Its really no secret I love putting together little celebrations…big or small. Big budget or teeny tiny; For holidays, milestones or birthdays, it matters not, there is a great sense in joy and satisfaction for me in stringing it all together. And whilst I know our usual gatherings in birthdays had to take an unfortunate long & extended back seat due lockdown, it feels fun to start stretching those party planning limbs again. And for a teen birthday party no less! So i knew the chosen activity had to be fun and engaging enough to catch a teens attention.
And this CUSTOMIZE YOUR OWN JACKET party was a hit!! What’s more, is that it works a treat for a wide range of ages – as I was pleasantly suprised by this as I watched my 5 yr old, 6 year old AND 10 yr old also take great joy in getting involved in it at the party.
It’s a NO MESS, NO FUSS & certainly one of the easiest “take-home-party-bags” I’ve ever DIY’ed before. Its perfect for smaller gatherings (or bigger depending on your budget), requires almost zero clean-up, and will be lovely momento of the day, and of their sweet little friendships, that can be used over and over. So it’s really practical, and not going end up in the trash pile 2 days after the party like alot of party bag trinkets often end up.
Its pretty easy to put together as well. Here below are where I got all the bits and pieces for a fun CUSTOMIZE YOUR OWN JACKET activity.
Materials:
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Jacket:
You can use any jacket really, but for the purposes of iron-on’s, denim is definitely going to be your best bet! Denims are also pretty much a year round staple in the closet, from layering in the cold months, to easy draping or covering up in the cool spring time or cooler summer nights by the beach or outdoors. And they are hardy. ‘Nuff said, because also, who doesn’t love a denim jacket!
Not going to lie, but I actually had a real hard time finding decently priced denim jackets for girls this year. (a PnP store manager actually shared with me that there was ONE customer that had actually single handedly, bought out their entire stock from all their local PnP’s!…I laughed and said, she clearly has big plans for them. And I have sneaky suspicion she may very well have had a similar idea to what I had here for this party. #GreatMinds And I think that’s awesome! Maybe she has a party business and will start offering this out as a service, who knows?!;) )
In the mean time, here is where I got ours, and on a sale at the time, and I see now the price has dropped even more! (The original price tag on ours was R379, but I see it listed lower here)
Iron-On Names:
These were all created on my Cricut machine, using the standard cutter and some gold Smart iron-on. Although, regular everday iron-on would also be perfect. CUrrently BOTH are on sale at the moment. 😉
Mini Press/Iron
I did most of the ironing for the girls to save time, but mostly they also wanted to do it themselves.
Any iron would really do, however, having the mini Cricut easy press made it all a breeze to do.
Iron on badges:
These babies take me right back to the 80’s and early nineties where this was common place. I even remember how MAKING these badges were also the “in-thing”. (Maybe I need to do a quick DIY post on that too! 😉 ) These iron-ons are so easy to use, although it IS recommended that you sew as well, just to them to secure.
They can ALSO be used on your jeans or to any denim pieace that needs a patch.
Got these on sale too over here.
I truly enjoyed putting this one together – the whole party in fact – even though we only sent out invites and started planning it in all of FIVE days, party day included! #crazy And am so happy to have also finally done this little fashion craft with my kids that I had been wanting to do for too long. (Remy was THREE when I first planned on doing this with them, and of course now, they have ALL outgrown their jackets – so Morgy’s got hand down to Pax and Pax’s down to Coco, and Coco down to Remy. And Remy’s? Well, he has 2 nieces that can soon enjoy it. [Yes, we are all about the hand-me-downs]) The one thing I didn’t do this time was plan extra party games for after the activity , like I usually do…I wasnt sure what the teens of today were really into, and they managed just fine, without me, by coming up with their own games. But now that I know, its GAME-ON for next time!
This is brilliant!!! Well done mommy ????