17081

Initials Party - Gifts by Initials

December 2007

Cheryl in Victoria, BC  Canada

Special Mention

INITIALS PARTY  Initials Part is unique in that you incorperate it into one of your regular Parties, being birthday, New Years Eve, Bachelor, Christmas, Halloween, Themed, Kids ect  But you must base all the food, drinks, activities, gifts, colors or any idea you can come up with around the First or Last name Initial of each confirmed guest.   You can either pick the Guest first and base activities around their Initials or think of some of the things you want to do or have and then invite Guests that start with that Initial This is how I did mine.  I had an Idea of some of the things I wanted to do like Gifts and Arts and Kareokee, so I made sure to invite people with those initials.   I called my Initials Party  - Girls Night Out INITIALS Party. (For Adults)

I chose  my Guests (all girls) plus me and had the Initials A, B, C, C, D, G, K, L, M. Then I chose a color for each. Aqua, Black, Cream, Cadmium Orange, Denim Blue, Green, Kakhi, Lavender and Maroon.  I didn't forget myself.  Now I wanted this to be a surprise for them so I found these invitations that said Top Secret and it looked like one of those top secret envelopes. When you open the flap up words it  said Shhhh! Keep it a Secret.  So it didn't have a lot of space for writing so I had to make up another card  using their colors, two different sheets one 1/2 inch smaller than the other (one patterned and one solid) glued them together (scrappbook style) then folded it in half and glued it to the back of the original card.  So that it opens up two ways First the flap up where it reads Your Invited to a Girls Night out INITIALS party. 

Then you open the side card and it had a card that I bought separately which had the Name, Date, Time, Place and RSVP spots on it and so I glued that to the left side making sure they could see the papers behind it and then filled it out. For the Name spot I would put A is for .  Alisen / Color Aqua or B is for .. Barb/ color Black and so on depending on the card I was working on. Then on the right side, (I had typed on a computer  their instructions on what to bring), printed it out , cut it to size and glued it on.  Because the party was to be Top Secret they wouldn't know who was coming or what we'd be doing so their only instruction was that they would have to bring 8 gifts, each gift had to start with the initial of one of the 8 guests , each wrapped  in their color and no names of who it was from on it. So example Alisen got and Album wrapped in Aqua color Paper. Barb got a Bowl wrapped in Black Paper, ect. 

Once the other Guests were confirmed I said I would give them a list of the Guests Initials and their colors.   -On that list I also said they had to wear something with their color to the party. - On the front of the envelope when I gave them there invite it would say   A is for . Alisen  or B is for Barb and so on. - I sent invites out 3 months in advance so they'd have time to buy their 8 gifts.  Price was set at what they wanted or  could afford. - When they arrived I had decorated the door with 9 balloons using their colors Aqua, Black, Cream, Cadmium Orange, Denim Blue, Green, Kahki, Lavender and Maroon to represent them and a welcome sign. In the form of a rainbow with all the colors. Welcome in black written in the middle.  - When they walked in they  on the wall in a Picture frame was an Itinery List of the Activities we'd be doing and at what time. 
4 - 5pm Drinks and Food
4 - 9pm Lapel Game
5 - 5:30pm..Abstract Art
5:30 - 8pm Games
8 - 8:30pm . Jar Tr. 
9pm Karaoke 9 - 10pm Bags of Gifts to open 10 on Movie  BAGS OF GIFTS - So when they arrived they all had their 8 gifts wrapped in the guests colors and I had bought 8 Big Gift Bags from the dollar store in each of their colors.  So the guest placed each gift in the corresponding Gift Bag. Black gifts in Black Bag, Orange in Orange ect..

LAPEL GAME - After putting gifts in bag I gave them a Lapel Sticker that they put on their shirt and  I put the word Party on it that they were not to say for the rest of the evening and if anyone hears them say that word they receive that persons Lapel and place it on their own shirt and the person at the end of the night who has the most lapels or the person to receive all Lapels wins a prize.

DRINKS AND FOOD - Then we went to the kitchen to eat and drink and chat as we waited for other guest to arrive. I had printed up a Menu List for the Drinks and Placed it in a picture frame and put it on the wall just above the bar section that I created.  The Menu again was a specific drink for each Initial and how to Make it: A is for After Eight Shot  1/3 oz of Kalua, 1/3 oz of Bailey's, 1/3 oz of Pepperment Schnapps.  Did the same format for all 9 drinks.  Food - Since there were only 9 of us I made 4 dinner items and 5 dessert items each starting with one of the nine letters and placed them all on the long counter and made up tags for them; C is for Cake , B is for  Breads , D is for.. Deviled Eggs ect.and placed them on the wall above each corresponding dish.

ABSTRACT ART -  Once we all ate and had our drink it was time for the first activity. My husband and I  just recently purchased a town home and I had no art work on the walls. (This how I came up with this party Idea in the first place) So I had my guest be the artist and create art work for me.  So I bought thin canvass boards and black picture frames for the boards to fit in. 9 in total. Then I bought acrylic paint one bottle for each of our colors.  (Aqua, Black, Cream, Cadmium Orange, Denium Blue, Green, Kakhi, Lavender, Maroon) The colors I gave to some of the guest corresponded to my color scheme in my house, which was Cadmium Orange, Cream , Black and Sage (extra bottle I had to buy) . 

So every one had to use those four colors as the main colours in their art work (so it would match my house) then use their extra colour they were given Aqua , kakhi , lavender in their art work but only minimally. Those whose color was one of the four main colors just had to use that color dominantly in their art work.  This was Abstract art so I told them no pictures of anything specific, just lines and splashed ect..  Plus they had to sign them too.  They all turned out great and I have them on my wall. GAMES - Next it was G is for.Games.  So we played Apples to Apples, Things, Scattegories ect.Originally I saw and actual Girls Night Out Game in a different city than where I lived but I didn't buy it thinking I could get it where I lived, but I was wrong. So I just settled for other Games.

CANDY JAR TREASURE CHEST - This Activity I had bought glass jars with lids from the dollar store and  filled them with different Candies again based on their Initials M is for .M&M's, C for Chocolate  ect Then at a craft store I found these little wooden treasure chests that I painted with the acrylic paints I had bought .  One for each color. Then before the guest had arrived I hid all the treasure chests.  So now it was time to find them and each guest could only find one treasure chest.  It didn't matter which color they found. Once every one had a chest  it corresponded to one of the Jars of Candy.  So who ever found the Maroon Treasure Chest would get the M&M Jar and so on

KAREOKEE - Don't think I need to explain what we did here.  

BAGS OF GIFTS - Now it was time to open our Gifts.  We all grabbed our bags and opened them. Nobody knows who gave which gift. 

MOVIE - The movie I picked was One Night with the King which is based on the Book of Esther in the Bible. I picked this movie because we are all Christians and belong to the same Congregation.   So we all had a blast and I plan on doing another Initials Party. With different Guest and different Activities and different Foods and Drinks.

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