Party Part Two: The Favors and Some Thank Yous

I don't know what possesed me...something over at Pinterest I think, but I decided to do not one, not two, but THREE handmade sewn party favors (well, two and a reversible cloth drawstring bag to put them in) along with a table full of handmade goodies at Sarge's for our party go-ers to take home with them.

I'm not sure I'll do it again, but I am sure that if I do the favors will have to be done and sitting in a box AT LEAST a month before the party happens...I just can't be finishing sewing at 03:00 on party morning ever again...

So here is what I made:

Crayon Rolls (I got the pattern from this blog here):

I changed her pattern just a smidge.  I found after I did the first few that I needed another .25" on my fabric, so I cut everything 16.75" long instead of 16.5".  I also did away with the button she applied in her final step and just used the elastic to wrap around the crayons.  Honestly, I didn't have time for buttons, but I also felt like it was just one more thing for the parents of our youngest party go-ers to worry about them detaching and eating.

I also made these:

My mother and I had seen these (well, something like this) a couple of years ago and I bought the stuff to make them and then never really did.  I decided now was the time.  I took the pattern my mom and I had used (we did make a couple but never used all the supplies or made them for what we intended them for), this pattern from the same blog I got the cupcake recipe from, and some ideas I had rolling around in my head and mixed them all together to come up with this idea.  The dimensions on my finished bag are 5"x7" the window is about 2.5" x 4.5".

They are traditionally called "I Spy Bags", but in going along with my theme, I made them "Mater's Fishin' Bags".  I even added a Lightning McQueen to the list of things to find (as Mater is always fishing Lightning McQueen out of the brush), for my Lightning, I just printed a bunch of Lightnings out on photo paper, cut them out, laminated them and cut them out again.  They aren't two sided though and I think if I do something like this in the future they will be.

If you are looking very closely at this list you will see it says "Golf Leaf"
what is actually in the bag is a GOLD leaf, but I didn't notice the typo
until all the bags were made, so they went out like that, and I'm okay with that.

 Because I did have quite a few young guests (Punk is only 3 you know) and I knew i would have non-readers (like my own kids), I decided to add a picture of the things inside the bag.  I just took a picture of all of the stuff in one of the bags and printed it out, I laminated it to the printed list of things to find so that the list is two sided, one side for readers and one side for non-readers.  (The picture is not completely accurate for every bag as the colors of some of the items varies and the style of the army man varies, but I decided that was just okay).

There were a few other things in the drawstring favor bags as well.  I picked up Cars pencils and erasers in a clearance section of Walmart and Cars notebooks in the $1 section at Joanns, I also picked up some super cute Cars stickers at Oriental Trading Company.

This is a picture of the bags (they were reversible so there is one showing each side) and what was in them:

I made the bags too...here is the link to the tutorial online.

After I handed out the bags the children were encouraged to take their parents over to visit "Sarge's Surplus of Sweets":

There were Dum-Dum suckers, individually wrapped Twizzlers, Fruit Gems and an array of things I made for the table.

Dipsticks: (Pringles makes honey butter flavored cracker sticks, I dipped them in chocolate and packaged them three to a package in cellophane pretzel bags).
Hubcaps: (round pretzels (mine are Rold Gold Butter Flavored Pretzel Checkers) with Hershey's kisses centered on them, then placed in a 275 degree oven for 3 minutes, when they come out immediately press an M&M into the center of them), I found the idea on Pinterest, but it links back to foodgawker and I couldn't find the original blog they came from so if anyone finds it let me know and I'll link it here).

Traffic Lights:  Scotcheroos (with peanut butter chips substituted for the butterscotch chips, personal preference) with red, yellow and green M&M's pressed into the chocolate and cut into long rectangles.
Tires:  Chocolate glazed mini donuts (I didn't make them, Hostess did), I melted the chocolate on the donuts a little by just touching them to a warmed saute pan to make them stick together.  I didn't get a good picture of them, but there are four of them, three tires laying on top of each other and one standing on the stack of three, just like you see at Casa Della Tires in Radiator Springs.
Rocky Road Pops: I got the idea from this blog here, but I used two marshmallows and a combination of semi-sweet and milk chocolate to dip them in.

So, when all was said and done the guests left with a little bit of fun (the cars they "painted" at Ramone's), some of my handiwork (the Fishin' Bags, Crayon Rolls and Drawstring Bags), something useful and fun from the piñata, and a whole bunch of sugar (although there was a lot left at Sarge's when we were done and I sent it all to work with Bobby this morning).

I have to thank Bobby for being so patient with me through the planning and execution of this thing, my mom and April for sending crafty stuff from Phoenix so I didn't have to purchase it again, Pinterest (and my friends there) for so many awesome ideas, Casie who helped in the week before the party and was my kitchen helper at the party, Kristin who did an AWESOME job putting together the posters and banners I printed out but would never have gotten together otherwise, and Eric and Kristi for helping set up and clean up this mess.  I also want to thank everyone who brought their kids and had a good time.  That's really what it's about and I hope your kids remember us and the fun we've all had together for a long time to come.