Creative Party Blog

There are many ways to organize birthday party favors and their presentation. If you have several small items, putting them in a bag, box or some other container is necessary. It you have a larger item it may not be necessary to put it inside anything but you should think about it’s presentation.

In the vein of a bag or box, it’s very easy to tie these in to a color theme party. Simply use a solid color bag or box and add a colorful fabric ribbon that matches the party theme. This party was for a little girl who was having a party and invited boys and girls. The boy favors had a blue ribbon and the girl favors had a pink or yellow colored ribbon.

Favor bags can be quite simple and yet can still make a splash with color.

We threw a Halloween Party with another family for the kids and adults but only the kids received favors. The witch brooms were the perfect simple favor for them.

These are simple to make and double as some creative decorations. The idea came form an article I saw in a Martha Stewart somewhere but I can’t remember exactly where. I just remembered the concept.

Directions for the Favors: Take 2 small brown lunch sacks. Keep one whole that you put candy corn or suckers or anything you wish inside it. Take the second back and cut slits all the way down the sides leaving the bottom solid. Insert candy into first bag and cut a short stick from your yard to add for the handle. Wrap that bag with the cut one and wrap around the mouth to secure to the stick or broom stick. I used some macrame’ cord I had hanging around but you could use anything. Yarn, ribbon….really anything will do and many colors would work. Try red, orange, brown, grey, black or yellow for the cording on your Halloween favors. The brighter the color the more of a impact the brooms will make. The red made a nice punch.

Resources: Paper bags can be found at Michaels or at many grocery stores. Candy of your choice. Cording at any fabric or craft store or even hardware store for twine. Sticks from your yard or the side of the road in a wooded area.

Group your broomsticks to make an impact for your Halloween Party guests and they will ooh and aah over them.

Having a Pirate Birthday Party and need ideas? Provide eye patches, hats and some fun beads and the kids will create their own party. There is nothing like dressing up to get kids in the mood to roll play. And a Pirate party lends itself quite nicely to just this.

Here you can purchase the hats and beads either made of felt or of paper. Long term the felt hats are going to last longer as the paper ones will tear up pretty quickly. This is an idea that the kids will play with. And it’s something that is appropriate for many ages.

For one of these parties, there were your basic birthday party games like the bean bag toss and others and as prizes, the birthday boy gave away the bead necklaces. So, at the end of the party everyone compared their booty they collected at the party. Then the mom provided a trunk that it could all be stored in. Would have given you a pic of that as well……but I’m afraid ours has been lost.

Resources: Felt hats, trunks, eye patches and necklaces can be found at Oriental Trading.

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

Party hats for the kids who come to a birthday party or just the birthday child don’t have to be elaborate. We embellished these pre-made hats for my daughter’s 3rd Creative Art Birthday Party.

The red hats were bought at a party supply store. Simple red hats. I took some old white boas and cut them to hot glue around the bottom of the hat and then a little poof at the top. For the birthday girl, I used some white squirt on paint to write the number 3.

Super easy but gives the kids something to put on when they are singing happy birthday……which they absolutely love to do.

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

Adding a pre-made name tag to birthday party favors is a great idea to do. A name tag does several things. Making tags with each child’s name on it is the best way to make them feel special. They know that you were expecting them and feel like care was made on that favor just for them.

Providing a tag with the kids names on it will put your mind as a hostess at ease that you have a favor for each child who plans to attend. Then at the end of the party, if you have any left over you will immediately know what children were not able to come. This allows you to schedule play dates with those kids or at least acknowledge that you noticed they weren’t there. Another way to make your guests feel special.

These tags were placed at the top of made up playdough given as a party favor at my daughter’s creative art party. It included a copy of the recipe used to make the playdough that was in the tubs allowing the guests to make the playdough themselves if they wanted to. To personalize it, my handwriting is not very good. Therefore, even thought it’s more work, I like to copy or cut out letters. Here I cut out each letter to the kids names who were attending. Since their names were mostly longer than the tag I had made, I just overlapped them.

Resources: We have a few Playdough Recipes you can choose from.

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

Giving homemade play dough as a gift to a birthday child or as birthday party favors is a great idea. I don’t know of one child who does not like play dough. I even like to play with play dough and I’m way beyond the child stage! Play dough is super easy to make. Add in a few play dough playing accessories and you have a perfect gift or favor.

Let me tell you…..we had about 15 kids at this party. So, that’s 15 X 3 tubs of play dough. 45 tubs of play dough doesn’t sound like much but when you start making it, it can take some time. Luckily it can all be made early!

After making different colors of play dough, I put a nice size ball in each tub and tied 3 tubs of play dough together with a red ribbon which was one of the party colors. On top, I added a rolling pen and a couple of cookie cutters. To insure all the kids had a favor, I added a name tag at the top that we’ll talk about in another post.

Lining all these up did make a nice visual impact. Too bad I didn’t think to take a photo of it at the time to share with you.

Resources: We have a few Playdough Recipes you can choose from.

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

Boys can have fun at a Princess Party too! Just have a few things for them to play with that are boy related and they are good to go. When they are young they really don’t care that the decorations are pink!

These inflatable swords are a perfect gift for the boys as they love to exert that testosterone! These were blow up swords that were given as favors and are super easy to blow up. They don’t blow the budget, they are sizable and you will get lots of play out of them.

Resources: These swords were purchased from Oriental Trading.

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

All girls love wands that they can waive in the air to change their frog into a Prince. Or just bonk others on the head……hopefully not…..but you never know.

Anyway, having these simple wands as favors are perfect. You can certainly purchase wands like these or you can make them as well. Simply cut out two stars and hot glue them together with a dowel in the center. You might spray paint the dowels black first. After they are all glued together, you can glitter your wands.

These princess party favors have each child’s name typed out on a flag in an old english font and taped on to the handle to insure all the kids at the party receive a favor.

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

For a more sophisticated party hat, you can use a beautiful wrapping paper and our plain hat template to make your own.

There are so many beautiful wrapping papers now, that you can transform any of them into a party hat. If you are using a good quality heavy paper, you can use it all on it’s own. If the paper is more flimsy, you will need to make the hat out of a heavier solid color scrap booking paper and then cover it with your themed paper before assembling the hat.

Go crazy. For the flower birthday party, use any kind of floral paper you can find. Or even make it out of a solid paper and put dried flowers on them. Dried pansies would be beautiful! Just have fun making your own party hats.

Resources and How To: See our Simple Birthday Party Hat Directions and Template.

For my daughter’s 2nd Birthday the theme was a Flower theme. We mainly used balloons to make and incorporate the theme. But as you can see here, I went for a custom party hat for her.

This hat was created using our plain party hat template. Use as heavy of a paper as you can if you plan to embellish it like I did.

How To: Cut hat form out of hard scrap booking paper. Cover the hat form with a fabric. I used a see through fabric but you could use tons of things…..silk would be neat or even a fabric with a pattern. Glue the top tassel inside the hat and then glue down the back to make your cone shape. I used hot glue for an immediate fix. And this can certainly go quicker and is easier with an extra pair of hands. My mom provided those for me…..thanks mom….Cut 2 holes on either side with a hole punch to insert elastic for the chin strap. Add finishing trim to the bottom of the hat. The final touch would be to use some squirt paint (sorry I don’t know it’s correct name) to write on the front or just leave it plain. If you were using a patterned fabric, you could put glue and glitter on strategic spots.

Resources: You can get heavy scrap booking paper at almost any craft stores or even target. Then purchase your fabric and notions or trim at a fabric store. See our Template and How to for a Basic Birthday Party Hat.

No matter if you are having a Flower Birthday Party that is all about digging in the dirt or if it’s a cute little girl’s birthday party, you can still bring in unexpected surprises to the party. My daughter’s first birthday party was a flower themed party. It was small and we only invited cousins.

For each of the guests, I made these balloon flower rings as part of the favors. Once you figure out how to hold your mouth right, they weren’t too bad to make. They are made with two of the long hot dog shaped balloons that are different colors. It really doesn’t matter what colors you choose so I would opt for colors that compliment the theme of the party or the invitation colors.

Take one balloon and blow it up almost completely and tie off at the end. Twist small balls of the balloon starting at the tied end. Hold on to that “petal” and keep twisting to make additional petals. Once you have the number you want, tie the two ends together and cut off any excess. To make the center of the flower take another long balloon and blow only enough air to make a center petal and tie off right under that air pocket. Loop the rest of the balloon around to make the ring part and tie again close to the bottom of the air pocket. Slide the center balloon into the middle of the other petals and place on your finger.

To display for your party guests as they arrive, simply place them on a stick that is smooth enough that the balloons won’t pop but still gives you an earthy feeling. These are cute favors for any age of kid or adult for that matter.

Photos taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

Having a Birthday Dance Party for little kids was really fun. And what was more fun was to see parents and kids realizing that they can like the same music!

As part of the kids favors for this dance party, we put together a Dance Party Music CD that we gave to each family. We photoshopped the cover images and made a collage on the front of the jewel case. We could have gone a step further and made a sticker for the front of the CD but didn’t. They are easy enough to do. All you have to do is purchase the stickers from Avery or someone and then use their software. I hear it’s pretty easy.

Anyway, we wanted to share our song list with you in case you want to make your own dance party CD. Vogue, All Star, Gettin’ Jiggy, Faith, Can’t Touch This, Celebration, Come On Eileen, To Be Real, Hooked, Sweet Home Alabama, Joker, Comin’ Out, Tide is High, Curious George, YMCA, Jack & Diane, Dream Machine, When It’s Over and Brown Eyed Girl.

Enjoy your own dance party. This is just the beginning. There are many more popular dance songs to add to your music list.

Favors for a Birthday Dance Party are pretty straight forward and ones that will be played with for hours and hours and hours.

For my daughter’s Dance Birthday Party, we gave cool glasses, mics and Cds of cool dance music. We still get in the car and she asks for her “birthday” song…..not knowing that millions of other people get down to these songs. We wrapped them in simple celophane bags that had disco circles on the bags and had them in a basket at the door for the kids to grab as they were coming in or leaving.

It was a hoot watching the kids dance to music that we danced when we were young. They loved it!

Top Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

I normally am not a proponent of gift bags with a bunch of stuff in them. But this bug birthday party favor bag was so thoughtfully put together, it won me over.

Almost everything in the bag resembled one bug or another. There were bee erasers, bug balsa wood gliders, bug tattoos (what is it with the popularity with tattoos right now? Kids absolutely love them and can’t get enough!)….moving along, butterfly pencils and butterfly pencil adornments, butterfly slinky type toys and a little noise maker that sounded like a bug. Phew. Yes, it had a couple of pieces of bubble gum and candy but it wasn’t so much that the kids couldn’t eat it that night and be done with it.

All these things were neatly given in this beautiful butterfly see through bag. I have to say that I loved these. This party was at a park near the child’s home and the favors were brought along in a big blue tub which was perfect!

Believe or not, it’s really hard to find favors in the theme of superheroes. This hostess did a great job in searching out unique party favors that also fit in with the superhero theme.

Remember that this party had kids in the age range of 3 to 6 or 7. So, as favors, they gave puzzles, flash cards and comic books. Believe it or not the comic books in various superhero topics were HUGELY popular. I guess it’s because these guys see us looking through magazines all the time. When they get their own, it’s sooooo important and they loved them. It was like the party stopped with the big kids as all they wanted to do was to look at the comic books.

As we’ve been home all three favors have been popular items in our house and I’m sure they would be in yours as well.

Resources: Comic Books would need to be found at magazine stores that are in downtown areas or big cities or online.

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

For a Car Birthday Party, these T-Shirts with car applique designs are perfect. I made these for all the girls that came to my son’s Car and Truck Birthday Party. These did take a bit of time to make. The kids loved them and it was rewarding to me to see them wearing the shirts out at the park or wherever when I had taken so much time with them.

The store where I bought the T-Shirts didn’t have enough of one color for me to get all the sizes and shirts I needed for the party, so I mixed and matched. This made it a little more fun for me as I didn’t have to look at the same color over and over again.

Each shirt has a car body and 2 wheels. The cutting out wasn’t too bad except for the windows. Do not worry about it being perfect. After a few washes the ends will fray and you don’t even be able to tell! You can either do a solid color fabric and if you do this, I would choose a heavier weight fabric. Not quite the weight of denim but right under it. I wanted to do a pattern as I know girls love patterns. It’s best to use a fabric with as tight of a pattern on it as you can find. There are many cute fabrics with bigger patterns on them but the bigger patterns will not show up well once cut out.

To make the shirts, you’ll first cut out all your truck pieces ready to apply to the shirts. It’s best to use a heavier weight fabric close to denim but not that heavy. Use Double Stick Fusible Web to adhere the pieces to the shirt. Follow directions on the webbing or follow these steps. It’s important to pre-wash your fabric as it will shrink and you’d rather it shrink prior to applying the design on your shirt. If you think your shirts are going to shrink as well, it’s probably not a bad idea to buy preshrunk shirts or wash them yourself.

1. Trace your design in reverse on the paper liner on the fusible webbing and remove second liner.
2. Stick webbing to the wrong side of the fabric.
3. Cut fabric and webbing along the traced lines.
4. Peel off the remaining paper liner and place the design on to the shirt. Car body should be done first and then the wheels.
5. Press the pieces down with a hot iron with or without steam. Press the car body first and then the wheels.
If you aren’t a seamstress, you can stop here. But if you don’t sew the pieces down the design won’t last as long. If you do sew, about 1/4″ in from the edges, top stick each piece in place with a contrasting color thread. And actually, you should sew the car body down before applying the wheels. This will make top stitching a lot easier.

To give away, I put each shirt in a favor box will each child’s name on it. This way I also didn’t have to sort through sizes at the party and worry that I had given the wrong size to the wrong child.

Resources: Template for Car Shape. Fusible webbing can be found at any fabric shop. T-Shirts can be found at Target, Babies R Us or any major department store. Pretty much any quality t-shirt will work. Solid heavy weight fabric for the wheels and a fabric with designs on it can be found any any fabric store in your area. You probably won’t be able to find a heavier weight fabric that has any kind of design on it. The fusible webbing will help!

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

For a Truck or a Dump Truck Birthday Party, these dump truck party favors are super cute. I made these for all the boys that came to my son’s birthday party. I won’t lie to you it took quite a bit of time the way I made them. But it was very rewarding when I would see the kids around wearing the shirts that I had handcrafted! This could easily be done as a garbage truck party favor as well. Use the template for the garbage truck invitation and iron away.

I couldn’t decide on which color scheme I liked best so I made all different color combinations for the boys. Actually, the store where I bought the T-Shirts had a limited number of certain sizes and to get all the shirts I needed, I had to cross colors. So, it all worked out fine.

Each shirt has a truck body and 3 truck wheels. The cutting out wasn’t too bad actually. It doesn’t matter if it’s perfect as the edged will fray with washing. Using a combination of Blue, White, Brown, Grey and Green will work for any boy and can be worn with jeans or khaki pants or even plaid shorts that are so popular right now.

To make the shirts, you’ll first cut out all your truck pieces ready to apply to the shirts. It’s best to use a heavier weight fabric close to denim but not that heavy. Use Double Stick Fusible Web to adhere the pieces to the shirt. Follow directions on the webbing or follow these steps. It’s important to pre-wash your fabric as it will shrink and you’d rather it shrink prior to applying the design on your shirt. If you think your shirts are going to shrink as well, it’s probably not a bad idea to buy preshrunk shirts or wash them yourself.

1. Trace your design in reverse on the paper liner on the fusible webbing and remove second liner.
2. Stick webbing to the wrong side of the fabric.
3. Cut fabric and webbing along the traced lines.
4. Peel off the remaining paper liner and place the design on to the shirt. Truck body should be done first and then the wheels.
5. Press the pieces down with a hot iron with or without steam. Press the truck body first and then the wheels.
If you aren’t a seamstress, you can stop here. But if you don’t sew the pieces down the design won’t last as long. If you do sew, about 1/4″ in from the edges, top stick each piece in place with a contrasting color thread. And actually, you should sew the truck body down before applying the wheels. This will make top stitching a lot easier.

For presentation, I put each shirt in a favor box will each child’s name on it. This way I also didn’t have to sort through sizes at the party and worry that I had given the wrong size to the wrong child.

Resources: Template for Dump Truck, T-Shirts can be found at Target, Babies R Us or any major department store. Pretty much any quality t-shirt will work. Solid heavy weight fabric can be found any any fabric store in your area.

No matter if your child is the birthday boy/girl or an attendee, everyone likes a well packaged gift. Today, the packaging is almost as important as the gift itself. I recently went to a baby shower where the gifts that were wrapped well got many more ooohs and aaahs. But I digress. It simply shows that the giver took the time to think about the presentation of the gift and therefore implies that they though long and hard about the gift that is inside.

These car boxes we made to hold car and truck themed t-shirts that were given as a favor at my son’s Truck and Car Birthday party when he was 2. Rather than making these boxes, I bought pre-made boxes: 6″ X 4 1/2″ X 4 1/2″. To customize them, I glued a sheet of velum the size of the top of the box and then cut out two different car shapes our of scrap booking card stock and glued those on as well. Add some strips of wax paper to wrap the gift in or some tissue paper and nothing could be simpler.

Resources: Car Image Templates, Velum and Scrap Booking Card Stock came from Michaels. Pre-Made box also came from Michaels.


Above photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR

If you look carefully, this is not the actual want that we used for my daughter’s Princess Birthday Party. Or actually it was called a Queen of Hearts Birthday Party since we invited several boys. Anyway, I wasn’t thrilled with how the wand turned out, so I created a new one. I like this one much better.

It’s the same concept as with the boys swords. Take a 4″ styrofoam ball and poke a hole in it with an ice pick or screw driver about 2″ deep. Insert some hot glue and slide in a 3/8″ dowel cut to about 18″. This will adhere pretty quickly. Take one long piece of aluminum foil and completely cover the ball and stem crinkling as you go. No glue required but it can be picked off pretty easily.

The last step is applying the adornments. I originally made a big bow with the ribbon with 4 or 5 streamers and put sequins over the ball part. This one is with ribbon only. This is a satin ribbon 1″ wide. Cut 4 pieces large enough to go around the ball starting at the base and going up and over the ball to the opposite side. Secure the ribbon on both sides with hot glue. You could even put a dab of slow drying glue on the top of the ball where all the ribbon overlaps but it’s not necessary if you pull the ribbon tight before using the hot glue. After all 4 ribbons are applied, tie one piece a couple of times around the stick right under the ball and tie off. Trim any loose ends that still show. And your wand is complete!

Photo by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

Make your own swords for a Princess or Queen of Hearts Party.  We gave these to the boys who attended my daughter’s Queen of Hearts Party.  As you’d learn in another post, we named it a Queen of Hearts Party since we were inviting more than half boys!  Not sure they’d want to come to a Princess Party.

These swords were super easy to make and were a big hit with the boys.  And it wasn’t a disaster as you might think.  They played very nicely with each other.  But I guess this might be a consideration.  If you are inviting any particularly violent boys, you might wait to give this out when they are leaving.  We gave them out in the middle of the party because I wanted plenty of pics with the kids enjoying themselves.  So, it was kind of an activity as well.

Take two sizes of painter stirring sticks and hot glue them together to make the base of the sword.  Using a piece of aluminum foil for the length and a separate piece for the handles, simply wrap and crush it in place.  No need for glue or anything.  Having no glue does make it easy for the kids to peal it off and they will totally do that.  So, don’t get offended when they start taking your hard work apart!  To finish it off, wrap a long piece of leather shoe lace string around the joint first and then down the handle.  I hot glued the beginning and the end of this step.  Be sure and use shoe lace leather that is died all the way through.  Some of them are not.  Easy Easy!

Photo by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.