Birthday Party Favors Guests Can Make and Keep

It's easy to go out and buy birthday party favors, but the best favors are the ones that the partygoers have a hand in making themselves. Here are two great ideas for bitrhday party activities that result in favors and that will work for children and teens.

For the first activity, "Sand Art," you need:

A variety of glass bottles, either bought from craft fairs or baby food jars, empty syrup or jam jars, or any jars with interesting shapes.
Several types of Koolaid or other brand drink crystals, brightly colored,in 8-quart continers
Cocoa (optional,if you want brown in your colors)
Spoons
Small funnels (you can make one by cutting one edge off a large envelope or the bottom out of a paerp cup)

Cover the floor and the work table with plastic or newspaper. Provide old shirts, slit plastic bags, or other protective covering for clothes.

Open the containers so guests can choose their colors. Have each guest choose a bottle and place their funnel in the top of their bottle. Let them spoon or carefully pour the crystals into the bottles in any order they prefer until bottles are full. Take the spoons and poke around in the crystals to make designs. Cap or cork the bottles.

Presto! Your guests have beautiful birthday party favors to take home that they made themselves.

The next activity, "Decorated T-shirts," is very, very easy. Even adults enjoy this one, if they are fun-loving enough to admit it. It's great for mixed-age, outdoor parties, especially if you have a patio, deck, or picnic table to work on.

You need:

Enough white t-shirts for each guest (Either buy them in packs for about a dollar each, or request that guests bring them with them)
Non-toxic fabric paint
Old shirts or other protective covering for clothing

Put down thick cardboard, such as flattened boxes, to cover your entire work area. Put thinner pieces of cardboard inside each t-shirt, so the paint won't bleed through to the back. Tape the shirts down, hand out the fabric paints, and let each guest set his or her creativity free! Once the shirts are dry, they are memorable, wearable birthday party favors that last a lot longer than little trinkets!