Paper Fan Crawfish Boil Centerpiece: Tutorial

This easy and inexpensive DIY centerpiece is a great way to add some Cajun flair to your next crawfish boil, crab or lobster bake seafood party! We show you how to make several different centerpiece bases in this easy tutorial filled with decorating tips and ideas. See our previous tutorial (HERE) on making paper fans to create a variety of decorative rosettes for each base.

Materials:

• 1 roll red foil paper
• scissors
• clear tape
• stapler
• 1-2 packs of crawfish print newspaper to make fans as well as to cover your table
• hot glue or skillet glue
• 4-6 balloon sticks-  large (you can cut down to various lengths)
  OR small assorted lengths of wooden dowels, wooden skewer sticks, or similar
• a couple of yards of metallic red deco flex tubing
• 1 package Spanish moss + a tall, clear vase
  OR a dry Floral Foam brick and small weight (bag of sand)  + 1 pack red mylar tissue
• 1 package 5-inch plastic crawfish

All of these materials are available at MardiGrasOutlet.com.  Each centerpiece only costs about $10 each to make, and you can make 5 or 6 centerpieces with the materials listed above. To learn how to create the crawfish and red foil paper fans used in this tutorial, please see our DIY Crawfish Fans post.  You will need materials 1-5 for making the fans.

Step 1: Mounting the Paper Fans

Glue a plastic stick or wooden dowel against the back of each paper fan between the folds by dipping the stick into some skillet glue and placing the stick as close to the center as possible so that it will fully support the weight of the fan.  You could also use a hot glue gun to attach the sticks.

After you have attached sticks to all of your fans, lay them out on a table and arrange them at various heights to determine how you would like the final arrangement to look. You can trim off any excess length from the sticks or just push some fans farther into your centerpiece to maintain variety.

Step 2: Creating a Base

Below we demonstrate two different bases you can choose from for your centerpiece. To create a red crinkle base, cut off a small square of a dry floral foam brick. Cut 1 sheet of Red Mylar Tissue in half, and lay them at an angle to one another with the foam brick on top (see diagram below.) Insert a small bag of sand or other weight beneath the foam brick to protect the arrangement from tipping over easily.
Lift up the mylar tissue sheeting and bunch it over the top of the floral foam. Cut a short piece of metallic red deco flex tubing and tie it around the tissue to secure. This is the centerpiece base.

Make a bow with deco flex tubing (see diagram above). First, form a loop and hold it in one hand. Form a second loop, and keep going back and forth until there are 10 loops total. While still holding the loops in one hand, use the ribbon that holds the tissue sheeting together to secure the bow to the centerpiece base. Pull out and fluff the loops.

Alternative Step 2:

To add variety to your decorating scheme, you can also use a tall, clear glass vase along with some Spanish moss and metallic red deco flex tubing to create a base for your centerpiece. The vase shown is 7" x 4".

Just pack the vase with the Spanish moss and tie a deco flex bow as described above.  You could also insert some plastic crawfish into the vase for added color.

Attach the bow to the vase using another piece of the deco flex tubing, knotting it at the back.  If your centerpiece will be viewed from multiple angles, feel free to create a bow for each side!

 

Step 3: Arranging the Fans

Once you have created the base of your choice, begin placing your fans on sticks down into the base. Vary the height of your fans by pushing them father into the base or by trimming the sticks to different heights.

Continue to arrange to your heart's content! Depending on how you choose to display your centerpiece, you may want to have all of the fans facing one direction, or you may want to consider the arrangement from multiple angles.

 

Step 4: Crawfish Table Covering

You can create a decorative resting mat for your centerpiece using crawfish print newspaper, Spanish moss and 5-inch plastic crawfish.  You may even want to cover your entire table with this decorative crawfish paper to add style while protecting the surface from those succulent mud bugs!