Birthday Goodies for School

Anya's birthdays leave me jittery. They are exciting, fun but oh-so-demanding.

To celebrate her big day at school, I wanted to give a little remember-me-by to her classmates. Now, this something had to pass a few tests. It had to be:

• Useful
• Eco-friendly
• Fun
• Artsy and craftsy

Whenever I'm seeking such ideas, I always check with Sarika, my dear friend who is a goddess of birthday-celebrations. Her daughter's birthday parties are the most fun I've ever attended. Her goody bags are the holy grail of birthday favors and I tremble with excitement while opening them. I'm more excited than kids and have requested her to keep a bag for me even if I'm seven seas or many moons away.

I, errrr...emmm, Anya, had received a homemade bookmark from her a couple of years back. I totally fell in love with it and had wanted to try it out myself someday. 

This birthday, we did it!!! ( A loud, proud pat on the back!)

I bought these craft sticks from Dollar Store. Since colored sticks were out of stock, I bought poster colors too. Rest of the stuff was found at home. 

I halved the sticks.

We painted them.

Then did the hair with wool, bows or whatever spare thread we could find. 

Googly eyes are an option for eyes but as they are plastic, I didn't use them. I wanted the bookmarks to be eco-friendly. 

We drew eyes and lips with sharp pointed marker pens. Used the same to write names.

You can write a message or names of recipients. 

25 bookmarks took 4 hours of work!! It seems a lot but I did that  over 3 days - while taking calls and chatting. 

At times, Anya helped me so it was like an art and craft lesson together. It was fun to match bookmarks to classmates. I got to know a bit more about her classmates. 

I loved her excitement and pride when she distributed these amongst her classmates. One friend said "Oh, I wanted a bookmark. Otherwise I was using a torn page as one."

All in all, it was time and effort well spent. Already scouting ideas for her next birthday :)