DIY JUNKIE: Goodies – The Little Things That Count

When I was planning a surprise pre-baby shower for a dear friend, we didn’t want to splurge so much on the stuffs because we wanted to enjoy more on food so I decided to minimize buying & increase personalization!

Personalization =  DIY-ing!

What exactly did we end up doing ourselves? The little realistical things that we could do. Like…

• Individual name tags
• Handkerchiefs – made into lollipops
• Writable photo frames
• Cupcakes accessories

I’m not going to lie so I’m going to come out & say it – Daiso helped a lot. Budgetwise – it is the place to get cool-value-for-money stuff. Also, if say you’re buying stuff for 6 – 10 people, that are the same kinda things but you’re looking for different patterns, then Daiso is the place to be!

Today, I’m going to share with you TWO things that we did to spice up our goodie bags!

Pretty Little Name Tags

I’m going to be shameless  – yes, our goodie bags were lovely, what with the blue & green & the polka dots bags that we got from Daiso! (Do I sound like a Daiso fan or what!) .

Our plan was to include a couple of girly things in the goodie bag – bookmarks, handkerchief, cute mugs – all to suit the different personalities (there were 6 of us). That means they had to be differently patterned & labelled.

What you need: Normal string, cute cards, stickers, paper punch-holer, markers.

Here’s How: Write individual names on the cards. Jazz it up with stickers / coloured markers; Punch a hole in the card (top left or right side), loop in the string to the bag and then tie it to the bag.

It’s simple & suits the purpose – to label the bags & allow guests to keep the tags as well. The paper is a bit hard. If you feel that it’s too plain, paste more stickers or use coloured ribbons!

This is quite fast too! Took me 10 minutes to complete all 6.

Hanky Lollipops!

(You gotta excuse the lack of pictures because this was done on a midnight unplanned whim!)

I was trying very hard to figure out a way to do up the handkerchiefs that we got nicely instead of just folding it & placing it inside the goodie bags. That’s when I thought of turning it into lollipops! After a couple of tries I finally got the hang of it!

What you need: Handkerchief (doesn’t matter the size), scotch tape, sticks/straws, ribbons, string, little sewing pins, plastic wrap (optional)

Here’s How: Take a handkerchief by the corner & roll it up (you can twirl it around too so that it becomes one long roll); Take one end, pin it or scotch tape it up (so it stays in place). Then roll it like a lollipop. Once in shape, pin the end to the cloth beneath it. Take the stick & paste it behind the shape, making sure the stick is in the middle. Tape it down. Then tie a ribbon or string a the middle of the stick for decoration. (Alternatively, you can also use plastic wrap & wrap the top cloth part to the stick.)

It sounds mighty confusing, but once you see the end result & what it’s supposed to become, it’s pretty easy. I fumbled in the beginning because I’m pretty clumsy & kept dropping the rolled hanky before it was in place! So if a klutz like me can do it, I’m pretty sure you can too!

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