Hen party series ~ Crafty fun – making decorations for the hen do!

In this hen party series, we have been spoiled-rotten with lots of lovely articles sharing ideas for party themes (check out the links below!) and how to plan the perfect hen do. In her article last week, Claire from Lacey in Places  shared her top tips for planning a hen party (read the article here) and very kindly shared her downloadable budget spreadsheet and invitation templates! Today she continues to share her experiences of organising a vintage hen party for her friend Becky and discusses crafty ideas for hen party decorations and getting all the hens involved in the party prep:

The hen Becky loves a bit of crafting, so I thought I’d make it extra special by making homemade special decorations for the hen and also to save the pennies, so today I’m going to show you how I spent the grand total of £7 to make decorations for the apartment we were staying in.

In my previous blog I mentioned quite a few of the hen party had offered to help, so I thought I’d kindly take them up on the offer by hosting a crafting evening with my lovely fellow hens Joey, Katie and Sarah. The crafting night gave me the chance to get the opinion of the hens, save time and money, and most importantly have fun! I visited my local 99p discount store to get all the materials for the hen, which cost me the grand total of £7!! As we were planning a vintage hen do, we decided to make the decorations in the colour theme of Becky’s wedding, pink and orange. Also Becky had recently got her first cat – Mr Bigglesworth – who she absolutely adored, so I decided he would make a ‘guest’ appearance over the weekend.

Straw name tags
I knew we were going to be having a few drinks during the hen party, so may become forgetful about which drink belonged to who so thought it would be a good idea to make name tags to hang from our straws, so we could keep track of our own drinks! What you’ll need: Scissors, felt tip pens and a hole puncher, ribbon, stickers (kitten stickers in this case), cardboard (I took a page out of Becky’s memory book to save money)
1. Cut the cardboard into a shape of a luggage tag and hole punch the top side
2. Using the kitten stickers I purchased for £1 (the grey ones look like Mr Bigglesworth) stick these to the cards and write each hens name on the card – make sure you make an extra large one for the hen
3. Finally inset the ribbon through the hole and attach it to the straw
4. Ta-dah – you have your vintage looking personalised tags for your straws!

Tissue paper pompoms – makes approximately 10-15 dependent on the size you choose

What you’ll need: Scissors, jewellery plastic wire or string, pack of tissue paper (20 sheets) = Grand total £2

1. Put together at least 6 sheets of tissue paper and cut all the sheets into a square
2. Concertina or fold the tissue paper into a fan, once done trim the edge of each tissue paper into a round shape
3. Then tie a long piece of the wire and string around the middle of the folded paper (make sure it is nice and long as you will also be using it to also hang the pompom up
4. Carefully fold them away flat to take to the hen (if you fold them out before you go they’ll get squashed enroute)
5. Once at the destination pull the layers of tissue paper out layer by layer until it is in a ball shape – then hey presto you have your pom pom!!

Doily Bunting

What you’ll need: Scissors, glue and a large marker pen, sequin string (£1 for 15meters from pound store), pack of doilys (£1 for 50 doilys from the pound store) 

1. Fold your doilies in half, then fold them over the string
2. Glue the two halves together
3. Add the remainder of the doilies to the string and leave to dry
4. You may wish to write some letters or draw on the doilies like we did

Simple, cheap, quick and effective to do!

Mr Bigglesworth Kitten masks

I enlarged a photo of Mr Biggles and used my printer to print out a mask for all 16 hens, including Becky.  My mum very patiently and kindly cut out the masks for me – bless her!! So when Becky walked in to the apartment blindfolded she was confronted by a nest of kittens crouched in the corner – after initially jumping it did take her a few seconds to realise it was Biggles!! You could make similar masks using the faces of the beloved pets of the bride – or perhaps even a photo of her hubby-to-be! Which leads us nicely on to…

Inflatable Jim

We were concerned that Becky may miss Jim over the course of the weekend.  I therefore ordered a 4ft inflatable man – who turned out to only be 1ft big so a bit too small for Becky to cuddle at night… So we quickly improvised with a balloon and cushion.  Heloise, Jim’s sister then bought some of this clothing.  Here is substitute Jim waiting for her in Becky’s bed for the weekend!! We also through in a photo of Jim above her bed incase she forgot what the real Jim looked like.

Next time, I’ll share more ideas about how to make extra special gifts for the bride, including a tip jar and hen book, but in the meantime, check out the links below for more fun articles from the hen party series!

More hen party series articles

• Hen party series ~ Planning a vintage hen party (LaceyinPlaces on cassiefairy.com)
• Hen party series ~ Accommodation and activities including budget planner (cassiefairy.com) 
• Hen party series ~ ideas for fun activities (cassiefairy.com)
• Hen party series ~ ideas for personalising your party (cassiefairy.com)
• Hen parties on a budget ~ 5 essential tips (cassiefairy.com)
• Anyone for afternoon tea? Ideas for a thrifty party (cassiefairy.com)