How to make 500 DIY favors for under $60

I was recently asked by the Northern Colorado Baby and Kids Expo (now known as Tagalong Tots Sale,) to supply them with 500 bag stuffers to be given to their attendees on the weekend of April 27th at the Boulder County Fairgrounds.  Oh, did I mention that I had a week and a half to get it to their event host?  So sending out for printed marketing material would be cutting the time close (and expensive.)  Plus I wanted to leave attendees with a sense of Little Bird Celebration's style in hopes that a good amount of the moms that will be at the expo would be interested in having me help them design a party theme or might end up purchasing one of my pre-made party theme kits.  Below is what I came up with, and I am pleased to say, cost me less than $60 to make 500 of.  I thought that I would share, in case you are in a similar situation, or it may get your creative juices flowing for a DIY wedding or baby shower favor, etc.  Let me know what you think!

Materials:

• Card Stock Paper in a blue shade to match Little Bird Celebrations branding (the color does not show up 100% true to life in the photos.)
• Self-Stick White Mailing Address Labels- half printed with my logo and half printed with my contact info.
• Small Clear Plastic Storage Bags (found in the jewelry supply section of your local craft store.)
• Silver shimmery Tissue Paper
• Blue Candy Coated Chocolate Candy (these can be found in many colors.  Alternately, you could use large gumballs, hersheys kisses, etc.)
• Scizzors
• Stapler
• Ink Jet Printer - note, price of ink is not reflected in my total associated cost.

Steps:
1) Cut tissue and card stock paper into small squares.

2) Slip the tissue paper inside of the bag.

3) Put a few small pieces of candy in front of the tissue in the bag.

4) Fold the card stock square in half and staple to top of sealed bag.

5) Stick one of the labels on the front side of the card stock (I chose my logo, but you can print "Thank You," etc.)  and the other label on the back side (I used my contact information, but maybe use your event date?) *Tip you may need to cut the labels down to the size that you need to fit onto the card stock, so make sure you do a print test page to be sure all of your text will fit, before you print all of your labels.

Breakdown of costs:

• 23 Sheets of Card Stock Paper from Hobby Lobby at $.59 each on sale for 50% off = $6.79

*Tip- never buy scrapbooking paper at full price, this is on sale about every other week.

• 1500 Mailing Address Labels from Staples for $24 with a $6 rebate= $18 (plus I will have 500 left over for my next project.)

*Tip- mailing labels, of all different sizes and shapes make for affordable, custom favor tags, gift tags, seals, etc.

• 500 Self Sealing Storage Bags from Hobby Lobby $1.99 for 100 = $9.95

• 3 Packages of Silver Tissue Paper from Walmart $1.99 each = $5.97

• 4 (16oz) bags of Blue Sixlets from Hobby Lobby at $6.99 each using 40% off coupons = $16.78

*Tip I always space out my big purchase, non-sale items from Hobby Lobby over several trips, (I feel like I am there a few times a week anyways, so it's not really any extra hassle,) but that way, I can use their 40% off coupon from their website.  Don't worry if you forget to print it off and bring the coupon with you, just pull up their website from your phone and they can type in the coupon code right from your phone.  So simple!


Grand total for 500 "favors" = $57.49
That's less than 12 cents each!