Alice in the Rabbit Hole decoration

It's easy to make a pair of Alice legs out of cardboard and tissue paper. I used the white cardboard from a trifold board. I just cut the calves and feet, leaving enough cardboard at the top to fold into a stand.

You'll want to cut an extra triangle to hold up the back so it stands on it's own, if you plan on putting it against a wall or in a corner. 

Stack tissue paper. I put white on the top and blue on the bottom. Then you fold it accordion, cut notches in the middle and tie it with a string or wire. Cut the corners off the ends to round them out.

Open the folds and gently pull the tissues apart to fluff up the skirt. You can do the entire thing and glue it to the front, since you have that triangle cardboard stand on the back, or you can cut a slit through the middle (between the knees) and pull half the tissue paper through to the back so that the fluffy skirt will hold up the legs, in which case you can lose the triangle stand. The project only took one class period with a couple students working.

 

Doorknob and Key decorations for a Wonderland Prom

 

The thing with Alice in Wonderland, is that you don't want to leave anything out or someone will say, "What about the Queen of Hearts? Why didn't you use any chess pieces? Where are the hats and tea cups?" So I started with a list and came up with ideas could include each part of the book.

I had collected a bunch of free mat board and frames from a frame store that was going out of business, so when my coworker said she bought some keys to go with the theme, I hot glued them to the board and frames and more mat board. This was displayed on an eisel.

Bigger is better however when it comes to big spaces and visually impaired students, so I made a giant doorknob. This was also almost free. Glue sticks and spray paint do cost money, but the four foot chip board, the cardboard boxes, that I cut up and large cardboard cylinders from empty packing tape rolls were salvaged garbage. I used the same clear plastic plate, I used to make the pocket watches last month, and decorated the cardboard and plate door knob with caulk before hot gluing it all together and spray painting it gold.  The red roses and leaves are from the last bits of bulletin board paper on large rolls. These are the same roses made for the school Christmas tree a year and a half ago. This picture doesn't show the finished piece but we were getting there at this point.

Photo Op Ideas for Alice in Wonderland prom theme

Trying to bring a classic novel to life is no small feat, but many of the projects were fun and turned out really well. This 4X4 foot wooden cut out with a cheerleader and baseball player was recycled to make Alice and a Cheshire cat. I would have loved to do Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, but the holes were in the wrong spot. I could keep most of the green background and just paint over the bodies, so it didn't take long to transform an old painting into a new one. I used 2X4 wood legs to make a stand and hold it up off the floor.

I was able to get tri-fold boards donated to recreate Tennial illustrations. I went old school and traced print outs of the illustrations onto recycled laminating plastic and an overhead projector to trance again with pencil and then paint. I bet my first grade teacher, Mrs. Royer, had no idea that she was teaching me even while she was off in a corner working on bulletin boards with her overhead sheets and Disney coloring book.

A large piece of cardboard has the disappearing head of the cheshire cat. I used the original John Tennial illustration to keep with the feel of the other decorations, but the purple and shocking pink stripes give a nod to the Disney animated cat. We made papier mache mushrooms from umbrellas, large cardboard tubes, coffee cans with cement, paper packing tape, newspaper and liquid starch.

Scraps from the sides of the trifold boards were used to make a sign post, the wonderland sign, and tea pots and cups to hang over the food area. I was careful to make sure the "tea party" sign pointed to where the food would be served.