Sesame Street Centerpieces.

Taj is such a Sesame Street Fan and when Kera changed the birthday party theme from Toy Story (he is a fun of this too) to Sesame Street two months ago, I knew exactly what I was going to suggest for the table centerpieces.  I found this on Pinterest and it reminded me of my idea for a valentine topiary and thought I would do use the loofa instead of making a small tissue pom pom

Source

. We made these.

Here is how I (we Kera made Elmo) did it.  I chose to demonstrate Big Bird because of his beak.

Supplies:

• Loofa
• Curling Ribbon
• Dowel Rod
• Floral Foam
• Clay Pot
• Modge Podge
• Paint and a Paint Brush
• Decorative Tissue
• Shredded Paper (or Crepe Paper)
• Hot Glue and Tacky Glue
• Scissors

First I decorated the pot.  The pot was a white pot with flowers on it.  I found them at the Dollar Store.  I first painted over the white pot with a base coat of white paint.  While it was drying I cut the tissue paper to wrap around the base of the pot.  Now this was the hardest part of this entire decoration.  How I ended up doing it (my third try) was taking white paper and aligning one edge of the paper and I ended up rolling the pot and tracing as I rolled to make a template to cut the decorative tissue paper.  (Just remember your design if it is stripes like Oscar and Elmo, they will end in a diagonal.)  I then used the Modge Podge and decoupage the tissue.  First you put a thick layer of the Modge Podge on the pot, then lay the tissue paper where you want it.  I took my paint brush and brushed the tissue onto the pot working out all the bubble.  Next you will add another layer of Modge Podge.  Once this is dry (the next day for me) I painted the rim yellow. You could always straight up and paint the pot too.

Once the pot was completed I worked on the eyes.  They are made of felt.  Oscar, Cookie Monster, and Elmo I only used white and black.  Big Bird you will also need pink and blue for the eye lids.  I just glued each piece onto my white circles.

I then added the floral foam I also picked up at the Dollar Store.  The package had four which were the perfect size for the pots.  I ended up putting a dab of hot glue on the bottom of one end of the foam to secure it to the pot.  It probably was not needed since the foam was snug.

Next I worked on the mouth.  Oscar, Cookie Monster, and Elmo all had open smile cut out of black felt.  I made Cookie Monster's larger and added one cookie in his mouth.  Big birds I wanted the beak appearance so took a small rectangular yellow felt the size I wanted the beak to be when I folded the opposite corners together as such.

I then took my scissors and cut the outside of the felt to round it like Big Bird's beak

Next place a little hot glue inside the corner of the beak.  Only a small amount and pinch as such.  Be careful because the glue is very hot.

I add a little bit of pink to the bottom of the beak (using the tacky glue like I did with gluing the pieces to the white eyes.)  Once my beak was done, I took the loofa and cut the white string in half.  I then tied a knot as close and tight as I could to the base where the string is hidden in the loofa.  Do not just cut the white part as close as you can because the string will complete come apart and your loofa will fall apart.  (Yes, I did that to my first yellow loofa, which turned out nice later.)  I then found the spot where I wanted to glue the beak and used my hot glue gun to glue it in place.

I then started to work on the dowel rod and used the curling ribbon.  Place just a tiny drop of hot glue on one end and wind the curling ribbon around the dowel until you reach the other end, cut the ribbon and hot glue the piece to the rod.

Place your dowel rod in the center of your floral foam.

Next I found the spot where the string is (Keep this in mind when adding the mouth) and added a little hot glue to it as well as my dowel and added the head to the rod. 

After your loofa is in place add your eye.  The picture below I ended up picking the eyes off as soon as I could.  I realized Big Bird's eyes are nearly on top of his beak.  He also needed feathers on top of his head, this is where I used the extra material for the loofa which fell apart and cut a small piece to look like feathers on the top.

The last part was to add the shredded paper or crape paper to the pot which covered the floral foam.  

I think they turned out adorable and we plan on putting up a shelf in Taj's bedroom to use as decorations. Kera loved them too and she made Elmo. This was her first craft and she had a great time.  Taj went nuts over them and wanted to play with them.