Making Progress

   From the bunting to the tags to the favor bags I'm plowing through with this birthday!

 USE WHAT YOU HAVE!! In the D.I.Y. game you definitely have to be resourceful, because that's the fun of it! The bunting for the party is made out of paper, and I happened to have quite a bit of paper that I've acquired when I had aspirations of scrap booking all of my memories. I was also able to scrounge the clearance section of Jo Ann fabrics and scored the yellow and green paper for .25 cents each! So in total the bunting cost me about $5 or so since I used the red paper from the invitations I had left over and my own stash along with the added paper I scored on clearance! I will do a quick tutorial tomorrow (depending on if I can get some good natural light photos) and show you how I pieced the bunting together. If you're in a hurry - then you can Google paper bunting and I promise a myriad of tutorials will be at your fingertips! Remember that simple templates can be made from anything so if you don't want a traditional triangle, find another shape that appeals more to you. I love scalloped bunting (but I hope to do one for a baby girl in the future...).

The tags for my favor bags I copied a tag I happened to have lying around and of course a green sheet of card stock I had from previous projects. The favor bags themselves are actually blue LUNCH BAGS from Target (I KNOW). They are $2 and come in various colors in packs of 40 (more than enough!). I had bought the stamps when I couldn't decide how I wanted to do the invite so with some white ink I created a simple design on the front! TA-DAH - DONE! Other ideas I thought of were newspaper sail boats with candy on the brim with a thank you tag or even mason jars full of something fun like crayons and school supplies.

Anything is possible so don't boggle yourself down with the traditional candy in cellophane bags...get creative and remember if you have smaller children coming to your party i.e.: infants, toddlers, etc don't forget them too! The best favor gift I got was a container of puffs! I really felt thought of as a guest and it was seriously practical! So whether it's board books or puffs or school supplies, slightly cater to your guest and let them know you appreciate them :) Though places like Party City are wonderful they can really eat up your budget! Go online, check out even the Dollar Store (ain't too proud to go), and splurge on items you really want to make an impression with! I keep reminding myself kids are going to throw these favor bags away, they are going to rip my tags apart, they are going to demolish my hours of work...and it will be worth it especially if I didn't spend an arm and a leg on it.

Just a quick update on some progress friend, but I'm hopeful to show you what's inside the favor bags and all of the things I got in the mail today!

Sailor hats, Fishing net, and a Captain's Hat!!