Birthday #2

(Continued from my previous post)

As I mentioned, I had three parties this weekend. Fortunately the second (the family party) required no decorations. But the party for my daughter and her friends needed something more than cake and ice cream. So I made these little purses I purchased the shape for in the Silhouette store ages ago. I used the shape Purse (ID #6282) which has a snowflake cutout in it, but I just deleted the snowflake.

The file has no suggestions for a closure on the purse, so I had to figure out my own since the handle is attached to the lid. Fortunately, I have been hoarding a package of Basic Grey magnetic snap closures. I had six sets left, which was the perfect number. These are very thin little adhesive-backed magnets. I had to play around to get the right combination of position on the purse and layers of paper, because the magnets are so strong that on this application it wanted to pull the magnet off the paper instead of pulling apart at the magnets. (My cardstock was a little lightweight. Stiffer cardstock for the purses would have been better for these magnets.) I found that a thin strip of printer paper taped over one magnet left the perfect amount of strength to hold it together without tearing the magnet off the purse. A strip of cardstock was too thick, and using a magnet on the inside instead of outside of the purse wasn’t quite strong enough.  FYI, little velcro closures would have been my next choice if I didn’t use these magnets.

The paper was from my stash, as were the ribbon and eyelets I used. So if you consider that I had all these things on hand, sitting around for more than six months, that means the project was free, right? I even bought the $1 shape more than six months ago! All I had to buy for the purses was the candy to put inside.

Again, I let my daughter have input into the activities, so she wanted to play some games like Duck-Duck-Goose, a bean bag toss, and make some kind of craft. We bought a jewelry-decorating kit from Super Target which had 6 bracelets, 6 rings, and a ton of foam stickers and rhinestones, all for $5. After the active games (which we had to play inside because of a sudden hail storm), we sat down to decorate the jewelry and purses. Such fun for a bunch of 5-8 year old girls!

Whew! I’m glad these parties are over and everyone had fun. And I fulfilled my obligation to make something crafty. 🙂

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