DIY Favor Bags and Boxes For Special Occasions

Bath Salt Favor Bags

Earrings In a Favor Bag

Weddings, showers, family parties, fundraisers, and more are all great events to give small mementos to your guests, to allow them to cherish the experience. These mementos, often placed in favor bags and boxes, are very popular, with candies, chocolate, soap, magnets, jewelry, candles, key chains, photos, and other trinkets topping the list of widely used gifts. The bath salts, in the top picture, were favor bags that I made this week to help out an ovarian cancer fundraiser. They will be given away at a Paducah, KY event. Today, I will be giving some pointers about making your own favor bags for.

1) Find an item to use as favors. The item needs to be small and economical to purchase in bulk. Keep in mind that many people have allergies and fragrance sensitivities, so you may want to offer different versions of your favors, such as scented and unscented soaps, or truffles with and without nuts. Try one of these trinkets:

-edibles (candy, chocolate, coffee, honey, spices, jam)
-plants
-soap
-candles
-jewelry
-magnets
-photo key chains
-pens or personalized stationary

2) Look for attractive packaging for your favors. Some ideas are:

-cellophane bags
-organza bags
-muslin bags
-velvet pouches
-brown paper bags and boxes
-tiny gift bags
-paper "take-out" boxes
-glass jars
-coffee mugs

3) Personalize it! Use your printer or hire someone local to make gift tags with the date and event. If your item is intended to be consumed or used on the skin, make sure to clearly label all ingredients. You don't want to endanger any guests with allergies. For greater impact, print a romantic or inspiring quote on the back of your gift tags.

4) Tie your tags on with twine, ribbon, fabric, or any other decorative medium.

So, where is the best place to buy supplies to make your favor bags? I have found the organza pouches locally at Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree, and Walmart. Any wedding and party supply stores should also have many choices. If you can sew, you can make your own cloth pouches easily. Personally, I like shopping online in the supplies section at Etsy. I can put different containers, tags, ribbons, and twine in my cart from different shops. For printing tags, I have used both Vistaprint and local printers for personalized work. Vistaprint is more economical, but I like to support local business and have the versatility to print smaller quantities.