One of my favorite things about my kids growing older is that they’ve learned to write…and now they can write their own thank you notes, instead of me doing it! Granted, Princess Thundercloud just finished kindergarten, so her writing skills are super slow. For her birthday, I made some simple fill-in-the-blank thank yous for her to complete. They’re a little impersonal, I know, but she gets the concept of gratitude a little more when she has to put in a bit of effort to thank people!
For the front of the panel card, I made a collage from her party and printed them in 5×7 size at Costco…39 cents each, I think. I used Photoshop Elements to make the collage, but you could easily use an online service such as Walgreens, Costco, or Shutterfly. Those are just three that come to mind, not necessarily a preference. In the actual collages, the guests faces showed, not snowflakes, but I wanted to protect their privacy on the internet!
To finish the cards, I printed this fill-in-the-blank form on white cardstock, then cut them in half. I used adhesive to stick them to the back of the 5×7 collage, so that a small amount of white matted the collage. I’ve made collages before with the fill-in part in the center of the 5×7, but there are two problems with those The photos have to be really small to leave space for the writing, and it’s hard for little ones to use a Sharpie to write on photo paper, without mistakes, that is.
Anyway, just click here to download the fill-in-the-blank portion.
Princess Thundercloud felt so grownup, writing her own notes, and her little guests loved getting a photo of themselves from the party.
Speaking of her party, we did a Frozen theme (because what else would she want, as a 6-year-old girl this year?). I found lots of great ideas on Pinterest, including her cake, which was a little like her big brother’s Campfire Cake from December. It has hard candy “ice” shards, which are hard to see here.
It was her first sleepover party, and it turned out to be a lot of fun…we watched Frozen, of course, with snacks of white cheeseballs (Bunnytails left from Easter), snowman noses (carrots) and arms (pretzels) with ranch dip, some lemon Muddy Buddies that were powdered sugar covered, and frozen grapes. The frozen grapes were the biggest hit of the whole smorgasbord! Oh, and we also made individual pizzas, but there’s nothing Frozen-themed in that!
I also copied some water bottle labels that I found online and wrapped those around small bottles.
The party favors were simple…just blue rock candy sticks with a little snowflake-embellished tag tied on them. I used a snowflake shape from Photoshop Elements on a blue background, left a strip of white, and printed them. Then I just made a tag from kraft cardstock using a tag topper punch from Stampin’ Up! and tied the tag on with some sliver and white ribbon. Easy-peasy.
All in all, it was a fun, easy party, and the thank you notes (remember, that’s the real point of this post!) took no time at all to make. Love parties like that!
