Today posed our first Compact challenge - a birthday party for two little girls, sisters, turning one and four. I spent much of the day on Friday trawling through op-shops, keeping my eye out for childrens books and toys to see if I could pick something up for them. But after nothing really jumped out at me, I decided the better option would be to make something. Of course it had to be something fun for the girls, but quick and easy for me to make - especially given the fact that I decided on this at 5:30pm Friday, we were going out to dinner at 6, and then the party was at noon on Saturday.
I decided on a felt board for the 4 year old, somewhat inspired by this one. The friends we had dinner with last night actually had some big sturdy boxes to give away, which I made use of for the board. The adhesive spray, backing fabric, felt and cardboard for backing I had already. I cut out only a few basic shapes, as well as the numbers 0-9, and the letters of the birthday girl's name. I also included a little plastic bag to hold the shapes, with seven or eight scraps of felt for her to cut her own shapes from.
For the one year old, I decided (thanks to a suggestion from my mum), that playdough was the way to go. I used the recipe for cooked playdough on top of the cream of tartar container, splitting it into four and colouring them in vibrant shades of pink, yellow, green and blue. I put each colour in it's own personally labelled container, and added a container with four cookie cutters in it. Most of the ingredients I already had, and those I didn't were very cheap. The containers to put them in cost me $3, and the cookie cutters were doubles of a set I already owned.
I was a little apprehensive about how these obviously homemade gifts would be received, in amongst all the shiny new toys, but they were both a hit. Though I didn't know this when I chose the felt board, the birthday girl's mum told me that Shannon "loves making shapes into pictures". I knew the gift was a success when I saw Shannon running around holding onto the felt board, desperate to rip the cellophane off and start playing. The playdough was also well-received, and the girls parents were impressed, and touched, that we made their gifts. So, two birthday gifts for $3 - our first compact challenge... and success!
2 comments:
Umm can I have some of the play-dough? I get hungry when I look at it. I am sure that I was the annoying little kid that used to eat it in preschool. :)
Well done on the board too. Do the little pieces stick on the board on their own or did you put some Velcro type stuff on the back?
I'm VERY impressed with the Compact challenge. We've only been in Australia for about 4 monthes and noticed how it is much more environmentally friendly than the states. You are definitely taking it a step further in the right direction! :)
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