MOPS Plunge Centerpieces

Source: mops.org

Have you heard of MOPS?  Are you or were you in a MOPS group yourself?  Is MOPS not the most awesome group ever?  If you've never heard of MOPS, click on the link and check it out.... MOPS stands for Mothers of Pre-School Children and it's a wonderful mom support group.  I've been involved the past few years - my oldest was only 3 months old when I first attended in small town Washington state and it was one of the first things I researched when we moved to Jacksonville last year.  This year I'm even a table leader which basically means I get to communicate information about upcoming meetings and going-ons to the nine lovely ladies that sit at my table twice a month at our meetings and be a support for them should they need some.  

I feel pretty honored to be around some really great Moms and women!

Once I had volunteered to be a table leader this year I also volunteered to use my crafty skills to put together the table centerpieces.  Each year there is a theme and this year's theme is "Plunge:  Live like your life depended on it" (1 Peter: 4-8).  Going with that theme I tried to think of what Plunge meant to me or what it made me think of - immediately a swimming pool came to mind and thankfully - I found some cute ideas on Pinterest to help me out.  

Source: Etsy

Source: Wedding Wire

In the end it was my Mom who helped me come up with the final idea:

Here's what I did to make this piece (well, two pieces):

INGREDIENTS:

Glass Fish Bowls - 6 inch bowls purchased at JoAnne's

Turquoise Paper Crinkles purchased at Party City

Styrofoam (inside of glass bowls to anchor sticks) - already on hand

Styrofoam Wreath Form - 10 inch form purchased at JoAnne's

Red Fuzzy Yarn - JoAnne's, White Yarn - already in my stash, Taupe multi-colored yarn - also in my stash

Bamboo Skewers - on hand (from kebab nights of the past)

Blue Cardstock

Navy Blue Sharpie marker

Martha Stewart Glitter Glue - from my craft closet but can be purchased here

Hot Glue gun and glue sticks

First off I wrapped the styrofoam wreath form in white yarn.  Then, I wrapped over that with the red fuzzy yarn - trying to replicate a life saver.  Then I added just one strand of the taupe multi-colored yarn and wrapped it loosely so it looked like the rope that you'd use to throw the life ring overboard.  :)

Moving on to the splash, water droplets and swimmer:

I painted the bamboo skewers white then meticulously (not so much) 

cut out a trillion water droplets of varying shades of blue cardstock.  To add dimension I glued two together then added each Mom's name to a droplet.  (This was so they could find which table they were at on the first day!)  I used my mad Sorority bubble lettering skills - don't they look nice?  To get the splash just right I found an image via Google and copied it.  Each of the water droplets and the splash is enhanced with some awesome Martha Stewart Glitter Glue!  The swimmer was so much fun!  I ended up finding this image:  

 

which is a coloring book page!  I increased the printing size to about 200% and then I printed it onto white cardstock.  Then I cut off the 'girls rule!!!' (although since there's only Moms in our group, I suppose I could've kept it) and then colored with actual crayola crayons to fill in the swimmer then added some more flashy glitter glue:

(obviously my daughter had been coloring on my nice white crafting table before I took this picture)

look at all those ladies in their sparkly swim costumes!

Then I put it all together!  The small pieces of styrofoam went into the glass bowls, then I stuffed in enough to paper crinkles to cover the styrofoam (for the most part - see it peeking out in that photos) and the meticulously shoved all the skewers into the styrofoam - hoping I got each lady into the correct 'bowl' for their corresponding table assignment!  

Twice a month these babies are set out on the table - life ring first and then the glass bowl and it's parts in the middle.  They look cute but I've noticed the height is a little much.... sometimes it's hard to have a conversation with the person across the table from you.  :(  Maybe next time cut those skewers down shorter?!  

What did your MOPS group do for your table centerpieces this year?