Mermaid Birthday Party Centerpieces

This is a sponsored post.  I was provided product for this project.  All opinions are my own.

While we are all in the middle of fall leaves, apple cider, and pumpkin, I am in full party planning mode! This year it’s a mermaid party! This may be my absolute favorite theme yet that the princess has chosen for her birthday!  Although, the Candyland party was pretty awesome, too!  And then we had unicorns last year…eek!  So much fun! She’s turning the big “10”, and that is a big deal.  We celebrated with a fun Mommy and Me Disney trip in July, and now it’s time to really watch her transform into double digits.  Each year, I let her choose a theme, and then I get to run with it.  I am super excited to share my first piece of her birthday party with you today ~ these easy Mermaid Birthday Party Centerpieces.

This year, it’s Mermaids….not necessarily Little Mermaid….think lots of purple, teal, and glitter!  Today, I am going to share with you how to piece together your own design using the Silhouette Design Software, and transform it into something unique!

Mermaid Birthday Party Centerpiece Supplies:

Silhouette Cameo, or similar, cutting machine

Style Tech Adhesive Ultra Metallic Vinyl and Adhesive Opal Vinyl

Transfer Tape

Glass Vases

Dowel Rods

Paper Mache/wood letters and numbers

Filler Sand 

First, open up your design software, and you should have a fresh design page in front of you.  Next, open your first cut file.  For me, it was my spirit jersey file, and I just wanted the mermaid shell from it.

From here, open a new Untitled design page.  Then, I toggle back to my spirit jersey file, and “Select All”.  Next, choose “Ungroup”.  This separates the designs so you can work with them individually.  From here, select the shell, and copy and paste it into your untitled design page.

Go to the library, and choose the next file you want to work with.  For me, it was this Under the Sea file, because I wanted the waves to put around the bottom of my centerpiece.  Open this in a fresh design page {at this point you should have 3 open}, and follow the same steps above.  In this case, I ungrouped the waves, and copy and pasted them to the design page with the shell.

At this point, you have taken two files, and extracted what you want to use to create a new file.  How fun?! This is a technique I use on A LOT of my designs. I take a little from here and a little from there until I have it exactly the way I want it. This really is a simple step, but if you are a beginner and sort of lost on using your software effectively, this can be a good technique to play around and create your own designs.

Now, it is just a matter of sizing.  For this particular project, I wanted to center the shells on each side of the vase and then wrap the bottom in the waves.  From here, I cut them using the standard vinyl setting.

When you are adhering vinyl to glass, you want to clean it with rubbing alcohol first, and let it dry.  Position the middle of the design first, and then smooth it out to each side from there.  I find this works best when working with a curved surface.

Be sure to gently peel back the transfer tape, so you don’t rip your design or move it around.  I have found that adhesive vinyl sticks really well to glass, and lasts a long time.  Then I followed the same technique with the waves around the bottom.

After this, it was time to put them together.  I had picked up a paper mache “N” and some wood numbers at the craft store. Using Mod Podge, I painted a thin coat of it onto the letters and numbers, and sprinkled very fine craft glitter.  It’s almost like sand ~ you don’t want the chunky glitter you use for school projects.

Once this was dry, I adhered these to painted dowel rods using hot glue, and filled the vases with fine white sand. Then, I arranged it in the vases and had a cute mermaid centerpiece!  I can’t wait to display these on the cake table for her party!