Graduation Centerpiece

A great graduation party idea to add to graduation party decor

Yes, I’ve just finished another DIY graduation centerpiece idea! I keep making more because I want to have various centerpiece options for the party. We’ll need centerpieces for the seating table areas, for the senior table (where they display their photo boards and other “stuff”), and for the food tables. That said, I’m having fun experimenting with various ideas.

This graduation centerpiece has a container wide enough to fit 4 different pictures. This is a great option for us because we have four girls hosting a party together and each girl can have a picture in each of these centerpieces.

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Materials Needed:

container – I found these galvanized buckets for $1 at Dollar Tree
Styrofoam – I found this package of 2 round Styrofoam pieces at Dollar Tree
dowel rods – I got mine at Walmart because they have longer ones (12″)
pictures – I used wallet-size senior pictures
card stock – 3 colors
Glue dots (or tape runner) and glue gun
Acrylic paints (for dowel rods)
Spray paint (for galvanized tin)
tulle for pom poms

Cut photo frames.

I used a Cricut cut file and my Cricut machine to cut these photo frames for my graduation centerpiece. I bought the cut file for 99 cents. If you don’t have a Cricut, you can cut rectangles to make the photo frames. This will still look GREAT.

Paint dowel rods with acrylic paint,using a foam brush.

Adhere the 3 photo frames together.

I use glue dots to attach the frames to each other. Once all three frames are attached, adhere the senior photo to the top (smallest) frame.

Glue the back of a framed picture to a painted dowel rod.

Here, I glued the pictures back to back, with the stick in the middle. My intent was to make the pictures visible from both sides of the table. However, with the pom poms in the middle of the centerpiece, it blocks the back-side pictures. As I make more, I will not glue pictures back to back.

Place Styrofoam in the container.

Place photo picks into the container, pushing into the Styrofoam.

Add pom poms to the graduation centerpiece.

I ended up using 3 pom poms in mine. I’ve covered how to make pom poms in other blogs and videos so I’ll link that here in case you need need.

How to make pom poms (in video, cued to pom poms section)

How to make blogs (in another blog)

Create 2019 pick and insert it into the front of the graduation centerpiece.

I cut the 2019 on my Cricut machine using a 99 cent 2019 cut file that I purchased in Cricut Design space.

Place a strip of glue on the stick using a glue gun.

For this pick, I knew I wanted to make the stick shorter so I used a Wilton treat stick instead of a dowel rod. I just like how easy it is to break the treat stick.

Create tissue paper shred.

I often make tissue paper shred to use as a filler. To make it, I simply cut strips from a package of tissue paper. I created a video about how to make tissue paper which is linked here, if you’re interested.