Wash cloth party bags

I hate throw-away plastic party bags. I hate the waste of it mostly. To be honest, I don't like the whole concept of party bags very much, but the children are used to them, so I give them out at the end of children's parties.

Every time a birthday party comes round I'm tempted to make my own cloth drawstring bags. Then I remind myself that it would take me several hours to make just one, and that I can't borrow my mother-in-law's sewing machine anymore because I've moved away, and that I'm not that great at sewing in the first place. A girl I went to school with started a company making cloth party bags in the UK, - they look stunning, have a look: www.charliemoos.co.uk 

In the past I've used paper sandwich bags which are recyclable and biodegradable. You can also write on them so they are easy to transform from boring old brown paper bag to something special. For my daughter's mermaid-themed party I drew a mermaid on each one and let my daughter colour them in.

For the latest birthday party I was really struggling for ideas for party bags. I was about to go down the plastic bag route out of desperation (though it had got to the end of my allocated shopping time and I hadn't seen any of those either). Then, on my way out of the shopping mall I walked through the towel department of the shop I was in and I noticed some pocket face towels. If you're not familiar with them, they are two small rectangular towels sewn together to make a kind of glove to put over your hand. Perfect, I thought! It's a party bag, but it is also an object that is useful, reusable, pratical and, crucially, not very expensive (I needed 15).

I managed to find some face cloths in bright happy colours, and to tie them up I chose to pass a red elastic cord through the little loop which these face cloths have on the side. I initially considered using a ribbon, but most 5 year olds can't tie bows, so I went for the elastic instead, and to make them more interesting I printed out a the design I had made for the invitations, punched a hole through each one and ran the elastic through the hole before tying it.

I try not to fill my party bags with plastic tat, and I think very carefully about what to put in. The filling for the latest lot was: bubble mixture, Post-It notes, a coloured marker, a few sunflower seeds for planting, a small bag of sweets, and of course the wash cloth party bag. In total the cost was 3 euro per party bag.

Brown paper parcels tied up with string

On a visit to the supermarket one day in the first month we were in the Netherlands I came across some white and red kitchen twine. So of course I had to buy it. Turns out it is very common here, and really nothing special. But I loved it. 

Here it is making the Christmas presents look Christmassy (btw, the brown paper is from a roll I have had for seven or eight years I think - I've used it a lot and it still hasn't run out - looks great every time with just a simple ribbon or a colourful card).

Happy penguins made with the kids

 

Quickly turned two empty milk bottles into penguins using paper, packing tissue paper and a black plastic bag.

Maori weaving techniques

I got a book out of the library about flax weaving techniques. The book taught traditional Maori weaving techniques that were developed for use with flax (phormium tenax). I wanted to try some of them using paper instead. Here are some of my creations.

 

For the ones in the first photo I used magazine pages and a supermarket mailer. I folded each page on itself several times to get a strong strip of paper to work. The second photo is of weaving I did using strips of coloured card that I had lying around from when I had to trim something for another project.

Pirate Party

My son loves pirates. He wants to be a pirate. Most of the time he acts like a pirate. So for his fourth birthday he had a pirate party.

Pin the Parrot on the Pirate
I painted a pirate on a large piece of paper I had lying around, I drew a parrot, scanned him and printed out a page of parrots on card. The blindfolded kids then stuck them on the pirate with blue-tac. The pirate has now been laminated and adorns my son's bedroom door.

As I mentioned, I used a large piece of paper I happened to have at the back of a closet. It was a bit wrinkly which was perfect because I got a lovely textured effect under the watercolour I used for the pirate's coat.

Sailboats
I gave the children bottle tops, iceblock sticks, blue-tac and triangles of coloured paper that they used to assemble sailboats which we sailed in a bucket of water. Below is a picture of the prototype I made, floating in a tupperware bowl. It was simple, it recycled materials, taught the kids about floating and about how sails work, and it was fun to blow the boat across the water.

But... to make things more exciting, I got the kids to decorate their sail using felt tip pens. That was a mistake... Several of the boats got wet and ink went all runny, so it was very messy. I have also discovered that blue-tac won't hold when it is wet. So while I enjoyed making the prototype and blowing it across the water, it wasn't really a successful party activity for little children.

Fishing Game
I made the fish out of some bits of card I had lying around. I got my kids to decorate them before the party.

I put 3 staples on the nose of each fish so that the magnetic fish "hooks" would have something to attach to.

To make a fishing rod I rolled up a piece of newspaper (I chose one printed in colour on glossy paper so they kids wouldn't get ink on their fingers) and I tied a string on one end.

The only magnets I had to hand were small fridge magnets, so I wrapped them in transparent food wrap and tied them to the fishing rod string. Not very secure with young children, but it was used under supervision so there was no danger of anyone swallowing the magnet.

The kids all sat in a circle around the fish and each had a turn using the fishing rod to try to catch one!

Pinata
Arrrr - it's all about the booty me hearties. My little pirates got a treasure chest full of sweets with my easy home-made pinata.

I used a cardboard box which I weakened by cutting two sides almost completely. I covered it in paper which I had painted brown. I brushed quite messily so that it would look like wood. Then I made the trimmings around the edges and the other 'gold' bits using yellow streamers. I made lots of little cuts one one side of each length of streamer to get a 3D frilling effect. I also made handles on the sides with the yellow streamer paper. The other details, like the lock, I drew with a black marker.

Anchor
My pride and joy. Shame it didn't last very long with two small boys in the house, but it looked great for the party.

I made a simple anchor shape out of cardboard tubes (I always save these when I finish a roll of foil or wrapping paper or paper towels). I wrapped it all with some foil and behold: an anchor!

Treasure Chest
The party ended with a treasure hunt - they had to find the treasure chest I made out of a shoe box.

To get a nice plain brown box I simply opened up a colourful sports shoe box and folded it inside out. Luckily I had one that had no glue to hold it together, just clever interlocking folds and slits. I love paper engineering! 

I decorated the box using a black marker and yellow crepe paper. Inside the treasure chest I had some pirate hats (with a happy face and crossbones - so much friendlier than the traditional - and easier to draw 15 times over!),  pirate beards (cut out of black card and stuck onto iceblock sticks) and telescopes (toilet rolls with coloured cellphane on one end).

Party food
To eat we had pirate cookies (with a single silver cachou in place of a jolly roger), ham sandwiches and carrot sticks as well as lots of fruit.

I bought biodegradable paper cups which I decorated with sea creatures that I cut out of a piece of pirate-themed wrapping paper. I made sure they were all different so every kid could recognise their cup.

To finish we had a pirate ship cake which for some reason wants to stay on its side... I'll try to upload it again another time so it displays properly.

The pirate and parrot candles were a perfect find at the supermarket. They looked very dashing on the cake and the paper sail didn't catch fire - hurrah!