Creative Party Blog

For a Tea Party Princess Party the perfect favor is a Tutu.  My daughter received this one as a party favor at just this type of birthday party.  It was perfect as a little girl who likes to dress up can not have too many tutus.  Especially when friends are over to dress up with her.

The mom didn’t make these herself but had a friend to do it.  Super Simple if you sew.  The seamstress took 3 layers of tulle and sewed it at the top with two layers of the pink and white check ribbon.  I believe the seam was done with the bobbin as the elastic so that it gathered up like it shows.  And this makes it where you don’t have to gather the tulle before attaching it to the ribbon.  Then every so often a small pink bow made of a different satin ribbon is tacked inside the skirt.

The idea with favors is to not just throw something in a bag but to give a thoughtful give that the kids will actually like.  It does take a little preplanning but kids and moms will be thankful for it.

Photo by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

This Cape Party Favor is a great idea for a Princess or a Queen of Hearts Party. I made these for our Queen of Hearts party. So rather than giving a tutu to each girl, we cave these capes as party favors. The Queen wore a cape made of red satin and then tied off with gold double sided satin ribbon. All her maidens wore a cape of tulle with a velour collar and the same gold double sided satin ribbon. These along with wands which I’ll share in another post was all the girls needed to become Princesses or Maiden’s themselves!

Making these Princess Party Favors was pretty simple. The tulle didn’t need to be hemmed which was my goal in choosing that fabric. Satin or velour would be beautiful but not only would you need to hem those but the cost of them would escalate. If you are only making a couple that’s no big deal but I made like 15 of these for my daughter’s party and needed to keep costs in check. I cut the velour and the tulle in rectangle pieces. On one end of the tulle, I gathered it with a gathering stitch on my sewing machine. With one additional seam, I sewed the velour collar, tulle and satin ribbon together.

The birthday girl’s cape was all red satin with two lengths down the back. Both pieces were hemmed and connected with the same gold satin ribbon as her maiden’s capes were.

Kids are all about dress up and make believe! Even big kids like to dress up. Actually, I’m not sure the desire ever ends for some. Anyway, I digress. For my daughter’s Queen of Hearts Party, I made these tunics and gave them to the boys as part of their party favor. Could easily be used for a Princess Party Favor as well if little boys are invited.

It was super easy to make. I bought the red felt on ebay and cut the knights templar crosses out of Avery iron-on 8 1/2 X 11 Dark T-Shirt Transfer sheets. I didn’t have to print anything. I simply cut out the cross and ironed it on to the tunic. Felt for the tunic was simply a rectangle with a neck part cut out. So that the tunic wouldn’t swing open, I sewed red satin ribbon on to the sides to tie.

Dimensions are as such. From shoulder to hem the tunic is 18 1/2″. So, double that when cutting out your rectangle. Width of the knight tunic is 13″. I started cutting the triangle for the head opening at 3 1/2″ in from the edge. So, each shoulder is 3 1/2″ wide. Remember you can always start small and cut bigger but if you start big you can’t go smaller. The side ties are sewn about 9″ up from the bottom on both sides of the tunic. Then center by eye the knights templar cross in the front.

The boys loved this tunic. I would say the older ones loved it more. So, for like 4 or 5 and up this is a perfect party favor.

Resources: Template for Knights Templar Cross. Yardage of Felt found at any fabric store. Double Sided Red Satin Ribbon 1″ wide. We bought online. Cross made from Inkjet Dark T-Shirt Transfer Paper found at office supply stores.

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

I love how this crown turned out. For a Princess Theme or even for a Queen of Hearts Theme, it would be perfect. My photographer thinks it looks like a boys crown but I think it could just as easily be used as a Princess Crown. My daughter loves wearing this one around.

You could do a lot of things with this.
*  They could be premade for each child.
*  Your daughter or son could even help you make them if you don’t mind the sequins being totally random AND sequins ending up all over the house.
*  Or you could just make one of these crowns for your birthday child.
*  What would be fun is to have this as an activity for each of the party participants. They could make their own crown right as the walk in the door to the party. Great ice breaker and allows them to get use to the surroundings. Have some hats already cut and just staple to the child’s head size when they arrive.

This particular crown was fastened in the back with 2 brads but it would look just fine with staples. If you can’t tell, the hat is made from bulletin board boarder. School Supply companies have some up with so many creative bulletin board border options that it’s super fun looking for them. They generally come in packs of 12 strips and you can really only get one hat our of one strip. There is a bit of waste using these but the printed ones are so much cuter than the corrugated boarders that come in big rolls. But you certainly could use these for your Princess Crown. Just embellish…..embellish.

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

Making a custom favor box is a special additive to a child’s birthday party. The parents notice the extra effort you’ve made and the kids love to play with the boxes later. And if your child is like mine, Anne loves to put hair clips and such in the box and keep in on her dresser.

We used the boxes for my son’s first birthday pig party. Knowing the kids love cupcakes, I couldn’t decide between doing cupcakes and a big cake. So…..I did both. The cupcakes were inside the favor boxes to be taken home and eaten and then I made a big pig cake to be eaten at the party. You can see it in another post.

I found a box template online and adjusted the size to be as large as possible based on the size of my paper. I used heavy scrap booking sheets which limited the size if I wanted the box to be out of 1 sheet. I now want to make much bigger box and do one side per sheet of paper but that’s another story.

This custom made cupcake favor box was made out of light pink scrap book paper. When cutting and folding, you really have to be precise. Otherwise your box will be woppy jawed. I love that term. Anyway. I glued the side of the box together only. The top and bottom simply fold in. Embellish your box however you like. These have a simple ribbon glued to the top and continues on the underside. Using a letter punch, I punched out all the kids names and glued those on as well. That way you know each kids got their own box and it’s really more special that way! Kids love to see their names on thing. Monogramming is good!

The final dimensions of this box ended up being 3″ square. Now, I’m thinking it would be fun to make gift boxes for presents……we’ll see what I can come up with.

Resources: Template for Cupcake Box

. Ribbon came from Michaels and Letter Punches also came from Michaels.

Photography by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

What better party to have birthday noses (other than hats) than for a pig birthday party? The kids were all 4 years of age and below at this party and they loved wearing the noses and laughing at each other. And the moms totally enjoyed laughing at the kids as well.

These were a last minute thing as I didn’t decide to even have a real party until a week or so before the party date. Planning a party at the last minute doesn’t allow time to be too thoughtful in party favors so the noses were perfect. There weren’t enough parts to have hats for each child as there were 15 kids invited. Since I would have had to make noses for each of the pig hats, I decided to stop with the noses.

Each pig nose was pretty easy to make. You cut a semicircle for the front of the nose out of pink scrap booking paper. The side is a rectangle piece of paper long enough to wrap around the semicircle plus a little and wide enough for the nose plus a part to glue to the back of the semicircle. Fold over about 1/3″ longways on the rectangle. Then slit the folded part every 1/5″ or so to allow you to shape it in the semicircle of the top of the nose and glue. It’s easier to glue half of it first and hold in place with clothes pins and then go back to do the second half. We’ve also put up a template for you. See link below in Resources.

After the noses are dry, cut 2 brown oval pieces for the nostrils and glue to the top. Take the smallest hole punch you have and cut holes on either side of the nose to tie the elastic around it. Test the length with your child’s head and use a very thin elastic to fasten.

These birthday party pig nose favors will take a little time to make but are mindless and can be made while talking with your hubby in the evening so he doesn’t think you are a recluse!

Resources: Make your own with our Pig Nose Template. Scrapbooking paper found at any craft store selling scrap booking supplies like Michaels.

View our video on How To Create Your Own Pig Noses.

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

I didn’t make these pig hats for each of the kids. One the birthday boy got a pig hat. Since he was 1 the other kids (especially the older ones) enjoyed it more than he did.

The hat itself was made from some nice and stiff scrap booking paper. Unfortunately, you can only get one hat out of each page. Then the pig ornaments were a kit I got at Michaels. I believe it was a Martha Stewart kit for something else and I’m sure it’s not available any longer. But it would be easy enough to make on your own.

Directions: Start by using felt for the end of the nose and ears. The tail is simply a pipe cleaner. The side of the nose is simply some additional scrap booking paper. Eyes and nostrils would be fine cut out of brown construction paper with a simple hole punch. To keep the pig hat on, I added some super thin elastic. It’s important to customize the length of this to the size of your child. If you want to make the nose 3D, you could cut a form to be covered by pink paper or tissue out of something light like styrofoam.

Have fun with your pig party hats. If you have time, it would be certainly fun to make them for all the kids but doing this for the birthday child and then the noses you’ll see in another post, was super cute.

Resources: Template for Pig Face, Felt, Scrap Booking paper and Pipe Cleaners can all be found at craft stores like Michaels.

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

Cupcakes are a great favor for a simple party for little ones. There’s nothing better than going home with a cupcake to eat later. I made a custom box for the kids to carry them home in so that the icing didn’t get all over the car! You can see those in another post.

For this pig party we had a regular size birthday cake in the shape of a pig face. Because of that, I didn’t want the cupcakes to be replicas. So, I used the colors and just made simple dots. This could also be done in black and white for those pigs that are black and white. Not all pigs are pink!

Here I used my cream cheese frosting for the pink layer and for the dots. It makes the decoration a little sloppy just like a pig!

If you are like me, I get tired of the small balls and little favors you can pick up to throw in a bag. They end up all over the house or end up in a smaller child’s mouth and just makes me nervous.

Now, this suggestion is not for the small children. As you can see on the box, this kit is suggested for kids between 5 and 12 and I think that that is pretty accurate. The Lego kits that are small like this are quite inexpensive especially considering you spend that much or more on the junk.

If you are giving this as a gift for a fire truck party for younger boys like 5 or 6, it’s a great parent/child activity once your guests get home. Simply purchase the kit and either wrap it or put it in a gift bag and it couldn’t be easier.

Resources: For Firefighter Lego Kit and other Fire Truck Theme Lego Kits – Visit the Lego Company.

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

I don’t know about you but I seem to always have left over party favors. Honestly, I’m always paranoid that more kids will show up than what I have favors for and I don’t want anyone going home empty handed!

Now the question is what do you actually do with these extra toys and such???  Well, we keep them on hand to give other kids who weren’t able to make it to the party but give us a gift.  Or we even give favors to kids who invite us over for play dates post party.

What do you do with the ones that are still left over?  I’m at a loss.  Many of them get integrated into our own toy box but then we have numerous of these around.  I can’t wait for them tear up or break.  Do you have any good suggestions of what to do with these left over favors?  Please share your ideas.  We can all benefit from them here!

On a budget?  No problem.  A fire truck party can easily be done on a budget.

This party had fireman hats that can be bought very reasonably.  There is a stand up cardboard truck, napkins, cups and a table cloth all bought as part of a kit.  Many of the big bog party supply stores will have them.

The kids are all about the colors and the fire trucks.  This may not take too much time to create but kids this age will never know the difference.

Photography taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

The thing to always remember is not every thing at the party HAS to be completely part of the theme. These fire truck party favors were given at a party in the summer time. We decided to give sand buckets and toys. We related it to the theme by adding a preprinted fire truck tag that had each child’s name on it.

Photo by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

What’s a birthday party with out a party hat? I didn’t want just a printed hat for my son’s birthday party, so I decided to make my own hats!

This Dalmation puppy hat was perfect for our fire truck party and the kids loved them. There was one little boy who put his hat on and didn’t take it off all day!

To make it, I used a premade party hat to use as a template for the hat and I made that part out of a heavy white paper. The dog’s hat, ears, arms, nose and tongue are made from felt. I colored the dots on the ears and arms with a black market. Again, if anyone is interested in the templates, let me know and I’ll work on making them available. To keep it on, I tied on elastic through holes I make using the smallest hole punch you can find. The elastic was also a very light weight elastic.

This is a perfect example of an idea that totally works as a fire truck party hat but isn’t a fire truck!

Resources: Click here to get your Free Fire Truck Party Hat Template.

Photograph by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.

A great Fire Truck birthday party favor idea that the kids can enjoy at the party is to have a festive party cup. Originally I was planning to make some sort of fireplug cup…..and then I found one for sale online!!! Even better. It’s a plastic cup with straw and the lid screws open.

I simply washed them and filled them up with lemonaid the morning of the party. The kids loved them and then took them home as a party favor. And it’s nice to have things that aren’t all fire trucks but work with the theme.

Resources: To find these fire truck party favors: Fire Hydrant cups visit Birthday Express

Photo taken by Amy Hall Photography, Portland, OR.