Growing up I don't really remember party favors. But then again I grew up in rural Canada in a time where fun jumps consisted of your parent's couch and if you wanted a birthday cake your mother had to actually bake it!

Are party favors something that started with the whole ''everybody has to get a trophy'' generation? Who knows. I wonder if wikipedia specializes in this ground breaking information?

In any case, this year instead of hitting the Walmart dollar party favor section...also known as every plastic piece of shit toy you wouldn't even want to give to your dog to chew on for fear of a sudden deathly dye intoxication....I decided to get a little more creative.

While scurrying around the internet for some cool DYI project that was fun yet didn't take up to much of my existence, I came upon something called FELT ART POUCHES.

Two things:

1. These suckers kept my kids busy for at least 30 minutes....just long enough to watch a Kardashian train wreck.

2. For once in my life, after my child's birthday party, I am not stepping on random Spongebob trinkets and/or little army men with tangled plastic parachutes that I swear are made by cruel trolls who get off on torturing exhausted mothers.

So I figured I'd share the how-to's.

Here goes.

Felt Art Pouches

Materiels

Felt Sheets

Ribbon

Foam/felt art stickers

Crayons, paper, stickers, etc

Glue Gun

Place the crayons and paper, stickers, etc on the felt sheet and fold up the bottom to where you want your pockets to be. Usually about half way.

Unfold the felt and with the glue gun draw lines where the edges of the pockets will be.

Fold up the bottom and press where the glue is to make sure it sticks.

Fold the top of the felt sheet down and turn to the other side.

With the glue gun, glue a piece of ribbon along the back.

Flip it back over and fold in half and tie the ribbon.

Glue any other decorations you wish. I used foam art letters with the sticky back and felt stickers to decorate.

You can get as creative as you want!

These are the ones I made for Luke's birthday.

Photo by Gwen Aucoin

Photo by Gwen Aucoin

These are also great for the car when the whining and screaming is accentuating your road rage.

Party favor on!!

(This idea was orginially seen at http://charlottesfancy.com/2010/07/12/easy-felt-art-pouches/).