Steampunk Party for Teens

Hello everyone, Sara here!  Time for another installment in the "Fairy Twins Do Teen Programming" series of blog posts.  This summer, our library district developed a Steampunk Party Program-to-Go Box to go along with the "Spark a Reaction" theme.  I did reserve the box, but ended up asking our Friends group for money to amp up the program a lot.  We ended up spending about $230 for all the supplies.  Without further ado, here is how we pulled off our super successful Steampunk Party for teens!

1.  Publicity

I find that for teen events, the way you promote the program is SUPER important.  It's one thing to put up posters that say "Steampunk Party for Teens!" (you'll probably get all of the hard-core Steampunk fans clamoring to get in), but what really worked for us this time was creating a poster with images of all the crafts that we were going to create.  Having a concrete visual to show teens EXACTLY what we'd be doing at the workshop ('cause even though we called it a party, it really was mostly a craft workshop) was fantastic, because if people looked at me doubtfully and said, "What exactly will we be DOING at this Steampunk party?" I could point to the poster that was sitting on the desk.  We ended up signing up 15 people and having a wait list of 6ish --  all the wait-list people got in due to cancellations, and 14 teens showed up to the program, which was a PERFECT size!

2.  Activity Stations

ACTIVITY ONE: Mini Top-Hat Fascinators

My library is lucky to have a steampunk expert on staff.  One of our circulation staff people has her own Etsy shop and makes mini top-hat fascinators professionally, so I enlisted her help for the program.  I am a HUGE proponent of using on-staff experts -- if you have someone who isn't in your department but who is AMAZING at something, there is no reason to not check with their supervisor and see if they are able to come and help at your programs.  Having her on hand was fantastic.  Here are photos of the set-up, before a crafting tornado came through.

 We had plenty of hot glue guns on hand, and the courier box on the right was filled with fabric scraps, lace, and other trimmings.

 I ordered these felt top hats from JoAnn fabrics -- they cost about $3 each, and I bought 15, enough for everyone who registered to make on.

Amazon is filed with awesome Steampunky doodads.  I bought a bunch of bags of "Steampunk Gears" (if you just search that phrase on Amazon you'll come up with some great options), and a few bags of tiny metal keys to add as hat embellishments.

 This is an example of a finished hat created by our amazing Steampunk staff expert.  She helped the teens make similarly awesome stuff!

ACTIVITY TWO: Steampunk Goggles

This was one of the main draws for this program.  Another teen librarian in our district created a really great how-to procedure for...well...how-to-do this, and I followed her instructions pretty much exactly.  I bought the goggles on Amazon (they're welder's goggles), and got some metallic spray paint.  Emily and I spent an afternoon spray painting the different goggle parts (after we took them entirely apart) different colors.  Then, at the station, the teens could just pick which parts they wanted and mix-and-match the colors. We also had more hot glue guns and gears for decorating after the goggles were assembled. Here's some photos of the station!

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And of course the lovely Fairy Twin Emily modeling an assembled pair of goggles (minus gear embellishments)

ACTIVITY STATION THREE:  Duct Tape Bow Ties

This activity was part of a different Program-to-Go box, actually -- the Dr. Who Party one -- but I thought it went perfectly with our Steampunk theme.  I ordered a bunch of different metallic duct tape from Amazon (they make chrome and gold colored duct tape!), and that's all we really needed.  We also ordered little magnets from our supplies person, so you could attach a magnet with a hot glue gun and use another magnet on the inside of your shirt to hold it on.  Easier and less invasive than safety pins!

ACTIVITY STATION FOUR: Self-Designed Temporary Tattoos

Included in the Program-to-Go Box for this program were instructions for how to make temporary tattoos using tracing paper and gel pens.  Unfortunately, I had a lot of trouble getting this method to work,so I went ahead and ordered something magical off of Amazon -- Temporary Tattoo Paper. This stuff is awesome.  It seems pricey, and you only get two sheets, but two sheets really is plenty. I cut it up into about 2x2 inch squares, and everyone had the opportunity to create 2 or 3 of their own tattoos.  Emily printed out Steampunk tattoo image inspiration and put it on the table, and the teens went to town! We provided scissors, a folding bone, and black sharpies.  It's also good to have a roll of paper towels and bowl of water so you can have people put tattoos on without having to leave the room (our meeting room has no sink).  There are instructions on the package, and it's really easy to do as long as you follow them.  I would definitely use this stuff again for future programs.

Emily modeling her Steampunk glasses inspired temporary tattoo!

Aand those were all the activity stations!  We also had a stereo out tuned to one of the Spotify Steampunk radio stations, and some Steampunk books to serve as inspiration.  This ended up being one of my favorite ever teen programs.  It was the perfect size to have a chance to really get to talk to each of the attendees, and I feel like we really had the opportunity to get to know some of our teen patrons.  The teens were SO excited about the high quality craft-stuff they got to make and take home with them, and most of them stayed the entire two hours the program lasted.  One teen even said, "You know, the library is actually really awesome," and offered to help us put posters up for future "alternative" programs.

I am excited, after this event, to try more niche interest programming like this.  It's really really great for establishing that libraries are great for community building and have meaningful events that teens will actually be excited about.  Very few of the teens in the room new each other at the beginning of the program, but it really seemed like they had all kind of found "their people" by the end of the afternoon.  All in all, a totally magical event I'd do again.

--Sara