I know what you’re thinking … really, party with tinsel? Yes! Believe it or not, this old-school Christmas decoration is great for more than just a decoration on your tree. In one of our previous posts, we showed how to use tinsel as a backdrop for your photo booth. This time around, we are going to show you how to celebrate a big milestone like a birthday or anniversary with large, over-sized tinsel numbers!

Have you ever seen those giant balloon numbers? They have been a popular staple at birthday parties, showers, weddings and anniversaries. Below is just an example.

HomeArena.co.uk_Balloon — Source: https://www.bubblegumballoons.co.uk/christmas-decorations-from-bubblegum-balloons/

These balloons are great fun to have but they don’t last forever. This is where we came up with the idea of doing large tinsel numbers! They might not float up in the air, but they make a dramatic scene and the tinsel can be used over again for another project or for different numbers.

What you’ll need:
– Foam board (40” x 60” is a good size)
– Black marker
– X-ACTO knife
– Clear tape
– 8 to 10 strands of 15-ft. tinsel garland

Directions:
1. Lay the foam board down on a flat, concrete surface. (You’ll want to make sure it’s on a surface you wouldn’t mind having the X-ACTO knife cut through.)
2. Using the black marker, loosely trace out the number that you’d like to cut out.
3. Take the X-ACTO knife and cut out the number. (It doesn’t have to be perfectly cut out, and it’s okay if some of the black marker still shows up since the tinsel will cover up all the imperfections.)
4. Take one piece of tinsel and tape it down at the top of the number.
5. Start to wrap the tinsel around the number. (It helps to have another person hold the number as you wrap the tinsel around.) When one strand ends, start a new one and tuck the old one into the new strand that will begin next.
6. Keep wrapping strands of tinsel until the whole number is completely covered.

We created these tinsel numbers for Irene Bronner’s birthday. She was turning the young age of 89 and the office celebrated her birthday with a big potluck. Irene works at reception so we put the tinsel numbers up in the reception area for her to see when she came in!

Stunning!

You can get pretty creative with these tinsel numbers. Have them hanging on the wall, or tie string to the top of them and have them hanging from the ceiling! They are lightweight and easy to place anywhere.

I surprised my mom by making a big 5-0 in gold tinsel for her 50th birthday! We placed the numbers on the wall of the garage so it was the first thing she saw when she walked into her party.