back to school or centerpieces with a purpose

Do you need some ideas for a back to school bash or maybe for a teacher appreciation luncheon or how about a graduation party?

Here is what we (myself and a few great friends) put together for a church dinner for 350 women held on Saturday.  We had 35 tables and a very small (let me repeat - very small) budget that needed to include table decorations as well as all the paper goods.  

The theme was Back to School and so our centerpieces reflected that theme but also served double duty.  Once the dinner was over the centerpieces were taken apart and packaged up so that they could be sent to school children in Tijuana, Mexico.  It was thrilling to know that everything would be put to good use and now I want to try to incorporate this idea into more of my centerpieces.  

Pencils, notebooks, composition books, rulers and chalkboards all used for the evenings festivities and then off to kids that need them.

Pencils found for $1.00 per 24.  We simply took canned food from our pantries and wrapped the pencils around, securing them with rubber bands.  

The original idea called for tissue paper in the "vases" but I didn't have any when I was doing the mock up so I used notebook paper as a stand-in and realized that the notebook paper was much more appropriate and cheaper.

Vintage flash cards, thanks to a friend were used inside the vases. Hit up ebay, Craigslist or antique stores to find a box of cards.
Like I said the budget was small so I tried to find little accents that would add some panache but still be inexpensive.  For the plain plastic cups I added alphabet stickers to help them tie into the theme.  The font was School Script Dashed and can be found here. With 350 people in attendance we put random letters at each place setting but for a more intimate party I would suggest using the initial of each guest.
No school theme is complete with out cafeteria trays and a friend found these great foam ones online for me.  The cost per tray was much less then regular paper plates and added much more to our theme.

To carry the cafeteria theme a bit further we added pre packaged silverware complete with napkin and salt and pepper packets. Another inexpensive touch was adding the back to school sticker to each package of silverware.
The most expensive (although still reasonable) addition to the centerpieces was the chalkboards.  A friend that owns a wood working business ordered sheets of mdf (at $15 a sheet - I believe) and cut them into 24x24 in squares (8 per sheet)  I bought chalkboard paint for $20 and painted them all up.  The addition of the chalkboards helped ground the centerpiece and served as a fun interactive activity for the dinner guests.  It was quite enjoyable reading all the things that had been written as we cleaned up after the dinner.

This idea can be done easily and inexpensively (especially if you are not planning for 350 people)  If you want to try this theme for yourself and have any questions leave me a comment - I'd be happy to help you out.