Yesterday I told you about the penguin cake I made for my little one’s birthday this past weekend and today I wanted to talk about my second favorite part of party planning – the favors! (or goody bags)
I LOVE coming up with themes for party favors and designing creative packaging to go with it. Since the party was going to be at California Pizza Kitchen, and they were going to design their own pizzas and ice cream sundaes, I knew that was the direction I’d be headed.
This is the stuff I ended up with – ice cream cone bubbles, a colorful apron, a red cutting board, gummies (my daughter’s one request!) and a personalized chocolate bar.
My original thought was to package the items into a small pizza box but the bubbles were too wide so I had to come up with a plan B. i still have lots of packaging supplies left over from my gift basket days so I knew I’d find something. I found a box of clear plastic bags that were fortunately the right size.
Before wrapping everything up, I had to design the chocolate bar wrappers as well as the gift tag. I have lots of wrapper designs in my stash from being a Cherubs-n-Chocolate consultant. I thought the red and white design would be a great tie in. I added a message to the front and back of the wrappers as well as a photo. I love the personalization and versatility of these wrappers! Once that was done, I put each chocolate bar in a silver pouch and then wrapped them all.
Next up was the gift tag. I found a free clipart image of pizza that I liked but I just had to modify it slightly. It had the word “PIZZA” going across the top, but I wanted each child’s name there instead. I didn’t even need Photshop for this one! With a few modifications in Word, I was ready to go. Once they were printed, I used a scalloped edge craft punch to create the design.
Now all I had left was to package it all together and tie it up with red double faced satin ribbon.
It’s really not difficult if you can start with a theme. I would suggest to try and avoid buying all that cheap plastic stuff usually found at the big party supply stores. Most of it ends up breaking in a minute or gets lost somewhere in your house. If you try to think of more useful (and still fun) items and limit the candy, both the kids and the moms will be happy! It doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg either. Look for sales or check your local dollar and discount stores. You’ll be surprised at what you can find!
Do you like party planning? if so, what’s your favoite part?
More party details coming up tomorrow..
OH MY! love it ! thank you for sharing! We are planning a cooking theme party for our nephew/son and we weren’t aware of California Pizza having a kids party package and we have one right around the corner from us! We loved your goodie bags!! So creative!
Thanks so much! Tomorrow I’ll be posting about the actual CPK party activities. The kids had fun and it was reasonably priced. Check back tomorrow for more info!
Wow! That’s all I can say. Wow!
These looks so great – I think all your creativity would have been lost inside the pizza box – these are SO festive & cute!
Really great ideas- thanks for sharing! Would you mind sharing where you found the clipart and how you added the names? Thanks!!
Hi Lori,
I just found the clipart online – probably doing a sear for pizza clipart. I believe I added the names in Microsoft Word but I’m sure you can do it in any wordprocessing software. Good luck with your party!
Hi think your goodie bags were cute we’re did you find the ice cream bubbles and the cutting boards and apron thanks Sherri
I got the bubbles at a store called Amazing Savings and the apron and cutting boards at a store called Deals. If you don’t have these stores I would say check your local dollar stores.