A Cheap Wedding Favor that's...in the words of Paris Hilton "Hott!"

I hope you feel really special, honored, set apart...privileged.. because I'm letting you in a top secret wedding craft/plan. Shhh...don't let anyone else know. ;p Mike & I are planning a "his & hers" wedding favor. I'm not gonna reveal the wedding favor for the ladies until after the reception & you are going. to. love.it.

But...I'm about the reveal the wedding favor for the men. It is costing me less than $0.25/favor. Yeah baby!

And here it is...

Those are matchboxes made with pages of a book. And if you didn't know what the initials stand for...Mike & Heidi. 

If you want to try this...here's what I did...

I used the top of a matchbox to make a "guide" or template out of card stock. 

Then I used the guide to trace a box on the book page I was using. 

This was the book I used. I picked this one because it is one of our favorite authors & we have another copy. 

After I cut two rectangular pieces from the guide, I used a glue stick to secure them on either side of the matchbox. 

At first, I took a page, glued it on top of the matchbox & then trimmed the edges. I've got to do a ton of these, so using the guide seemed faster. 

I got these letter stamps from Michael's for a couple of bucks with a 40% off coupon & the stamp pad cost $0.99. 

Then I took the stamps & added our initials. 

Side note: I tried the book pages with both the words going from left to right as well as up & down. I prefer the up & down because it gave a contrast with the initials. 

I tied two matchboxes together & there is our cheap, quick & meaningful favor for the manly men. (Every time I hear the term "manly men", I think of Two & a Half Men...anyone else do the same? No? Okay...I'm alright with being a little "off" ;p)

I actually prefer this tied around the boxes over the rope. What do you think? 

Here's another angle...

I also wanted to see what it would look like if the book pages were darker...ya know...had more of an antique look to them. 

I started by dying them in tea (coffee would probably work too). To do this, I just heated a tea bag in 3/4c. of water for a couple minutes in the microwave. Then soaked the page for about 5 minutes. 

Then I let it dry. Well...I waited for about 20-30 minutes & it still wasn't dry so I used my hair dryer to finish the job.

Here is how it looks contrasted with the original page...

And here is the finished project, next to the original one. 

I like the dyed one but for times sake, I think I may stick with the original one. 

The cool thing about this is you could still end up with a cheap favor & used scrapbook paper in your wedding colors or even wrapping paper. 

What do you think? 

While we're on the subject of cheap favors, I came across and adorable favor for a kids camping party! 

This is from a blog called Three Pixie Lane. She did an adorable, penny-pinching outdoor party for her child & you will love it. 

The party favors were red bandanas with goodies inside tied around a stick! How cute, huh?

These were the goodies inside. Everything I'd need for a camping trip! :p 

Do you have any cute & p4p-worry favor ideas? (p4p = parties for pennies)