The Cutest Bid Day favors of All Time

So, every now and then I realize that I greatly regret not taking pictures of my work before I get overly excited about giving it to the recipient. I often completely forget that I'll want to share my ideas, and commence the excitement of gift giving at its finest. So since I'm lacking on photos at the moment, I'm totally going to string my bid day posts out in sections. I'm starting with the tiny favors I made to go with our bids. First of all, our rush theme was nautical everything, since I can't ever get enough of that stuff. Guess that comes from growing up with grandparents that loved to sail. Well anyway, for our bids I hand drew the design and we had them copied on cardstock. This way they were gorgeous, sturdy, and awesome enough to frame or scrapbook for the memories. I looked at wedding invitations for hours before I drew this one up:

My best advice is that if you're going to hand design, find what you want and lay it down on your computer screen to trace it. If you turn your brightness setting up, it will come through clear as daylight. It's a whole lot easier than freehanding it. Also, don't try to hand draw all of them. Just get them copied. Take it from me, you don't have the time to do all of them AND complete the rest of your bid day obligations.

To accompany these, I had balloons tied to yellow daisies (daisies are one of our symbols) and the little memory jar pictured below. These jars are sold at places like Hobby Lobby, but I was working at a vet clinic at the time so I got to wash out those and take them home for free. I also had tinier versions of the same thing, minus the rope knot, to give to executive council members in a goodie bag for helping out.

The key on these is to get a hold of a pack of small shells, like the craft shells sold at Hobby Lobby or Michaels. I layered craft sand, the little shells, and beach glass in there. I did happen to find a pack that included all three of those items at Walmart in with the glass vases and stuff for flower arrangements. To get the glass the right size: slip a few chunks of it in a double layer of plastic sandwich bags, take it outside on a porch or something, and smash it with a hammer.

Again I will emphasize that hammer safety is extremely important.

Also watch out for the glass powder that results from this smashing, and make sure not to smash it up TOO tiny, otherwise you can't see it in the jar. I found that the blue or green beach glass looks best. (My mom pointed out long afterward that you could probably heat the aforementioned glass up in the oven and then dump it in cold water to break it without the powdery issues and hammer safety precautions. But heck, I couldn't have done the easy method, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to seriously injure myself. And that is just a key ingredient in the final product of my crafts.)

After you've layered all of these together, the lid can be put on. If you have a jar that comes with a cork lid, you don't have to screw with it. Mine was rubber, so I hot glued some cork I had laying around to the top of it. I then had my grandma show me how to do a nautical knot to tie on the front, which I can't really explain because I don't really understand how I do it. I do know, however, that there are a bunch of online tutorials and videos on tying knots, so it'll be easy to find one you like. Once that was on there, I threw a couple dots of superglue on top of the knot and around it to keep it together and in place.

Next came the little message. On this I put the time and place, as well as required attire, since I didn't want to put that stuff on the formal bid. It was something along the lines of:

"Should you choose to accept this bid, please meet in 

*insert room name here*

on *date* at *time*

in your business casual attire"

Then I rolled it up really tight, and tied it to the top of the bottle with my red striped ribbon. The ribbon has a wedge shape cut out of it to make it just a little bit cuter. No superglue this time, since I wanted them to be able to read it. Then I wrote "Read me" reaaaalllll tiny so they'd know it wasn't just for show. 

And that was it! They were a real hit, and some of my pledge children still have them on their shelves or bookcases. They didn't take me a whole lot of time, and they were super cute. Note: for the even tinier ones I didn't have room for beach glass or the knot. So I just put sand and shells with the red ribbon. As well, instead of the cork on the top I just put a gold star sticker, just like the ones that you got in kindergarten for tying your shoe right or something. 

More nautical bid day crafts/ food to come! Including how to have a nautical themed bid day without  serving seafood...imagine that!