Mini Makeover: Make Your Own Birthday Party-in-a-Box

As you’ve probably guessed by now, it’s birthday week on the blog this week! Style for a Happy Home officially turned ONE yesterday! Hooray! To celebrate I decided that I would send out a party-in-a-box to 9 of the people who have really made my first year of SFAHH special. At first it seemed really over the top to make such a fuss, but then I realised that it I really wanted to make it something to remember as this blog and this past year have really helped to shape my future in the best kind of way. And I have to tell you, making these up was the best fun I’ve had in a long time!

Today I wanted to share with you what I put in my blog birthday party-in-a-box and how you can make your own! *throws confetti*

What to include:

1. A Gift Box – This one is cardboard, suitable for mailing and doesn’t crush easily. I also covered it in polka dots (see my tutorial for it here) It’s 220 x 160 x 77 mm in size. I bought in bulk from eBay and they cost me about 64c each. Some were pink and some were green.
   
2. An Invite and a Business Card – I made a cute invite to add to the box so people would know how they could celebrate with me. I had an Instagram party and asked them to add a photo of them enjoying the goodies (or just a photo of the goodies if they preferred) and include the hashtag #sfahhturnsone. (The photos they shared are so fun, so do have a look at them on IG or here if you get the chance). The business card is optional, but they are new and I wanted to share them around – each one is a different colour.
3. Party Hat and Two Blowouts – What’s a party without these two things? I got the party hats from Spotlight ($2.49 for 6/pk). The laser blowouts (the sparkly ones) were from Spotlight $1.49 from Spotlight for 6/pk. The paper blowouts were from Coles $3 for 20/pk. The party hats were either orange, green or yellow.
   
4. Balloons (1 Green & 1 Pink) – I got these from my local overstock/discount store. The packs were $2.50 for 25 of a single colour.
5. A Birthday Candle – I added a birthday candle to each on a card saying: “Make a Wish on Me… To celebrate Style for a Happy Home’s 1st Birthday please make a wish for yourself to join in the festivities. This was just a fun way to add to the “party” and a to share my birthday candle tradition with everyone.
6. A Handmade Gift (in pretty wrapping) – I decided to make everyone a pair of home coasters that they could keep and wrapped them up so they had something to unwrap as part of the “party”. I’ll share how you can make your own next week. This image shows both the wrapped gift and what they look like unwrapped. Some had green ribbon and some had pink and all were topped with my new moo.com stickers.
7. A Handmade Bonbon and a fun-sized Chocolate – I made the bonbons using 200gsm paper cut to the size of a toilet roll (then cut in half again so it broke open easily) and wrapped them in tissue paper. I added a cocktail umbrella (24/pk $2 from the overstock store) so they would have something that would fall out. You could also add your own jokes or fortunes or even confetti to make it extra fun. The sides were tied with curling ribbon. Some were green and some were pink. The fun-size chocolate was added because they’re one of my favourite parts of a party.
8. A Thank You Card – I added a personal thank you to each and every box that I sent out and stuck it to the top of the box with their name on it in my blog’s font. It also gave a little bit of an explanation of why they received the box. Saying thank you is really important to me, so this was a must.
9. Homemade Cookies – Yep! I made everyone cookies in my blog’s initials! Cake was going to be too difficult to send so I thought these would make a great alternative. They stay fresh longer (they’re a sugar cookie) and they were just so fun to decorate. I love the way they turned out. Sprinkles are confetti for food after all. ;) (I think I’ll blog these in a couple of weeks. Let me know if you’d like me too).
10. Homemade Confetti – I didn’t like the confetti available at the party stores that I visited so I decided to make my own. I took half a sheet of green tissue paper and half a sheet of pink and roughly cut them up to make confetti for the boxes. They turned out very fun.
11. Not pictured: Tissue Paper – for lining the bottom of the boxes. I used half a sheet for each box. I got the tissue paper for $1 for 5 sheets from the overstock store. Both green and pink were used.

How to pack the birthday party-in-a-box:

Once you’ve got all you want to add to the party-in-a-box open the box and first add the tissue paper. I cut the half sheet in half again and scrunched each sheet separately. I then unscrunched each sheet and added one the the base of the box followed by the other, so there was two layers of tissue paper. Then I added the wrapped gift to the top right corner. You can add them in a way that works best for you, this is what worked for me and the little box. Then I added the candle on the piece of card.

Next, on the left I added the party hat with the tip sitting in the bottom left corner. I then added the fun-sized chocolate inside the hat and the balloons too. Then I added the business card and the blowouts into the gaps. Next was the bonbon which went to the bottom right of the box.

I then individually wrapped the cookies in cellophane and stacked them up. Then I added them to a cellophane bag (still stacked) so that they wouldn’t move. Because they were going by post I then also added a layer of bubble wrap in the hope that they would arrive in one piece. Then I added them to the top right of the box. This worked really well as they sat really snugly in the box as the top of the box held them in place and they couldn’t move around inside the box.

Next I added the homemade confetti to the box, which filled most of the gaps. Then I added the invite so it was inside the box but above everything else. Then I closed up the box, wrote the thank you card, labelled the envelope, sealed it with one of my stickers and attached the envelope to the top of the box with some washi tape.

They then went into the 3kg express post bags and were tracked to their destinations.

Thoughts on the project:

I loved doing this. Not only did I get to share a special day with some of my biggest blog supporters I also had a blast thinking it all up and actually making it happen. It took a lot of work, mainly because of the scale of it, but I just loved that I was able to share the love around. I chose the green and pink colour scheme because they are my blog’s colours, and I thought it was a nice tie in. One of the boxes went to Bec of Mumma Tells and she told me that the party in a box had kept her 2 year old engaged and happy all morning! What better praise than that?!

I kept the details a surprise and only warned them that ‘a little thank you was coming in the post’, which made it extra fun to see their comments and instagram photos after they received them! So. Much. Fun.

In terms of making a party-in-a-box there are quite a lot of ideas on what what you can put in them, but I noticed from the ones I saw that most were just party supplies in a box rather than something for an individual. I chose to make mine this way because I wanted it to feel more like they were a virtual party guest than just sending supplies for them to create their own party. I loved how it turned out and it definitely made this blog birthday one to remember! My only worry is how to step it up next year! Eep!

 Giveaway Time:

To celebrate SFAHH turning one, I’m giving one of these boxes away! Hooray!

To win one of these boxes (with freshly made cookies) answer this in the comments below: What’s your favourite party food?

• Open from 12 June 2014 to 17 June 2014 at 8pm ADST for Australian Residents only (due to postal restrictions – sorry)
• Prize is 1x SFAHH Birthday Party-in-a-Box (value approx $20)
• Prize will be drawn at 8:05pm ADST 17 June 2014 winner will be emailed asking for a postal address
• You must enter a valid email address in the email section below and be contactable if you win
• One entry per person
• If the winner doesn’t reply by 24 June 2014 the prize will be redrawn
• Winner will be drawn using random number generator – this is a game of chance

Good luck! x

GIVEAWAY CLOSED – WINNER HAS BEEN NOTIFIED – THANKS FOR ENTERING!