Before planning your first party, go through your house and take inventory. What do you already have that would lend itself as props to various theme parties? I found stuff I'd forgotten I even had or had bought. I then organized it all so it fit neatly beneath my basement stairs.
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Most items for staging are really pretty simple to make from materials like corrugated cardboard shipping cartons, styrofoam, styrene, paper mache and household items most people have in their homes.
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What I do recommend you get if you don't have these already:
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Good Exacto knife with spare blades
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Boxcutter
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Hot knife
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Glue gun with glue sticks
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E6000 glue
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Various kinds of tape like duct tape, masking tape, etc.
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Craft paints in various colors
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Various kinds of paint brushes
There are common items you'll use in staging your parties. Knowing how to DIY them will save you beaucoup bucks. I'll go over each of them here and the various ways to make them.
ICE/ICE FORMS/SNOW
Ice, ice forms and snow are some of the easiest elements to make and can be made a variety of ways.
Polystyrene sheets and blocks make the most realistic-looking ice. However, they're expensive - currently between $74 and $84 per 48 x 96 x 4" sheet.
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All you need to work with it is a hot knife, some fine grit sandpaper and some light blue spray paint.
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Styrofoam is invaluable! It's just as easy to work with as polystyrene but far more cost effective.
It can be broken into chunks to resemble snow chunks or even better, when shredded it's hard to tell the difference between it and real snow.
See below.
The advantage to shredded styrofoam snow is that unlike the snow in the video above left that only covers small areas, shredded styrofoam snow can be used to cover large spaces. Yes, it's messy...but that's just part of the staging game. You're sometimes going to make a mess.
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You can purchase fake snow in bulk but it's crazy expensive. The upside is you can cover large areas with it.
This is the kind of snow used on Hollywood sets and in trade shows.
If you are going to use it, then buy it in bulk.
This is the kind of snow used on Hollywood sets and in trade shows.
Sources:
snowwonder.com
instantsnowtogo.net
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Snow blankets are another way to create snow. However, they can get pricey if you have to cover a large area. The upside is they're not all that messy.
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To create the illusion of falling snow, consider snow curtain string lights.
They're reasonably priced and great for covering walls and windows.
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Snow confetti can also be used but is best used on small areas where you need snow - like on tablescapes.
You can even make icicle chairs.
WATER
Water is another item you'll use frequently.
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I use the quick and easy method - metallic fringed curtains that look like water falling. They come in a variety of colors, sizes and prices and are relatively inexpensive.
I'll usually hang a somewhat crumpled gray tarp behind the curtain to make the waterfall appear less flat.
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To form the foam at the bottom of the waterfall I'll use cotton rolls that I lay at the bottom of ​the waterfall and form to look like foam.
For standing water in something
like a stream or river, you can use blue tarps. I've even used inexpensive blue vinyl shower curtain liners.
You can also use blue plastic film that comes in rolls, although this is more on the expensive side.
For smaller areas like table centerpieces I've used E-Zee Wrap Plastic which is similar to Gladwrap.
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There are other methods like gelwax and resin depending on how complicated you want to get.
STONE
You will need to be able to make things like rocks, stone walls, faux brick fireplace.
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There are so many materials you can make faux rock from - paper, styrofoam, cardboard, wood.
I've even molded plaster of paris gauze bandage rolls over carboard boxes and kraft paper to create rocks.
FOLIAGE
Foliage is another item you can use for nearly any theme party. While dollar store artificial plants are an inexpensive and easy way to go, sometimes you just need something larger or the item you're looking for isn't available.
Plants like seaweed can be made very simply by cutting, twisting and hanging various lengths of green and aqua crepe paper streamers.
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Cactus can be made from pool noodles.
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Some floral items like pine cones, moss, leaves, pussy willows, cattails I scavenge myself and spray with floral preservative to use in decorations and centerpieces.
Many parties use trees and there are many online tutorials available for DIY trees in various sizes and from various materials from cardboard to plastic soda bottles.
CARDBOARD
Corrugated cardboard is a DIY'ers best friend and best of all, it's normally free. Go to your local appliance store and ask if they have any appliance shipping containers. They'll be glad you took them off their hands. Recycling centers are another place you can find free corrugated cardboard.
There's no end of what you can construct with cardboard.
27 Insanely Clever Crafts You Can Make With Cardboard
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Cardboard is the easiest medium to work with and requires very few tools.
Save some of those toilet paper, paper towel and gift wrap paper rolls...you never know when they'll come in handy!
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Another plus to using cardboard in staging is that once you're finished with your creation, cardboard can be easily dismantled if you don't have a lot of storage space.
These are the things you'll make most often when staging a party. There are tons of DIY videos online for just about any party project you could imagine. Just do a video search.