World's Easiest Centerpiece

     You don't have to spend lots of money on centerpieces or party decorations.  If you have a printer, some card stock, a glue stick, and a bit of ribbon, you're in business.
     I decided to have lunch for "the girls" with a tea party theme.  I grabbed a picture of a tea cup from free clip art images available on the internet.  Here's how I made the centerpiece:

I enlarged the tea cup until it just fit on an 8.5" X 11" piece of card stock.  I printed four copies - two with the handle facing left and two with the handle facing right.  Getting mirror images was easy to do using the cool flip feature on my Print Artist program.  This was a horizontal flip.  I cut out the tea cups and glued a left and a right together so the image would be the same on the front and back.  I did this twice (remember, four images).   I originally tried to do double sided printing on my card stock, but the images didn't line up perfectly, hence the need for four images and a glue stick.  The double thickness made the card stock stiffer which made it hold its shape and stand up better.

Going from side to side, I took one of the cups and located the middle of the image at the bottom edge of the saucer.  Then  I started cutting from the bottom edge toward the top, stopping half way.   Taking the second cup, I  cut down the middle from the top, stopping half way.   

Holding the pieces perpendicular, I slid the cup with the cut at the bottom down over the cup with the cut at the top.  There you have it - a free standing, 3-D tea cup.

Another View

 

     No party is complete without favors.  Using the same tea cup image and the Print Artist flip feature, I created a place card that holds a candy bar.

This flip was a vertical flip.  I guessed at what would be a place card sized image, flipped it vertically, and left some space between the images as a base so the cups would stand up after folding.

I punched a hole at the top rim of each cup, folded each side up, and tied the sides together with a ribbon.  Now I can stand it up to mark each guest's place at the table.

I used dimensionals to make the names stand out.

I slid a Hershey bar inside because everybody loves chocolate.

I used cardboard placements and blue paper napkins.  When the dog starts barking, the guests are getting out of their cars.  It's time to turn the cups over and pull the plastic wrap off the food.