Birthday Party Crafts for £1.99

Holly’s birthday is at the end of August, and although that seems a long way off, I’m already crafting bits and pieces so we can make it as special (and thrifty) as possible! During the day we plan to have an Alice in Wonderland style tea party for our family and friends, so I’ve bought a few bits from B&M as they seem to have a really lovely party section at the moment… which looks gorgeous, but is also very cheap!

I picked up some ‘treat bags’ which are lovely, floral green and white striped bags for putting sweets in (which also came with stickers!) thinking they were gift bags. They wasn’t what I was hoping for, but I’ve managed to use them to make a few bits for her party, so they didn’t go to waste!

First project I tried was table decorations/containers for the party. I used one of her empty porridge containers, one gift bag, and some PVA glue… thats it!

I cut open the gift bag, then measured the depth of the outside of the container, and cut the paper to size. I then used the PVA glue ‘decopauge’ style, and applied the paper to the container with the glue. I then used several coats of PVA over the paper to protect it.

SO SIMPLE.
AND IT TOOK LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES.

This may be the simplest craft ever, but it has used up what would have been a discarded container, and a gift bag to make a simple but cute item for the party table. I ended up making two of these because they were so quick and easy, and Holly eats lots of porridge! I’m going to use one to hold straws, and the other to hold cutlery at the party!

Second thing I decided to try, was focusing on using up the stickers from the pack. I decided to use these, and some more ‘waste’ baby food jars to create some sweet little party favours. For this craft I used PVA glue, a couple of treat bags, some spray paint, and the stickers from the pack!

I started with numerous empty cow and gate food jars like the one shown here (been saving them up for a little while!)

I washed and sterilised the jars, but even after excessive scrubbing I noticed some of the jars which contained tomato based foods had staining inside the lids… which despite the jars being completely clean… didn’t look particularly nice.

This is when I decided to use the treat bags again. I cut the treat bags into circles and glued into the lids.. using several coats of PVA to secure, and give a glossy finish. Although this wasn’t entirely necessary, I felt like it improved the overall look of the lids.

 

I then used some spray paint I had stashed away from a previous project to give the lids a quick coat, and get rid of the ‘cow and gate’ logo on the top!

To finish the jars off, I applied the stickers from the ‘treat bag’ pack, and applied to the jars, using a little glue to make sure they stay on until August! The jars have been stashed away in storage temporarily, but for now, I’ve filled two with popcorn to show what the end product party favour will look like! I plan to add little labels with a brief thank-you message for the guests!

The total cost of both these projects was probably less than £1, as I still have around 15 treat bags remaining to craft with (and I do have a few ideas already!) plus I used craft supplies already in my stash, and items that would have probably ended up in the bin otherwise!

If you need supplies I recommend:

Treat bags and stickers : B&M stores – £1.99 (20 bags, 21 stickers)
Spray paint : The Range – Plasti-kote spray paint fast dry project enamel £3.79 (small can but more than enough)
PVA glue: ridiculously cheap, the one I have at the moment is an asda own brand, but you can usually pick it up from the pound shop! Hobby Craft and The Range, stock high quality decoupage glues, with different finishes (matt, gloss ect.) however I’ve found unless you use decoupage paper or tissue paper for your crafts, PVA works absolutely fine, and is MUCH less expensive!

Happy crafting!