Birthday in a Bag gift

My Secret Sister from church turned 73 today, and I thought I'd share the gift I made for her ... a Birthday in a Bag (once it's put into the gift bag). I'm sure you've seen several variations on this. I know I have! I just adapted it for what I had and what I needed.



Included in the set: cake mix (for cupcakes), frosting with sprinkles, 24 decorative cupcake picks, small baggie of balloons, and a super-duper deluxe party hat. :)



Here's a better look at the cupcake picks, balloons, and frosting container. I decorated them with two different Studio G cupcake stamps - one acrylic, one rubber. (The rubber one was a larger image.) I used my Nestabilities Labels 8 for the baggie toppers.

I didn't include a close-up of the cake box because I couldn't get a clear picture of it. I simply wrapped it in gold wrapping paper and added a decorative and coordinating "belly band".



Now you may wonder why in the world I made a party hat for a 73-year-old lady. Well, I happened to find out that the only birthday "party" she's ever had was for her 21st birthday, and it wasn't as big of a deal as you might think. She's single, so if no one else makes a big deal, the birthday goes virtually unnoticed.

I simply could not let a lady get to 73 years old without having a fancy party hat at least once. So I made an over-the-top one to make her laugh. (My almost-4-year-old daughter loved it, by the way!)

And yes, the hat is all handmade! I simply took a 12x12" sheet of paper, used a compass set at 6" to draw a half-circle at one edge, cut it out and folded it to make the actual hat. The cupcake decoration at the top was first glued onto a toothpick, then inserted into the top and hot-glued. For the strap, I used eyelets in the holes to make it sturdier, then simply added about 16" of string elastic. I had fun creating it!