goodie bag alternative.

I hate goodie bags. There, I said it. I've come a full circle on this and here's my journey: growing up I had three younger brothers. When it came time for birthday parties, I generally opted or was voluntold to stuff goodie bags, to the extent that I considered myself an expert. I could balance the content colors/options with my homegrown organization system and could have them knocked out in no time flat.

Enter parenthood: as a parent who is throwing a party, you feel compelled to stuff these little bags with themed items that balance out candy, favor, gender, etc. As a parent of a child who comes home with one of these goodie bags, you're left with a bag full of crap that you'll sneak to throw away as soon as your kid goes to sleep. A plastic top that doesn't spin? Trash. A four-page notepad that is as big as a stamp and rips as soon as you open it? Trash. Erasers that a toddler will surely eat? Trash. Candy that will jack them up after you worked to wear them out at the party? In my tummy.

So I turned to my fellow parents online and (thank goodness) I'm not the only one out there. LOTS of parents feel the same way that I do! Sanity check, complete. As we prep for Nate's fourth birthday this weekend, I decided to take a stand and do a goodie bag alternative. I'm so happy with the results that ended up being a little over a dollar a piece (score!). My mission: provide something that can be used and then discarded easily, while not being a labor intensive project. This took about 30 minutes to assemble, with frequent distractions:

Materials: 
(some of these are completely optional and can be easily substituted for items already in your house)

• 4-packs of Crayola chalk (20 packs at $0.60 each) 
• 1 pack of double-sided tape, generic brand ($0.97)
• Multicolor card stock ($3.18) 
• Edging scissors ($5.99) 
• TOTAL: $22.14

 Directions:

• Shop for your supplies. Use some time and planning so that you can buy all of your materials on sale or with a coupon. Everything that I bought was either on sale and/or had a coupon. Craft stores are great places to find good deals. Also use generic brands whenever you can or want. 
  
• Decide how you want to convey your message on your product. I wanted this to be a 'thank you for coming' gift that also tied in with my son's theme (Scooby Doo). I used PowerPoint (2 slides per page) to make sure that I had uniform size and spacing, a fun font, and a stock photo that would easily print with black ink. 
• Cut out the designs printed on the card stock with your edging scissors 
• Affix each thank you message to the chalk with the double-sided tape (I opted to cover all of the labels that described the different themes of the chalk - easier to pass out at the party!)
  
  
• Voila! Enjoy your finished product! Pat yourself on the back for breaking the vicious goodie bag cycle and for cutting down on your expenses and other parents' clutter :)