A Well Crafted Life Archives – Page 3 of 33

Christmas

Holiday Survival Kit Party Favors + Free Printable

December 10, 2018 1 Comment Christmas

There are so many fun options for holiday party favors… ornaments, sugar cookies, chocolates, stocking stuffers, etc. I wanted to do something a tad different for this holiday party. For this party, I wanted to share a holiday survival gift as a party favor! But, then I was stumped… what should I put in a holiday survival kit!?

This is the tenth post of my 12 Days of Christmas DIYs for 2018. Each day for the next twelve days I share DIY projects, recipes, entertainment, and more, that you can incorporate into your holiday season.

Holiday Survival Kit Party Favors from A Well Crafted Party — Party Favors!

I had so much fun researching ideas for a holiday survival kit. Many friends were texted, my husband was quizzed, and Pinterest was searched! I didn’t want it to be stuff like a penny or a piece of tape though, I wanted it to be USEFUL, funny, and… most of all, I wanted it to make sense!

The great thing about creating a holiday survival gift party favor is that you can create your own with any items that you feel would help get your guests through the holiday season. But, because it is helpful to have a guide… here is what I built my kit with:

Everyone needs tape at Christmas, right?

Holiday Survival Kit

(The below links are affiliate links. A small portion of the purchases made through an affiliate link goes to supporting this blog at no additional cost to the shopper. Thank you for supporting A Well Crafted Party!)

Popcorn box — I gave my favor in cute little popcorn boxes, but simple muslin or cellophane bags would have done the trick just as well!
Tape— “To remind you to stick to your list.” Also, just between you and me, I’m always running out of tape right before finishing my holiday wrapping!
Batteries—”For the energy to get through your 5th ugly sweater party.” Also, because you ALWAYS need batteries over the holidays!
Balance Tea— “To remind you to relax. It is only a season, after all.” Other tea bags that would be great for this is chamomile or a de-stress type tea.
Chocolate— “Because you deserve a treat!” Also… chocolate.
Lotto Ticket— “So that you have hope!”

Other survival kit ideas

Of course… AFTER I created these kits I got a few other fun ideas.

Small donations to a favorite charity to remind your guests the true meaning of the season.
Ear plugs to protect your ears from all of the screaming kids. (Good screaming though, because… Santa!!!)
Mini ice scraper because “sleet happens” (from a super creative friend of mine!)
Fillable gift certificate that can be used in case of emergency gift situations
Mini bottles of alcohol for some “holiday cheer”

Free Printable Tag for your Holiday Survival Kit from A Well Crafted Party

Holiday Survival Kit Free Printable

Because I’m me and I love a good printable I created a fun little tag to put onto my holiday survival kits. I’ve created a fillable PDF so that you can make your own as well!

Directions:

Download the free printable holiday survival kit tags and save to your computer.
Fill in the tags using your favorite PDF software (Adobe Acrobat and Google work for this) using the items you are including in your gift.
Print on white cardstock in full color.
Cut out around the outer lines. Then cut into the white lines that are next to the elf’s arms. Fold on the line. Those two little tabs that are left can be taped or set onto your gift. Don’t need them? Cut them off and hole punch through the elf’s hat to make a tag you can use with a ribbon!

A Well Crafted Sponsor

The Gift of Music + Free Printable

December 7, 2018 3 Comments A Well Crafted Sponsor

Anyone else out there getting overwhelmed with the number of wants and THINGS? I am a gift giver by nature and love to see someone’s face light up with a gift I’ve given, but as my kids’ age, I’ve really begun to appreciate the “experience gift” over the next new toy. What’s great about this particular experience gift is that it is the ultimate DIY– learning a new skill!

This is the seventh day of my 12 Days of Christmas DIYs for 2018. Each day for the next twelve days I share DIY projects, recipes, entertainment, and more, that you can incorporate in your holiday season. Most will be super simple! This post is in partnership with the Hoffman Academy. I received complimentary services. All images and opinions are my own.

I am a part of several moms groups on Facebook and as this holiday season arrives there are countless posts looking for ideas for experience gifts that they can suggest to grandparents or loved ones for their children to help stave off some of the over-abundance of the season. I love this idea but have never really had great options in the past. I’d love to gift my child lessons or sports items, but I also know that it can be SUCH A huge time commitment that I hesitate to do something similar for someone I know. When I discovered Hoffman Academy, an online piano lesson site, I was super excited about the opportunity to do lessons on our own time.

A bit about Hoffman Academy

Hoffman Academy is an online piano lesson “experience,” credited with turning children, from beginner to advanced levels, into extraordinary musicians. Children develop their skill easily and quickly via the “Hoffman Method,” which focuses on learning by ear before learning by eye. Online games help with mastery of concepts and practice tracks make students feel like pros. This new way to learn the piano is engaging, entertaining and effective – and a great way to give the special gift of music, for the holidays and year round.

All of the video lessons are available for free! However, the premium package offers printables, daily practice instructions, games, and much more. Budding musicians can now receive a full year of the Hoffman Academy Premium package for $179! For Ages 5+.

** Holiday Special Update: For a limited time (ending Monday, December 14th at 11:50 PM PST) purchase a year of Hoffman Academy Premium and receive THREE additional memberships! Learn more on the Hoffman Academy website. **

The really cool part (for me at least) is that you can create a parent/mentor account and add your children (or yourself!) as students. My account has both myself and my son as students and the system will keep track of both of our progress individually. Yep, you read that right… I’m learning the piano too! I’d love to be able to break out some sweet piano skills in the middle of a party! Again, the accounts are totally free and you have access to the video lessons right off the bat. Then if you find that you’d like the premium features it is only $18 a month with $9/month per additional student.

Twelve Days of Christmas Songs

In the upcoming weeks, the Hoffman Academy will be releasing twelve different lessons featuring a different holiday tune so that you can learn a new holiday song each day! Check out some of the videos from last year’s 12 Days of Christmas Songs on the Hoffman Academy blog.

DIY Piano Experience Gift Card

You still want to make giving an experience gift as fun as giving a toy. When it is a promo code or gift card it makes it a tad hard to make it super fun.. but, you can use the attached card as a tag added to a gifted keyboard or piano or an adorbable stuffed animal as pictured above. Or, you can slip the free printable piano card into an envelope with a message about the gift.

This gift card would work perfect for a gift subscription to the Hoffman Academy, to give with tickets to a symphony concert, or as an invitation to a holiday karaoke party!

Directions for free printable piano holiday card:

Download the free printable piano card file.
Print double-sided on cardstock
On the side with the piano, cut out along the charcoal colored outer line. Fold the card down the center. Once folded you may find that you need to trim the card a bit.

Christmas

White Elephant Gift Wrap Ideas + Free Printables

December 6, 2018 3 Comments Christmas

I love a good white elephant gift exchange. It gives people the opportunity to mingle and laugh and sends everyone home with a gift! This year I’m attending four different parties with white elephant gift exchanges! One of my goals each time is to create a package that really makes people want to open my gift… and then fill the package with something that is sure to be stolen a few times. I created these white elephant gift wrap printables with the adorable illustrations from Lorats from Freepik.

This is the sixth day of my 12 Days of Christmas DIYs for 2018. Each day for the next twelve days I share DIY projects, recipes, entertainment, and more, that you can incorporate in your holiday season. Most will be super simple!

So, how do you play White Elephant? I am pretty sure everytime someone has described the game it has sounded complicated, but in practice, it is really simple and a lot of fun. I’ll share the rules I have always played by, but always run with the host’s rules!

How to Play White Elephant

All players must have provided a wrapped give of a determined value and/or theme. Most of the times I’ve played the gifts were valued from $15-$25. However, I have totally played with a $10 limit before and had just as much fun. I added in theme here because I’ve been to some white elephant games that set not only a price range but also a theme for a party. One of my favorite traditions is attending a mug swap with friends and we all get different mugs and then play a game of white elephant for the mugs.
Write down a number for each of the gifts and put all the numbers in a bowl/hat/box/what-have-you.
Have every person draw a number.
The person that receives the number one is a very special player. They get the opportunity to go first, but then at the end of the game, they have the opportunity to steal a gift that hasn’t been locked (more on that later).
Person one picks a gift and opens it. They make sure to show the gift to everyone present.
Person two then has the option to either open a new gift or steal the gift from person number one. If they choose to steal the gift then person number one gets to open a new gift.
Each gift can be stolen only twice. Once it has been stolen a second time (so it has reached its third owner) it is locked and cannot be stolen again.
You can steal a gift back that was stolen from you only if it was not JUST stolen from you and is not locked.
At the end of the game the person with the number one gets the opportunity to either steal or end the game. If they steal then the person they steal from has the opportunity to steal, etc. In that case the game goes on until someone ends it by no longer stealing. The gifts that have been locked may not be stolen.

Tips for Great White Elephant Games

Pick a gift that you truly love or think that others will love. Sometimes White Elephant games are called “Dirty Santa” and are gag gifts. Even in that case, go for the funniest gift available rather than the dud gift. No one wants to go home with a dud!
Wrap it up nice! Make the gift look so fun that someone wants to open it up right away. It is fun to see your gift opened up and stolen. Plus, people really enjoy opening gifts. On that note, don’t make the gift too complicated to open. Everyone will be watching and time may be limited.

Free White Elephant Wrapping Printables

Below are some free (for personal use) printable gift wrap items to help make your white elephant gift extra adorable. I mean… if I saw a gift with cute little elephants on it at a White Elephant Party, well, I’d for sure pick it!

Download the White Elephant Gift Tags 2UP: These are the larger tags. Print on cardstock, cut out along red outer lines, and hole punch the top circle. Attach to your gift with ribbon.
Download the White Elephant Gift Tags 4UP: These are slightly smaller tags. Print on cardstock, cut out along red outer lines, and hole punch the top circle. Attach to your gift with ribbon.
Download the 8.5X11 White Elephant Gift Wrap: Print this out on copy paper using a home printer or, for better quality, print at your local print shop. This size is perfect for small trinkets.
Download the 11X17 White Elephant Gift Wrap: Print this on copy weight paper at your local print shop.
Download the 18X24 White Elephant Gift Wrap: Print as a color engineering print from your local Staples or favorite print shop.