Fun Party Masks and Thank You Cards

I made these masks for two separate surprise parties. It's a lot of work but your guests will have so much fun while waiting for the guest of honor, and when the birthday girl/guy arrives they will be greeted by their funny face all over the room.

First time, it was for my friend Kathy's 50th birthday and I wanted to make her something special that she would always remember. I decided to create masks of her face by doing the following.

First I found a picture where she was facing forward and made certain that it was a picture of her alone, preferably just a head shot. I needed to be able to enlarge the picture big enough to cover a face. Had I used a picture from a group shot, the resolution wouldn't have been as clear when I enlarged it.
Her hair also had to be styled in a way that would come out well for the masks. Say for instance it was in a pony tail, it wouldn't work as well.
I found the right picture and got to work on the mask.
I enlarged the photo to cover as much of an 8 1/2 by 11 sized paper (portrait page set up) without cutting off her face or hair and printed the picture on label paper (full sheet white paper). Then I pasted those on to a cardboard like paper so it would be sturdy. The tough part, cutting all those cardboard masks, took a lot of time. Last, easy part, gluing an ice cream stick on the bottom as the handle. If you want to get more creative on the handles, you can decorate them with ribbons and give it that Mardi Gras look.

When the guests were arriving, I gave them all black Sharpie pens with a little piece of paper with instructions saying, have fun, black out her teeth, make her eye brows thick and black, a pirate patch, anything, just have fun and when Kathy arrives we'll have have her face over ours saying "Surprise!"

I wish I had taken pictures of all of the masks at Kathy's party. But at that time I wasn't thinking, as I was having too much fun!

Is there such a thing as too much fun!?

For my brother's 50th Birthday I did the same thing...a little easier cutting this go around without the hair flips! And at this party, instead of just black Sharpie pens, I had colored pens...and maybe just a more creative group...but these masks were awesome so I decided to make a thank you card using some of the bests masks. Again, it's a lot of work with all the cutting part especially, but it is a great way to start a party. Your guests who don't know each other will enjoy looking at what the person next to them is making, a conversation starter, and that makes for a really fun party!!!