How to Make Homemade Graduation Centerpieces

If you will be throwing a graduation party, you should try to make cheap homemade graduation centerpieces to save money and personalize the party decor.

By making a homemade graduation centerpiece, you can decorate the party table with pictures and personal effects of the graduate or graduates you are honoring.

Follow the steps below to create homemade graduation centerpieces that uses the graduation theme and personalizes it with pictures of the graduate(s).

** Gradation centerpiece overview **
The graduation centerpiece will consist of a rolled up paper tied with a ribbon to look like a diploma. The "diploma" will act like a "vase" that will hold "graduate flowers". The "graduate flowers" will actually be pictures of the graduate taped onto sticks hanging out of the "vase".

Things You'll Need

• large piece of styrofoam
• spray paint
• construction paper
• ribbon
• wooden skewers
• computer
• color printer
• glue gun with glue stick
• sharp scissors or razor blade

Instructions

1. ** Choose your color scheme for your homemade centerpiece **

   Choose colors for the following:
   - Base of the graduation centerpiece
   - Rolled up diploma (piece of construction paper rolled up)
   - Ribbon to tie up the diploma

   Choose colors based on school color, school sports team color, cap and gown color, graduates' favorite color(s) or any other relevant color scheme.

2. ** Prepare the homemade graduation centerpiece base **

   Cut the large piece of styrofoam into squares, making one square per centerpiece you wish to create. They should be a minimum of about 5 inches square but can be larger if you have room on your table and want to add decorations to the base of the centerpiece.

   Spray paint each square with color of your choice. If you wish, you can also add decorations to the base such as painting on the graduation year or sticking on graduation themed stickers.

   Note: Make sure to leave empty space in the center for the diploma "vase" if you are adding decorations to the base.

3. ** Prepare the diploma vase **

   Take a piece of construction paper and roll it up along the width (so that it is shorter and sturdier instead of taller and flimsy).
   If you want to add a lot of "graduation flowers" (i.e. pictures of the graduate(s)), then roll the paper loosely so that there is more empty space in the center. If you only want one or two pictures, roll up the paper tightly.

   Next, tie a ribbon around the rolled up paper so that it looks like a rolled up diploma. Note: Do not glue or tape the ribbon into place yet as you may want to adjust the location.

   Using a glue gun, glue the diploma vase to the base of the graduation party centerpiece.

4. ** Make graduate flowers **

   To make the graduate flowers, print out pictures of the graduate(s) from your computer with a color printer.
   For each graduate flower, do the following:
   - Print out two copies of each picture.
   - Tape the two pictures on a wooden skewer back to back (so that the pictures show on the outside)
   - Push the skewer into the diploma vase so that it is resting inside the styrofoam below. Note: If the skewers are too short, you can tape two skewers together (and hide the taped area inside the vase) or cut the diploma vase so that it is shorter.

   Arrange a few "graduation flowers" at different heights inside each diploma vase.

   Note: If you would like, you can cut the graduate pictures into flower shapes for a creative touch.

Tips & Warnings

• You can add some real flowers to the vase if you would like.