• Get your guests to say "Nice Napkins!" with a few decorating touches.Napkin Profile image by Towards Ithaca from <a href='http://www.fotolia.com'>Fotolia.com</a>
  
  After you've blown up the balloons, hung the banners and streamers, decorated the cake and set out all of the table goods, you're just about ready for your party. Napkins may not seem like the jazziest party item, but you can transform them from blah to wow with a little bit of creativity. What are just simple paper products can add to your party's theme with just a couple of decorating tweaks.
  
  

Stamp Stampede

• Rubber stamps in designs such as cats, alphabet letters, holiday icons and smiley faces have long been a part of the scrapbooking and card making world, but they date back hundreds of centuries to 1736, when a French scientist produced India rubber. While it would be a long time until stamping turned from a way to cancel checks to a way to be artistic, stamps now provide much more creative outlets than just decorating cards and photos. With a couple of stamps and ink colors to match your event's theme, you can have custom decorated napkins for a fraction of the price you'd pay to get them professionally created. For a Halloween party, for example, purchase pumpkin, ghost, candy corn and witch emblazoned stamps and an orange ink pad. Press the stamps onto the pad and give each napkin a stamp. Create piles of napkins for each table or the buffet line.
  
  

Party Punch

• People may line up to drink the punch at your party, but put a little punch in your paper napkins before the event for an artistic effect. Paper punches are small, hand-held craft tools that work similar to a standard hole puncher. Instead of leaving a round hole in the item, they punch out a shape, such as a cat, heart, star, teddy bear or Christmas tree. Paper punches come in almost every shape imaginable and also vary in size so you can create punches of different sizes. Select punches that go with your event's theme, such as hearts for a wedding or shamrocks for a St. Patrick's Day gathering. The opening in the paper punch is pretty thin, so you'll have to punch one or, at most, two napkins at a time. Keep a bowl under the napkin and save the punches to serve as confetti on your tables. Punch a border around the edges of the napkin or just punch one or two holes per napkin for a subtle effect.
  
  

Fabulous Folds

• Whether your black-tie event involves cloth or linen napkins or you'll be stocking up on throwaway paper goods, amaze your guests with a little bit of napkin sleight of hand by folding the items and placing them around the party. Fold a napkin into the shape of a tie or dress shirt for a bachelor party dinner, create a sailboat or swan for an outdoor luau or just let your napkin serve as a flatware protector by folding it into a sleeve to hold serving utensils snugly. Instead of the napkins just taking up a square or triangle of space on your tables, they'll become part of your decor at no additional cost.