Pepper Design Blog

Liv’s 2nd Birthday: Paper Favor Pouches

One of my favorite, super-quick-to-throw-together ideas from Liv’s party was to create little favor pouches for gummy bears to hand out to all of the kids on their way home.

I didn’t get a very clear photo of the treat bags at the actual party, but here’s the gist on how we put them together:

The grey arrows indicate where a piece of double sided tape was added to adhere two sides together. The pouches were popping open after a while, so I might try something stronger than plain old sticky tape next time. Maybe even cute staples or scrapbooking tape + a dab of glue in a few key areas (such as the corners).

They were a cute and easy addition to the party! And we literally made them as people were walking in (and as it dawned on me that I had meant to put favor bags together but had completely forgotten about them… luckily I remembered a few variations of this idea on Pinterest - not to mention those cool popsicles that used to be sold out of similar pouches when I was a kid – and happened to have paper and pink candy on hand!). Big thanks to my brother and friend Trish (the invaluable party co-preppers) for helping me assemble.

More pictures from Liv’s 2nd birthday right here, and you can filter all party ideas posted on the blog by theme here!

PS this would be very cute for Valentine’s Day treats, don’t you think?

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I don’t think I’ve shared Liv’s first year photos here before, so in the spirit of Valentine’s Day here’s our little nugget of Love with her teddy bear ‘Behr’ (as named by her Grandpa):

I didn’t take monthly photos – more of just when I remembered to snap a quick pic so some of the pictures are weeks apart and others months. I hope to keep the tradition alive with an updated picture maybe every 6 months to a year (won’t that be great when I have an 18 year old sitting in Behr’s lap?) .

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to the park yesterday! She’s such a cutie.

And here she is hamming it up:

Such a little cheeseball. She has the BEST faces, if only I could capture them all. And the best run! It’s sort of a stomp, stomp run because I think she loves to hear her shoes make tapping noises when she moves (which works out much better on our hardwood floors).

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Customized Valentine’s Day Treat Bags

I have a massive stationary collection (I heart beautifully made cards) and was rifling through my stash the other day to write thank you notes for Liv’s first birthday when I came across a handful of cards that I had purchased for envelope purposes only. I am often short on envelopes and sometimes buy the super cheap cards just for extras!

These cards have a sweet pattern that remind me a little of a playful Valentine’s day note – and an idea was born.

After hunting around the house I was happy to find that I had nearly everything I needed on hand for my Valentine’s Day treat bags. Though I did pick up those two small bags of salt water taffy for $1 at Target.

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Custom Valentine’s Day Treat Bags
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Materials: cellophane treat bags (available at Michaels or on Amazon), note cards, candy, photos, scissors and stapler

To make the treat bags, I filled each plastic sack with salt water taffy and a photo of Liv trimmed to size (I keep a stack of pictures on hand from Costco to send to grandparents and great grandparents when they’re needing a Liv fix). My cellophane bags were just the right size to match up with my 4×6 note cards, but if you’re buying all of your materials from scratch that’s something to keep in mind (you can always trip down your note cards but you don’t want the bag to be wider than the cards).

The notecards have the perfect fold for the top of your treat bags, I simply chopped mine in half length-wise (so that the card was shorter near the fold) and sandwiched the treat bag between each side of the card. Two staples held my finished bag in place.

An alternative to note cards would be scrapbooking paper with a bone folder for a professional looking fold (this tool scores and creases your paper). Or for a cheaper option just fold that sucker in half and press between heavy books so that the fold stays put.

These would be great for family, but for a kid-friendly option I would fill the baggie with animal crackers and include a fun illustration instead of a photo, or perhaps a few crayons and a coloring sheet. Cookies and wrapped candies are probably the way to go since any candy prone to melting would smudge up the photo and transfer ink to the candy. Fun stamps or stickers might make for a neat note at the top of the treat bag, too.

I can see reusing this ideas for party favor bags somewhere down the line… PS I can’t believe it’s already the middle of February!

More Valentine’s Day ideas right here.