Unitarian Universalist Oscars GAY-la Celebration

About six weeks or so ago some friends at my UU church here in Vegas asked me to help with the decorations for their Oscars party. I love this sort of stuff so agreed. They had a catalouge of various decoration kits and the prices were shocking, well over $1000.00 for some cardboard and tinsel so I figured we could sparkle the place up for less than a third of that. Little did I know how much time I'd put into the project. Good thing I'm unemployed because this thing was a mother of all mothers to do up. The decorations turned out fabulous. The food was great and I enjoyed the people that were involved. Unfortunately the turnout was pretty low. Apparently the Gay community had a lot of competition in this realm and so the fund raising for the event went in the red considerably. Luckily I think I can re-use the decorations for another party that the Southern Utah PFLAG and Equality Utah group are hosting where they'll be having an awards show for GLBT film makers.

Anyway, here's some of the decorations. I'll describe how some were made as well. This blog program is really frustrating so it's hard to line up the images and text the way I want. Just scroll through till you hit the end. Tellwidit!

 The film was made by glueing aluminum foil to a roll of foam

insulation and then spray painted with black over a cardboard stencil. The light bounced off the shiny surface so doesn't quite do these photos justice. It looked great at the party and got lots of attention. Makes a great big visual statement and some movement to the blank carpeted walls.

I went online and copied a bunch of actor portraits and had them printed in black and white on just economy paper, then glued to black postor board to help frame them a little. The stars are fabulous and wonderfully photogenic so helped add a lot of glamour to the decorations. 



Purchased cutout decorations were
used on doorways and walls where
3-D items would be too intrusive





We blew up balloons with my Rainbow
vacuume and let them float on the floor

around the party center.



A bolt of red felt cut down the middle and taped with red duct tape made a
welcoming red carpet for the party guests and added a bright splash of
color to the scene.

What kind of GAY-la celebration would it be without a
FAhhhhbbbuullous Drag Queen. This is as close to a
Marilyn Monroe as BABB is likely to get.

Cheezy and plastic, yes, it's Hollywood BABY!

The ceiling and floors were pretty unattractive so we made some stringers with curling ribbon and attached them to the
grids on the dropped ceiling to give the effect of champaign bubbles and a flowing airiness to the decorations.

A Balloon artist came and made swans to go with the sparkle centerpieces.



I made this star from 1x2 pine strips screwed to a cardboard gusset for the
feet and tips of the triangles, then screwed the whole thing together on site.
Note to self, don't make 8' tall x 7'wide contraption in living room where it cannot
be removed without being taken apart.
I spray painted large bubble wrap and attached it to the frame and then
decorated it with a purchased tinsel curtain and sign. We forgot to cover
the tables with black tablecloths. Next time I guess.

I sketched silhouettes of
starletts and paparazzi
and then cut them out of
large sheets of cardboard
and then spray painted
them black. I made wedge
shaped stands to hold them
up but we put them against a
wall anyway.