Valentine party favors NONFOOD???

[pigfingers]

Ok, my daughter is stamping her own Valentines (thank you ladies for the reminder of what is important!!!)

BUT I have signed up for party favors for her preschool. (all that was left was hoodsies or this, and I did Hoodsies last time so there it goes)

SOOO we can't put any food/candy or lip gloss items in the goody bag whatsoever because of allergies. Here is what I came up with, keeping in mind there are 25 kids so keeping costs down, otherwise I would be spending $100!

For each child (4 y/o):
-Valentine cello bag/ twistie tie
-Valentine pencil with Valentine eraser/pencil topper
-A "tracing strip" I found in the party aisle, basically a plastic 3 x 6 stencil
-Some stickers (I think I can get by the sticker at the local party shop)

?? Do you think I should make little notebooks to go in? I have a ream of that paper that kids write on, and other drawing paper, I could make 25 little mini notebooks and seal with brads (I have boxes of those) ?

Do you think they would like bookmarks? I could make those. Is that too geeky?

Anything else you think? I can't order through Oriental Trading, it is too late for that unfortunately all would have to be locally bought/made. No candy of any kind.

They will be having a party, having snacks, exchanging valentines, but my party favor is it -- no other mom is doing them, I am it, so what do you think? I want something in there the kids will like/use.
I just updated, I forgot that I got some stencils also, see above-

[instcollector]

I just returned from Big Lots (if you have one), and they had darling Valentine stickers and tons of inexpensive items....many were non-food, also.

[stamper-c]

try your $ store...you might be able to get some party favor type things in sets of 12...I know mine sometime has items from OTC...I usually go crazy with the kids goody bags and make things, etc...the only person that seems to care is me though!! The pencils and stickers are a good idea as well. Bookmarks are cute if you can put some novelty on them like beads, etc...
good luck!

[Buckeye Stamper]

My daughter went trick-or-treating at the local businesses in town and this year the library had a really cute idea,

Balls,

They had little volleyballs, basketballs, soccer balls, basketballs etc.

That was a great idea.

I like your idea for stickers, but maybe crayons instead of pencils? I don't know a lot of little ones that use pencils. Or Big lots (or the dollar store) had big crayons you could give them each a couple or they had bathtub crayons. Something like that would be fun!

Big lots also had really inexpensive coloring books. Even if you went to the dollar store it would only be $25...

just my 2 cents

[StamperedChef]

Make valentine pins. I bought a bag of 100 pin backs at michaels for about $4 and we glued squares of CS together and stamped on the top one, colored it in and embossed with Holographic highlights. super cute and useful too!

[scrapingirl]

what's a hoodsie??

I think you have a lot of nice things to include in each package. Preschoolers love little goodies bags filled with stickers, crayons, etc.
What about homemade play dough? Or maybe it falls under a food allergy?
Lisa

[crabbymommyof2]

I just did my son's goodie bags for his birthday. One of the things we put in was mini play-dough.
I got them at Walmart and they were 6 mini cans for $.88. The brand was Rose Art.
At our store they were in the toys. Just an idea!

[crabbymommyof2]

Oh, I forgot to ask...what are hoodsies?

[lauraos]

I also go to Party City or iParty and they have lots of small favors for affordable prices.

[cjzim]

I also want to know what Hoodsies are! I've been teaching preschool for 25 years and I have never heard of Hoodsies!!!

[PaperRapt]

I would hit the Target B-day party goods aisle! They always have packages of those little glittery bouncy balls, paddles/balls, little wind up/hopping toys. Their selection is heaps better than Walmart's.

Annette
http://stamponthis.com

[dashpaugh]

I just saw at Target in the valentine section the cutest lipstick erasers for girls and sports ball erasers for the boys (there were 16 in a package for $1.99. They also had chinese yo-yo's and mini bubbles.

[pigfingers]

Quote:

Originally Posted by scrapingirl

what's a hoodsie??

I think you have a lot of nice things to include in each package. Preschoolers love little goodies bags filled with stickers, crayons, etc.
What about homemade play dough? Or maybe it falls under a food allergy?
Lisa

Wow, I guess Hoodsies might be a regional thing? Hoodsies are those little individual ice creams that Hood puts out == like a little bowl with vanilla and chocolate ice cream with a cardboard lid. They come in a bags of a dozen or 25 or something like that. Everybody around here always gets them for parties because it is easier than dishing out individual ice creams, so they get those.

I might go back to look at those 3-packs of playdough, I am not sure about the allergy though, thanks for thinking of that -- our school only uses the homemade kind so maybe that is why? Maybe I should pass on that then and save the idea for her birthday party when I know all the kids that are coming.

I ended up finding some cute foam stamps 4/$1 at the Dollar Tree and some coloring/activity books 3/$1, I might look for an alternative for the pencils since I have had quite a few comments (here and from another preschool mom) mentioned that they might not be age-appropriate so I will look for crayons/markers and some stickers to go in. I will probably hit Target, as a few here mentioned there and I have exhausted our Walmart and Dollar Tree.

Thank you all for the advice, SCSers are great people!

[cardqueen]

Maybe make some sort of sticker albulm. Older girls in our school use small cheap photo albulms because they can peel the stickers on & off to swap. It would go with stickers you wan to give & you could dress it up with a special card front in the front page (say valentine themed) Just a idea. Hope it helps. Maureen

[Midnight Stamper]

I no longer have small children but I remember having to be careful about not giving pre-schoolers things they can choke on. I used to have a little choke tester for everything. But then again I was a very weird mom :?

Remember you can stamp on your cello bags with your Stazon pads - they work great and give it that finished look. Also you can use some grosgrain ribbon to tie it off, or even make toppers.

Sometimes places will give you little free coupons if you go in and explain what you are doing. I went to Dairy Queen and asked to buy some little Dilly Bar cards (the ones they put in their kids meals) and told them I was going to give them for little gifts for some of my church girls and they just handed me a stack of them - for free! -- I knew I should have asked for a bunch of Double Bacon Cheeseburgers - ha ha

[preshus2]

I don't know what state you live in, but here in NY (and I know it's the same down in VA my hometown) the Dollar Tree brand stores have excellent things there. I am really not a dollar store person, but this chain of stores carries some excellent things.

Also, in Michaels, they have these really cool dollar bins that you could check out...one other place now is Target. At least at mine right near the enterance there is a section now of $1 only items. I saw some really neat things there recently geared for Preschoolers...mini stuffed kitty cats and dogs..very adorable and all $1..can't beat that!

Good Luck!
Emily

[lovemykids]

I didn't have time to read all posts, so someone may have mentioned this, one year I took all my old crayons, broke them into small pieces and then melted them into a candy mold (metal) in the oven! It makes some great multi colored BIG crayon chunks! AND IT DIDN'T COST A THING! It would be cute to make them into hearts! But if you don't have a heart mold you can use a muffin pan. I think I sprayed with Pam before heating.

[nwshelly]

I like to give little things of bubbles...

You can buy the 'wedding' ones at Michaels and either stamp or print on labels and make them for whatever occasion you need. The containers are wedding themed orginally so they are white which you can make go with anything.

[Laurel]

Check this out:
Gallery at Splitcoaststampers

You could use pencils instead of the Pixie Sticks. I am sure you can get Valentine pencils at the $ Store or Big Lots 10/$1. I made this exact thing at my Stamp Camp last week and they loved it! Thanks to the person who made this for sharing

[queen bee]

For a first grade classroom I did small zip loc bags, about 4x4 sold at Paper Zone, filled with bird seed and and attached poem:
I gave a hundred Valentines,
A hundred, did I say?
I gave a thousand Valentines
one cold and wintery day.
I didn't put my name one them
or any other owrd,
because my Valentines were
seeds for Feburary birds.
Do the poem on the computer, make it cute with athe font and paper and add an appropriate stamp.