Care Bear party part 2: Goody bags & activities

We have been having such AMAZING weather up here, it's been hard to actually sit down and get this post done :)  Tonight I am going to share all the activities that we did at the party, and (one of my favorite parts of any party) the goody bags!

I always think that one of the most memorable things for a child going to a party is what they get to take home with them! Who doesn't like a little bit of swag?

Each of our guests were welcomed with their own Care Bear shirt as soon as they arrived. This project has honestly been an idea of mine since last year when our daughter REJECTED the idea of having a Care Bear party (my, what a difference a year makes!). I love having personalized gifts that I think the child would actually reuse.

They were super easy to make, but those of you worried that this project is a bit beyond your scope, don't worry because I will most likely be adding these on to my Etsy shop as well :)

To begin, I bought plain t-shirts from Joann's. I was lucky and happened to stumble upon them when they were having some awesome sale on them. The only downside to these were that they only carried youth and adult sizes; a little too big for some of our guests (but perfect to grow into!)

For the image, I designed them on a program I have on my computer, CorelDraw. You could always use Adobe or any other drawing software. Since I am obsessed with detail, I made sure to have the outline look like fur and even created a red heart for the back.

Next, I printed it onto Iron Transfer paper (the kind specifically designed to transfer to dark fabric).

The yellow shirt is mine (FunShine Bear). I did this one first so if I totally messed it up I wouldn't feel too bad :)

1. Cut out designs as close as you can leaving little to no extra blank page

2. Follow directions given from your transfer paper. Mine had you peel off backing and placing it onto the shirt

3. Cover with parchment paper and iron on! (I repeated this process for the small heart on the back)

Next up, was the whole family:

Everyone was doing thier best "CareBear Stare" which is why they are all pushing out thier bellies!

(The little guy got a different shirt because I knew there was no way he was fitting into anything larger.)

The BEST part of this project was getting to chose the designs based on everyone's personallity. We knew going into this, that our little princess would be the rainbow one because that one is her favorite. Our oldest got Grumpy Bear, because, well....you can guess :) The little guy is LuckyBear out of irony, and the kids voted on what Daddy should be (unanimously SleepyBear...although I am not even sure if that's the right name), because he is always falling asleep. Ha!

And, of course, we had to make one for our adoptive daughter, Eloise (the cheapest thing, I am sure, that this American Girl has ever worn! HA!):

I really think the kids enjoyed them, and it kind of set up a theme the rest of the party, where the kids would grab things that had "their bear" on it :)

Once settled into thier shirts, the games began! And by games, I mean one game and a lot of crafts.

First came this:

I couldn't find an actual game to buy, so I just got a poster from Ebay and made some heart labels on the computer that the kids used.

I actually had more crafts planned (lucky me--they were all rainbow themed, so I can use them this St. Patricks day!), but the kids were having more fun running like mad men all over our house, so we skipped on over to the scavenger hunt.

First I printed up some clues one the computer and placed them all over the house with little goodies:

The starting point was at the gift table where the goody bags were laid out.

(notice the adorable frame I found from Goodwill???)

The goody bags were hand made (after the big reveal this weekend I will go back and show a step by step of how I made them). Each child got one to hold all thier soon-to-be-found treasures.

Treasures included:

....and by the end of it most of the kids looked like this little hot mess of mine: wand and candy in hand, covered in paint!

The cookies were the finish line:

I made these myself, and though they tasted delicious, they definitly prove that I need to practice my cookie decorating!! I made clouds and stars. The suns I made all got rejected :)

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I hope you enjoyed some of the details that went into making this party special. I PROMISE this weekend I will finally reveal the whole party. If I had to do it all in one post, we might be here all night lol.

'Till then, I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Rachel