Surprise! Surprise!

When a mom comes to us and says: "I want to make my son a surprise party. Need some uniquely crafted giveaways and simple center piece." - Did we mention that the party will happen in 3 weeks! We thought we were the one being SURPRISE! We actually had to pause...think this through and...okay, workable...we thought and assumed it was just a kiddie party - easy! 
But it turned out to be a young boy turning 16, an age where he is about to make that crossover and be a young man! Looks like the mom is more surprise that the years went by so fast that this party was more a reality check for her more than anything. :)
So here we are asking ourselves what are the interest of a 16 year old boy who is growing, changing and maturing? We got to our drawing boards and thought lets make this simple (due to time constrain) and let's make this something people can talk about. 
We started pulling out all the things found in a young boys "curiosity box" and we had fun with it!

Our centerpiece is not the traditional balloon or floral arrangement. We decided to make it with stacks of blue and yellow boxes. Don't you think seeing boxes as pretty as these, any guest will be itching to open and see what is inside? We intentionally place unique and unexpected goodies inside too. Each box where labeled with the "curiosity thoughts of every young boy" - Kiss the Girl. - Extreme Energy. - Pang Pulutan (pu-lu-tan: something to be picked up, in this case food to munch with alcohol drinks). True enough each guest found it comical to find a lot of mint candies inside the Kiss the Girl box. Snickers chocolates inside the Extreme Energy box and "Boy Bawang" inside the "Pang Pulutan" box! And every one on the table shared all these goodies.

Now you would think that was the giveaway goodies for this surprise party huh?! No way, we had so much fun we had a nice beer mug giveaway for each guest. Every teen will chug down their beer one day so it was Mom and Dad's way to say "We know son, it will happen one day. For now lets wait untill you are 18th so let do rootbeer first!"  Those mugs look like a beer commercial :) Each mug also contains a Boy Bawang pack. So each guest has a beer mug to take home with them.

So did it really turn out to be a Surprise Party! Yes it did! Unfortunately we did not have a photo to prove this but am sure there was someone amongst the guest who did and it will be circulating in those FB pages!

We did not get a chance to photograph the step by steps of each craft. The boxes are individually handmade with specialty crafting papers. No design is alike. We just made sure blue and yellow colors where the hues to pick from. Satin ribbon of white, blue and yellow are mixed and match with each boxes.
For the beer mugs we printed out these "beer with foam" photo on photo paper and inserted it in each mug. We made belly wraps using the same paper designs and color as the box and place the Surprise Party Logo.

If you feel we deserve a toast for these rush crafts please do share that cheer and cheer for us on our Facebook page or Instagram #ohjoyandco.


All photos are copyrights of Oh Joy and Co.