Party Favour bags

A couple people expressed surprise that there could be debate over such innocuous little things, and I guess it's because it's not a long-standing tradition here in NZ from what I can gather, but has been imported wholesale from the States (like Hallowe'en) and therefore garners a certain amount of resistance in some circles. You know, the whole consumerism/cost issue. I can see both sides but since I bought up with them on a moderate scale that's where I'm choosing to be as a mum. It's hard to not go OTT though, I can totally see that being a big issue for me!

I'd been tossing a few ideas around in my head even from several months ago, but they really crystallised when I saw the Birthday Goodies and papercraft download post over at Chez Beeper Bebe - she'd used lots of things I already had sitting on my computer, like the stickers, and had put them together in a really fun way. So I shamelessly stole several ideas :)

I started with stickers from Lotta Bruhn - the animal ones for the girls and the space ones for the boys. I don't think I actually needed to do that, the animal ones would have been good for everyone but I wanted an excuse to do the space ones too!


I printed them off onto repositionable sticker paper and then cut and peeled them off and put them onto plain paper and stapled them in one corner. This was the bit that took all the time but I couldn't bring myself to leave them on the original backing as it was so ugly! I think they'll work well on windows and walls but haven't had any feedback yet on how good they are.

We also did up little colouring books following the tutorial at Chez Beeper although I didn't end up using her very detailed instructions on setting up pages etc. because we use A4 paper with different dimensions and I also have a husband who uses Adobe In Design :P Had to keep him involved in some way or other!



I popped in a few little coloured pencils for use in the car on the way home, and a bag of jellybeans to get them even higher on sugar. Because really, that's what it's all about right? Get them wired on sugar and hyped by running around screaming like banshees and then send them home when they start to crash? The favour bags are the best way to lure them out of the house and into their parent's cars I've found...

The pièce de résistence though were the little brooches made for me by Lyn at Belle and Rose - dinosaurs for the boys, icecreams for the girls. And yes, Hazel's desperate for a dinosaur! They really are to die for - thanks Lyn!



They all went into spotty cotton bags with a ribbon tie. I really should have taken a photo of them together in the basket, they looked really cute!