Simple goodie bag for a not-so-big child's party (not allowed to say 'little' anymore...)

As I have mentioned before I have a thing for goodie bags at my kid's parties.  I really like to give something handmade or useful (preferably both).  It was A's birthday last Saturday and we had his party at their gymnastics place (great place for a party!) and I made these simple little goodie bags for A to hand out at the end.  I always get a kick out of seeing how excited the other children are to see the birthday child open their gift and how equally excited the birthday child is to hand out the goodie bags.  It is really sweet.  I didn't put in a 2am sewing effort with these like I did for E's party in June but these were just as well received.

I made the little books (slightly adjusting a tutorial from here), added a pretty pencil and a couple of chocolates.  I also made bookmarks with each child's name that I laminated and put in.  I didn't have one left over for the photo but they were basic patterned rectangles with the child's name in the middle, cut out and laminated.

These are the steps I used for the little books:

1. I did the layout in Powerpoint (on Letter paper - in portrait mode - you get two to a page).  Just put the image and writing far over on the right hand side.

2. I used free clipart from the internet for the colouring book style image (I did a bunch of different ones - a dolphin, squirrel, beaver, duck, owl, bird, etc.).  The font for the book name is 'superpoint - rounded' (from dafont.com).  I liked this one because the kids can trace over it if they want some letter writing practice.  The font for the name and age labels is Pakenham Free (can't remember if this came with my computer or I got it from one of those free font sites).

3. I printed out the pages on white card, cut them in half to give me my two book covers and then measured and cut other papers for the inside pages.  I did a mix of papers.

4. I stacked the pages and cover together and folded them in half, stapled in the crease (on a couple I stitched them as I couldn't find the right staples for my longer armed stapler), trimmed the paper with my little paper guillotine (or scissors if you have a steady hand), rounded the corners using a round corner punch (from a scrapbooking/craft store - near the decorative punches) and applied duct tape strips for binding.  I didn't have any bookbinding tape and it was too expensive to buy some for this sole project.  Plus A loves purple and the brightly coloured duct tape suited him.

If anyone wants a picture tutorial let me know and I will do it for you.

Giveaway is here!

Yay, the planets have finally aligned and I have my giveaway ready!  These little play oven mitts are not difficult to make but to explain the whole process I have put together quite a lengthy tutorial which you can download below.  These would be so cute for any little kid that loves their play kitchen or it might encourage them to play with it like it does mine.

Kids Play Oven Mitts

Here is a quick overview of how to do it for more confident sewers.  I am sure you could work it out yourself anyway.  Like I said, they are not hard, nor particularly time consuming if you have access to a sewing machine.

When we lived in Malaysia a few years ago, the hotel we stayed at had a children's play area with one of these little mitts.  All of the kids went straight for it and I kept on meaning to make some for my children after we left there.  So I finally have.

Now, this is where the giveaway part comes in.  I have made two sets so tell me which one you would prefer (out of the two pictured at the top of this post) and I will send it off to you!  All you have to do is leave a comment on this post (and make sure I can contact you).  This giveaway will close on Saturday, 8th May 2010, 12 noon, Uruguay time.  This is open to all readers - I will post to anywhere in the world.

Good luck!