The best part is they are simple to do. Put your broken crayon pieces in silcone cupcake trays and place in the oven at 250 degrees for about 15 minutes. That’s it!

And if you want specific crayon colors, you can buy crayons in single color boxes here at Amazon.

Look how cute Melissa’s heart crayons turned out. If you want to dress yours up like Melissa did, we’ve got cute Valentine’s Day printable bag toppers here free on our site.

To see Melissa’s full tutorial head over to her blog The Joys of Home Educating. Thank you, Melissa, for the great idea!

Beau-coup has one of the widest selection of unique party favors, party supplies, decorations, and gifts online.

They will be giving one of our lucky readers a $50 gift certificate, and they are also offering all our readers 10% off purchases of $75 or more valid until December 31, 2011. Just type in the coupon code: CMP10.

So how do you enter? Just head to Beau-coup, find the item you like the most, and tell us in a comment. That’s it!

Again, here are some of my favorite items from their site. Click on the photo for all the details…

We’ll pick a winner at random on Friday, December 30rd at 10:00PM (PST).  Any entries after that won’t be considered, sorry. We will use random.org to generate our winner and will notify you by email. 

Good luck!

For the party favors we had lots of goodies so I wanted cute bags for the guests to put their things in. I made these bags for the girls, and they were so easy.

SUPPLIES

• Canvas tote
• Doily
• Paint (I used house paint, but fabric paint is best)
• Spray adhesive
• Freezer paper
• Iron
• Xacto knife
• Sponge brush

Start by spraying adhesive onto the doily and place it on your bag.

With your sponge brush paint over the doily and on the rim of the doily.

Slowly remove the doily.

Trace your initial onto your freezer paper, wax side down and with an xacto knife cut out your initial.

Then with a hot iron and freezer paper wax side down, iron the paper until it sealed on your bag.

You can then paint your letter and peel off the paper

Voila! I love it, Caroline. Thanks for letting me share your tutorial. And btw, I noticed your daughter has lots of “K” and “A” initial friends.

Also, if you haven’t seen the photos from the party these bags come from, you must. It’s that gorgeous!

And finally, to learn more about Caroline and see all her great party tutorials, please check out her blog, Oh Pickles!

Beau-coup’s mission is to offer the widest selection of unique and quality party favors, supplies, decorations, and gifts for all of life’s special occasion, and boy, do they ever!

They are giving one of our lucky readers a $100 gift certificate, perfect for all your holiday parties. And they are also offering all our readers 10% off purchases of $75 or more valid until December 31, 2011. Just type in the coupon code: CMP10.

Here are some of my favorite items from their site. Click on the photo for all the details…

To enter the giveaway, just “like” Beau-coup on Facebook, then leave a comment at the end of this post saying you did it. How easy!

We’ll pick a winner at random on Thursday, December 8th at 10:00PM (PST).  Any entries after that won’t be considered, sorry. We will use random.org to generate our winner and will notify you by email.

We’ve put together a Halloween Product Guide of all the handmade Halloween party supplies created by our vendors. Just click on the photo of the item you like and you can purchase it right there. Simple, right? That’s the point.

Thank you to all our vendors for all your creativity this Halloween. I’m so glad I get to show off your work!

If you are a party vendor and have not yet added yourself to our free party vendor directory, just click on the light blue link in the right hand column of our vendor page that says, “Add your listing to our vendor directory.”

We will be rolling out new vendor features soon to make it even easier for people to find you, so stay tuned!

Since I love Halloween goodies, I thought I’d show off some of my favorites. To learn more about the vendors or to buy some treats, just click on the link or the photo.

Halloween haunted cookies from Charming Treats by Chelsea

Skeleton Witch Hand Chocolate Lollipop by FunFavors

Halloween cake pops from Sugar Parlour

Witch fondant cupcake topper from Lynlee’s Petite Cakes

Ghost decorated cookies by Lori’s Place

Sugar cupcake toppers from Modern Luxe Events

Chocolate eyeballs from Sugarbelly’s Boutique

Halloween cookies from acookiejar

Amazing, right?! Stay tuned for Part 2 where I show off more fabulous treats and desserts from our vendors.

If you are one of our vendors and have a Halloween treat you’d like me to add, please email me at jillian(at)catchmyparty(dot)com.

I found this gorgeous and simple tutorial on adelynSTONE and thought it would be perfect to share.  Kristan, the woman behind adelynSTONE, says the secret to her recipe is cream of tarter and not a lot of salt.

Plus, I love how she packaged it in little plastic baby food containers. Great idea!

My husband and daughter made some yesterday to try it out. It was simple to make, and had a super smooth texture, better than any other homemade play dough we’ve tried. As you can see, my daughter loved it.

Here’s the full homemade play dough recipe. It’s definitely worth a try, great for a rainy day activity or for some fun cheap party favors.

Well, Favor Affair, an online retailer that sells beautiful and affordable favors for all occasions—everyday celebrations, weddings, anniversaries, baby showers, bridal showers, birthdays, and more — is giving one of our readers a $50 gift certificate to their store!

Here’s a sample of some of the great favors you can find…

They’ve got every type of favor imaginable, and they sell perfect bridesmaid and groomsmen gifts and wedding accessories.

Plus, Favor Affair features a growing library (28 and counting!) of FREE E-guides for the party enthusiast. Each guide is filled with detailed ideas for celebrating everything from New Year’s Eve to Halloween to National Hamburger Day. Definitely check them out.

To enter the giveaway, just “like” Favor Affair on Facebook, then leave a comment at the end of this post saying you did it. Nothing hard about that!

We’ll pick the winner at random on Thursday, September 22nd at 10:00PM (PST).  Any entries after that won’t be considered, sorry.  We will use random.org to generate our winner and will notify you by email.

Ooh la la! I saw Heather L’s Pink Parisian Patisserie Party and I was swooning — all that pink, all those treats, all those fluffy pom poms!

Then I noticed the budget… $75! Can’t be done, I thought. But I was proven wrong. Here’s how Heather pulled it off…

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I LOVE to throw a party!  I have so many ideas running through my head, it can get overwhelming at times.  However, I get a reality check every time I think about actually implementing all of my crazy plans when I remember the “B” word – BUDGET. 

As a stay at home mom of five, with a hardworking husband who has recently started his own business, I feel that it is my job to keep a very strict budget when it comes to party planning – but still make those in my life feel special and spoiled!  Over time, I’ve learned a few tips and tricks for creating a fabulous party on a budget.  Here are a few ways I saved money but still managed to get the look of a more extravagant party.

TIP 1

 Use what you have, borrow what you don’t!  This is my favorite tip, and I cannot stress this enough.  For this particular party, my daughter wanted a cupcake/bakery theme.  As I was thinking of ideas for the party, I realized that a French bakery theme would be cute – especially since my daughters’ shared bathroom is decorated in a pink/black Parisian theme. 

I simply borrowed some items from their bathroom – like the metal Eiffel tower, a small painting, a cute poodle, and much more!  I also pulled many things from both daughters’ rooms.  If it was pink or black, I grabbed it =) 

Eiffel Tower borrowed from her daughters

Stuffed poodle borrowed from her daughters

I had a ton of tulle on hand (that I have kept since my 12 year old daughter’s fourth birthday!) so I used tulle on everything.  For NO money, I had instant party décor.  As you are deciding on a theme, think about what you have in your house that matches your colors – maybe there is a red bucket, a cute aqua shelf, or a pink bird cage that would look just PERFECT dressed up for your party.  Additionally, borrow what you can – for my Paris party, I borrowed several serving plates/platters as well as both tablecloths I used. 

TIP 2

Don’t plan your party during a meal time.  I purposely planned our party for 2:00 – 4:00 pm.  I knew that I couldn’t afford to serve a huge spread of food, so I kept it light and simple – and it was perfect for little tummies! 

I served cupcakes (baked at home using boxed mix and canned frosting that I piped on to look more “professional”), sugar cookies I baked and decorated myself, marshmallow pops (I already had the marshmallows and just purchased pink candy melts with a coupon), a little candy, and some grapes and pretzels to balance out all the sweet stuff.  I already had the grapes and pretzels on hand for my kids’ lunches, so I only had to purchase a few items.  Our drinks were inexpensive “Shirley Temples” made with Sprite and grenadine. 

Homemade sugar cookies

Homemade marshmallow pops

The kids had plenty to eat and most even took some treats home with them.  If I had served lunch, I would have busted my budget for sure.

TIP 3

Start planning early.  I always start planning my parties well in advance.  One reason for this is that I just can’t help myself – I’m always looking forward to the next party =) 

The main reason, though, is so I can start looking for items that are deeply discounted that go with my theme.  You can find cute buckets, frames, serving pieces, scrapbook paper/supplies, etc. on major clearance at craft stores if you know what you are looking for.  It might be on sale six months before your party, but if you know your theme ahead of time you can purchase it at a great price.

TIP 4

Use party printables (reasonably priced ones).  In my opinion, cute party printables really do make your party.  However, you have to factor in the cost of purchasing them as well as printing them.  If you purchase a very expensive party printable package and then go to the office supply store to get it printed (or use up all of your own very expensive ink!), you might be shocked at how much of your budget is gone.  Shop around, and find a reasonably priced printable package.

Inexpensive printables

I was able to find a great one for my Paris party for only $10!  Even if you can only afford to get one printable item, such as cupcake toppers/party circles, print a bunch of them and use them everywhere.  Other than cupcakes, you can use them as favor tags, to dress up store bought party hats, or even glue them to ribbons and have them hanging from your chandelier.  For my Paris party, my very talented mom embellished the already adorable banner that I printed, and it looked like a million bucks!

Embellished banner

TIP 5

Do it yourself.  People tell me all the time that they “can’t” make things, or they “aren’t crafty.”  Well, let me tell you – if you have a small budget, you’ll figure it out quickly =) 

Every single party I do, I make most of the decorations.  There are SO many tutorials out there in blog land – just Google what you are looking for and you are sure to find instructions on how to make it.  Everything might not be perfect, but my kids don’t care – and they are SO proud to tell their friends, “My mom made that!” 

For this party, I wanted a beautiful floral arrangement for my front door, and while I do consider myself pretty crafty, I am NO floral arranger – at all!  But, I was determined, so I purchased five bunches of flowers at the Dollar Tree and played around with them in a door bucket I already had until I achieved the look I liked.  I tied a little ribbon and tulle around it, stuck in a party sign (and a cute little poodle) and voila! I can only imagine how much I would have paid a professional to design that bucket for me.  Certainly more than the $5 it cost me =)

Home made flower arrangement to welcome the guests

Home made hair flower party favors

Here is the breakdown of the cost of my party.  (My mom purchased the adorable little macarons from Trader Joe’s as well as some of the candy):

• Printables/printing – $15
• Paper goods – $12
• French cupcake tags (used as party décor) – $4
• Flowers (from Dollar Tree – five bunches) – $5
• Candy – $6
• Poodles (party favors – purchased from Oriental Trading) – $15
• Craft supplies – $9 (I already had many supplies on hand, such as ribbon, glue, tulle, rhinestones, etc.)
• Baking supplies – $8 (had some on hand, only needed to purchase candy melts and some extra canned icing)

Total spent:  $74

Just amazing, Heather! Thank for sharing all your smart tips. It shows that with a little ingenuity, you can add lots of special touches without spending a fortune.

If you haven’t already, check out the rest of Heather’s chic party.

Clemens B‘s sister-in-law created these amazing paper baby shoe favors for her baby shower, and now she has created this easy tutorial with a FREE downloadable baby shoe template.

To create these shoe favors, all you need are scissors, glue, paper, embellishments, and some good cutting skills. That’s it!

To learn how simple they are to make and download the baby shoe template, head to A Blog by Clemens Designs.

Also, to learn more about Clemens, check out her Clemens Designs vendor page.

And for all you Brazilian out there, please check out Clemens’ sister-in-law’s online store, elo7.