Throwing a Jungle Party, Part 2: Hydration prep

Now we enter the not so fun prep work... My best suggestion is to put on some music you love and just buckle down and do it. I took frequent breaks so as not to have cramping in my hands or back. I suggest you do this too. Even if you don't feel like you need a 5 minute break, getting up and walking around...maybe getting yourself a glass of water will really help you out when you are 2 hours into a project.

Now these projects are very straight forward but they are redundant...and I really don't like redundancy. But the end result is worth it!

Step 1: Create your labels (this part was actually kinda fun)
     - I just used Microsoft word to creat my labels. I picked a background image and added a text box
     - when I needed a really long background image I just enlarged the image on my screen. You can either
       cut away any excess background or you can insert blank clip art boxes (with out border lines) to create
       the blank space needed. 


Once you have your labels cut to the size you need, you are ready for the hot glue gun! Here is a pic of my assembly station:

I removed the straws from the juice boxes (keep them sealed in the wrapper- so don't yank them off too quickly). Than I wrapped my paper around the box to line it up and create nice creased edges. I hot glued one edge to the box, don't worry it won't melt through. Than just wrap the label around and hot glue the other edge to seal the label on. On the back of the label I used just a dab of hot glue to reattach the sealed straws. 

With the water bottles, I removed the previous water label and left any sticky residue (Walmart water bottles have GREAT sticky residue!) on to help grip the label. Than I wrapped the label around and used hot glue to glue the paper label to itself. Ta-da! Customized and simple. 

The last thing I did was make "Elephant Sneeze" which are basically mist bottles and if you turn the nozzle (as the kids quickly did) they become squirt bottles. You can find these in the laundry section of Walmart for $0.97 . And they make cute take home gifts. Where we live it is quite warm in July and these little squirt bottles were a hit. It's easy for little kids to grip, they don't run out and they won't crack and break like some of the cheap squirt guns. I don't know if you've ever had a kid excited about a squirt gun- just to fill it and it's leaking everywhere and won't work. That can cause a major melt down in my house. So these were perfect! I used similar labels as the water bottles, but in a different color scheme. I placed them in a galvanized bucket for a cute table piece and they are good to go! 

TIP: You might want to consider wrapping your label in clear packing tape to seal it. After an intense water fight some of my labels were soggy and torn.

The "Savana Water Hole"