making confetti. He ripped the tissue paper up and proclaimed his love for tearing up paper. He left some pieces long so they'd look like worms. He ripped others up so tiny he had trouble picking them up. We repeated the process until the tube was totally full.
Take two was more successful for sure. This time, I told him to pull the ribbon on each side. The tube didn't whip quite enough for a confetti projectile, but a quick shake took care of that.
I asked Lucas what he thought of the confetti poppers when all was said and done, and he thought they were awesome. Before bed that night, he told me he was going to think about more fun things we could put together. While he was brainstorming and counting sheep, I looked at the materials and realized that with supervision, the kids could totally make these on their own. It would make the midnight pop that much more exciting for them.
Just like the Magnolia blog suggests, they can also be dressed up to be chic and fun for your adult guests, too, bringing everyone together to ring in the new year with a bang.
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