Friday, February 6, 2009

Fiesta Friday- Party Favors



Party favors are essential to any funtastic party. Give your guests something cute and silly, or edible and practical-- something that they'll truly enjoy holding on to or using. You definitely want to tie in your party favor to your theme. Don't send people home with a bag of candy, unless it's a Halloween party and you use really cute bags!


I discovered these cute paper cake boxes years ago (before the manufacturer even made them). Just kidding. But, I did come up with this idea before people started decorating them and selling them. At the time, they were only used for wedding cake slices. Anyhoooo, you know I'm all about making your own stuff and saving money. Plus, if you make it yourself, you can really personalize it.



This is my too-pretty-to-eat-even-though-you-can't-eat-it-anyway paper cake. (Click on the photo to enlarge.) I bought the plain cake boxes at Party City, but you can find them at Michael's, too. To make a paper cake like mine, you'll need some craft glue, cute trim, rickrack, adhesive crystals, ribbon and a big pretty silk flower. First assemble each box. Then, decide how you want your cake to look and get to gluing! I measured and cut lengths of rickrack and fancy trim to glue onto the boxes, then added some blingy goodness to the tops. The rickrack was glued around the sides of the boxes to look like chocolate filling.

The flower in the middle was super easy, too. Just cut the stem of the silk flower down to the height of the cake boxes and tie pretty ribbons on it. While I was decorating, I decided the cake needed some more bling, so I added adhesive crystals to the flower petals and the ribbons.

Finally, arrange your boxes on a pretty cake stand, tie a ribbon around the cake (I used two ribbons) and place the flower in the middle with the ribbons hanging out. Voila! This party favor would be great for a bridesmaids shower. You could put a little wedding charm or their wedding jewelry that you've picked out for them in each box. It's a whole lot cleaner than putting cake pulls in a messy cake!

For some other cute ideas, wander around your craft store and find some doodads that you can affix to the top of the box. Or, buy some silk flowers with little blooms that you can pull apart and glue onto each box. Some items might require hot glue. Whatever you do, make sure you can still open the boxes without messing up your embellishments.



The Wish Cake.
My cake box was used as a big gift for my boss. She has everything, so instead of another fancy picture frame, I decided that clever birthday wishes from the heart would be perfect. I asked my coworkers to come up with some fun little goodies that corresponded with special birthday wishes to put in each box. Once we bought all the stuff, I made a little tag for each one, and stuck numbers on the inside of the cake slice so the birthday girl could open each box in order. I think the first box had a note it in that said something like, "On your birthday we wish for you..." Here are some of the birthday wishes:
1- good luck (fortune cookie)
2- happy meetings (ear plugs)
3- love and laughter (Hershey's kisses and Laffy Taffy)
4- a little spice in your life (little Tabasco bottle)
There were a bunch of others, but I can't remember them all. She loved it and that's all that counts!

So, that's it for our first Fiesta Friday featuring party favors. I hope you enjoyed it and will make a paper cake of your own! Email me pics if you do!

3 comments:

  1. You are so amazing. I swear you should do this stuff for a living.

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  2. If only I could get paid vacations, dental and medical ins. doing it!

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  3. Your cake is so beautiful, what a great idea. I have never seen cake boxes for sale before and I almost live at Michaels. I will have to look next time I am there. Have a wonderful weekend.
    ~Sue~

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