party favor and cupcake ideas

any ideas for a creative but relatively simple favor for cameron and alisha's upcoming 4th birthday party? it's a puppet themed party - a woman is going to come in and she will do a craft with the kids where they all make their own paper bag puppet, and then she leads them in a sing along and does a little puppet show of "there was an old lady who swallowed a fly". it should be really cute, and best of all it means that all i have to organize is food and favors! we have a big inflatable water slide from their party last year (beach theme) and a bouncy so i figure i will have those set up as well for after the entertainment - 1 hr of the craft/ entertainment, 30 mins free play, 30 mins food and we're done - easy!

i can't think of anything cute to do for the favors though. last year i did personalized beach buckets filled with beach themed items (candy, make your own necklace, stickers, bubbles, beach balls, etc.). i want to try keep it simple this year - my only idea so far is to get fun bags filled with candy and maybe a finger puppet to keep with the theme. any other, more creative, ideas out there?

and what about cupcake decorations? i always make cupcakes - it's something i love to do. last year i decorated with palm trees, fish, etc. the beach theme was much easier!!!

thanks for any ideas, ruth

 

Do you have to do favors, since everyone is going home with a puppet? Maybe you can put a finger puppet on a lolipop and have everyone take one as they walk out?

For your cupcakes, what if you kept the icing on the cupcakes simple, but created a big puppet that could hold all of the cupcakes?

I hope you can get some more creative ideas, but here's a start...

 

You could frost the cupcakes in different bright colors, add sprinkles, and then top with a plastic finger puppet. Or personalize each cupcake with the child's initial. Better yet...why not have the children decorate their own cupcakes? This way it's a snack AND an activity AND a favor? They can make 2 cupcakes each. One to eat at the party and one to take home. You can have different colored frostings and different sprinkles that they can decorate with. HTH!

 

When I was little my mom used to make cup cakes in icecream cones. I LOVED those. Not really puppet themed, but summery!

 

I like the finger puppet on a lollipop idea. I also think the puppet that they make is a favor in of itself. Last year, I did small packs of crayons from the dollar store with coloring books.
Hmm... you could make the cupcakes have faces, and then make little bodies to them somehow, like with popsicle sticks?

 

QUOTE(Snittens @ Jun 24 2009, 11:52 PM) [snapback]1367402[/snapback]
Hmm... you could make the cupcakes have faces, and then make little bodies to them somehow, like with popsicle sticks?


That would be cute! You could combine it with my idea and dress the icecream cone.

(Could someone please send me a chocolate cupcake baked in an icecream cone?)

 

I ditto pp's that say the puppets they are making can be their favor. :good:

Since it's a puppet theme and they are making puppets for the craft, why not do some creatures on the cupcakes going with the book theme? You could do cutesy bugs like ladybugs for the girls and ickier ones like spiders for the boys.



QUOTE(Meximeli @ Jun 24 2009, 07:56 PM) [snapback]1367406[/snapback]
(Could someone please send me a chocolate cupcake baked in an icecream cone?)

:rofl: Suuuure!!

 

see - i knew you ladies were more creative than me!!! thanks for all the ideas. the idea of making people out of the cupcakes scares the bejeezus out of me but i love the idea of letting all the kids decorate their own cupcake - i can just frost them all and let them add sprinkles, candy, gummy animals, licorice, etc. fun! oh! and maybe i'll make some as examples with faces, etc. ooooh - i'm really liking this idea! i also like the lollipop with finger puppet idea. anyone know of a good resource for buying finger puppet?!?!?! (here i come google search )

 

I wonder if they would have finger puppets at the dollar store or a craft store.