Fun & Sun Party Favors/Centerpieces (Price Breakdown)

For Mary Catherine's "Fun and Sun" pool party, I decided to have the party favors double as table centerpieces.  Since five families were invited, and each family had 3 or 4 children, I thought it would be most economical to do a "family gift" rather than individual party favors for 16 children.

I started with simple sand pails that I got from Michael's for $1.00 each.

Because I wanted the sand pails to double as table centerpieces, I went ahead and splurged on some floral foam to help in displaying the gifts tucked inside.

Included in each pail was the following...

The shovel from the sand pail @ $!.00/each
1 Pkg. of Water Bombs    @.60/each
3 or 4 Glow Bracelets @.1.00 per tube of bracelets (I think there were 15 bracelets per tube)
1 Large Container of Bubbles @.50/each
3 or 4 Bubble Wands @ $1.50 per container of wands (25 piece pack)
5 Pieces of Sidewalk Chalk @ $3.00 for a 52 Piece Crayola brand container
Several Pieces of Saltwater Taffy thrown into the pails @ $3.49 per bag
1 Giant Carnival Lollipop @ $1.50/each

I also spent approximately $3.50 on scrapbook paper to create the family label for each sand pail.


Assembly

Using the crafter/floral foam, I was able to lift up the "base" of each sand pail to about the halfway point of the bucket.  The floral foam also allowed for me to wedge in each large container of bubbles.  This created the base of my display.

Next, I lined the "bottom" of the pail with saltwater taffy.  This was one of my larger expenses...at $3.49 per bag.  I used a little less than 1/2 bag per sand pail.

To add some fullness to each bucket, I stuffed tissue in coordinating colors behind the large container of bubbles and floral foam.  The tissue helped to hide the foam and add some height to each centerpiece.

The "carnival" size lollipop was tucked into the floral foam which provided some stability for this treat since it was so heavy.

Sidewalk chalk and water balloon bombs were wrapped in clear packaging and tied with satin ribbon.  These packages were adhered to the sand pails using glue dots. 

Finally, I tucked three or four bubble wands, glow sticks and the shovel into the arrangements, securing with glue dots, and peeking out here and there.

My greatest finds were the sand pails @ $1.00 each, Crayola Sidewalk Chalk (52 piece container) for $3.00 and SUPER Miracle Bubbles (32 oz.) @ .50 each.  The water bombs, taffy, lollipops, glow bracelets and bubble wands all came from Michael's clearance racks.  The sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and tissue came from the Wal-Mart clearance department. 

The grand total spent on all 5 buckets was $38.78.  This divided out to $7.75 per family and around $2.50 per kid. 

I think that these turned out to be fairly economical party favors...especially considering that they included items for each child's age range.  Toddler love bubbles and sidewalk chalk while grade school-ers love water bombs and glow sticks.  Everyone wins and I didn't have to come up with individual gift bags that were age appropriate!!!

So...what do you think?  Economical?  This was our first "friends" party...so I've never had to provide party favors/treats in the past. 

But now I've got the party favor bug...I'm already thinking about Benjamin's birthday in November!!!