Tag Archives: gift

Feb24

DIY Party Favours

Posted on February 24, 2018 by thestick81

We only have parties every 3rd birthday in our house as organising parties for 4 kids every year would be a full-time job (plus I’d need a 3rd job to pay for them). So when we do have a party, I like to try to make it ‘next level’. This month my daughter will be having her 9th birthday party with 10 close friends at home. I thought rather than just the usual party bags filled with cheap lollies and plastic noisemakers, I’d try to make it a bit more grown up and special for them. Here is one of the ideas we came up with to include in the party favours. They worked out to $1 each and took about an hour for the 2 of us to put together.

You can purchase these packs studs in an assortment of colours and sizes from most Kmarts for just $2. With only 10 guests we just split a pack in half, but there is no reason you couldn’t break them down further if you were to have more guests.

Image from http://www.kmart.com.au/

The background ‘thank you’ note was created on PicMonkey which is a really fun and easy editing website that even the kids can navigate. I inserted the image into a Word document to make it easier to adjust the size and estimate how big they needed to be on an A4 page.

Once we decided on an appropriate size for our image, we simply printed and cut them out and stuck on the strips of card that came with the earrings, using a glue stick.

Then it was simply a case of transferring the earrings over to the new home pushing them through the pink layer of paper.

If you plan on doing this project buy one more pack than you need as unfortunately some of them did break as we were removing from the cards – but at $2 for 10 pairs it’s hardly worth complaining about nor making another trip to Kmart. 🙂

And there you have it. Thank you cards with a gift, all for $1 each plus a bit of ink and paper. Happy party planning. 🙂

May25

DIY Hidden Object Game

Posted on May 25, 2014 by thestick81

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I saw one of these in a game shop last Christmas, I thought it was very cool but not “I’m happy to spend $40 on this” cool. It just looked far too easy to make myself. Turns out I was right. You could make these in any shape or size, and fill them with just about anything. We had all these things in the house already, so it was fairly inexpensive.

There is several methods for colouring rice on the net, but I was looking for quick and simple. The blue and red we made with just food colouring and a dash of water, mixed well then laid flat to dry. The yellow we used vinegar in place of the water (some recipes asked for rubbing alcohol but we don’t have any of that). The yellow dried about 3 times faster than the other 2, so that is the way to go. Instead of placing the trays in the sun, I just put them in the oven at 50C with the door open. The red took about an hour to fully dry (it took the longest). I did stir it around occasionally to prevent any sticking and distribute the wetter rice.

While that way drying we hunted around the house for appropriate goodies to put inside. We came up with 20 items. The amount of items you want to use will depend on your container size. I think we could have easily used twice as many, but it was still a good ratio. The items varied in weight and texture.

It would have been easier to mix all the rice colours together prior to filling the container, but the kids enjoyed layering the different colours with a few objects between, then shaking to mix at the end.

The container we used was an old straw holder. You can buy them full of straws at the grocery store for around $4. It did have a hole in the top, but this actually came in handy as a place to insert a ribbon and attach the key to what is inside.

I took a photo of all 20 items, shrunk it, then printed and covered in clear contact. Attached to the ribbon on top. If you were to just use a clear water bottle or similar, you could just tie something to the neck of the bottle.

The key

Once everything was put in and we were happy with the level of rice, I taped it up nice and tight. And that’s it. Some of the lighter items are easy to find and often pop up to the top, but theres several things we have not managed to find again, like the smily badge and dinosaur!

The kids really enjoyed this project and were able to be involved every step of the way. It was a bit messy, but over all a success.

Mr 3 mixing in the food colouring.

Ms 5 spreading out the rice to dry

In the oven

Ms 5 filling the container.

The collection of objects.

Lid

Lid with ribbon inserted and tape over hole.

All taped up.

Some of the hidden items

I see and E!

A bottle of beads!

Lego!

The key

DIY Hidden objects game.

Feb2

Ribbon Roses, Valentine Craft

Posted on February 2, 2014 by thestick81

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All Tizzied Up has taught her daughters how to make these ribbon flowers just as she did when she was a kid. Very cute and pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

All you need is some ribbon (thickness will determine how big the flower head ends up being), some felt if you would like to add leaves, styrofoam ball, wooden skewer and some pipe cleaners for the stem. Step by step photos and instructions can be found by running over or clicking on the picture gallery below.