Estefany is about to turn 15. Our adorable little darling in her pretty yellow and white lace dress and pigtails when we first sponsored her as an delightful five year old, is shortly to be considered a woman. :o
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QUINCEANERA
In Spanish ‘quince’ = ’15’, and ‘años’ = “years”. In her El Salvador culture, this very special Quinceanera birthday marks the important threshold between child and woman. For those able to afford it, there may be lavish celebrations that would rival any expensive wedding. For our sponsored children, they can only dream wistfully of such things. However some sponsors are able to send a family gift and their centres may organise a small party for them. If you are thinking about a sponsor visit, this would be a great time to go and visit your child.
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ESTEFANY LOVES PARIS
I sent Estefany some Paris photos a while ago and photoshopped her picture into them. Now she loves Paris! So for this special birthday, I did a Paris / Travel theme for her with more of a grown up feel to it. It 
was a totally frivolous package, but she will absolutely love it. Her dream is to travel to Paris one day. I concentrated on paper gift items in soft colours or pink / black / white. There are so many beautiful Paris free printable gift items that it was hard to choose. And it’s a good thing her package is posted, as I keep finding more. :)
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PARIS GIFT BOX
An adorable free printable Paris gift box in soft pink colours from Vectoria Designs was the star of my package. Here are the how-to instructions. I printed it on craft photo paper with a slightly glossy finish and it turned out absolutely gorgeous with a soft sheen.
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PERSONALISED STATIONERY SET
Next, a free printable stationery set with a vintage map and personalised with Estefany’s name on it. The map clearly shows France. Perfect. I had to send this stationery set as a separate posting, as it was almost 1/4 inch all by itself by the time I cut the stationery into 14 individual pieces; added half a dozen envelopes + envelope liners; plus the stationery band. Normally, I would send something like this unassembled to our older children and allow them to put it together, but chose this time to present it to Estefany as a complete and finished gift. The band can also be personalised, so we added Estefany’s name; our names; and the words Congratulations and Feliz Quinceanera.
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CALENDAR
Next, a pretty black and white vintage style Paris calendar by Call Me Victorian with the Eiffel Tower on it. (You may find an updated calendar for this year here); free printable
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PARIS PAPER CITY
Paris paper city (madebyjoel) standing craft to make; free printable
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PARIS BUSINESS CARDS
Paris business cards (simplyfunstuff) personalised with Estefany’s name on it. These free printable cards also look pretty recoloured in pink. If you are using MS Publisher, simply right click on the image – click ‘format’ – ‘picture’ – ‘recolor’ – and then choose your colour.
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BUSINESS CARD HOLDER
And her own fun free printable Black Tie Butler – business card holder (digitprop) to hold her Paris business cards or Bible verse wallet cards. He can solemnly hold up and display a new Bible verse for her every day, if she wishes.
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PARIS COLLAGE
Next, I did a Paris collage for her in soft, pretty colours and laminated it. It was more art, than photos. The main photo I used was this pretty Eiffel Tower with flowers. I also used this Eiffel Tower image from the top left corner; this Paris sunset reflection; this photo of Paris in the Spring and one of snow in Paris. I used one of these pretty papers (scroll halfway down the page to the apricot and brown image with a butterfly hovering over the clock) as the background for my collage. Across the main image, I added Estefany’s name, Feliz Quinceanera, our names, a couple of heart embellishments, and a Bible verse in Spanish from Deuteronomy 6:5.
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TRAVEL JOURNAL / SKETCHING PAGE
Travel Journal (Dover sample) I fitted 2 of these on the one A4 page (landscape) and added Estefany’s name arching across the top of each one.
Travel Journal and Paris Sketching page (wanderlustdesigner) By this time, I was rapidly running out of room, so I only sent the sketching page.
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PRETTY PARIS SCRAPBOOKING PAPERS, GIFT TAGS, AND LABELS
Okay, that made up the bulk of her package. I also made up a few of my own pages from some of these various bits and pieces that I thought she may like, so she could cut them out, add her own photos and make her own scrapbooking pages. Remember to open them up in an editing program and add a text box so you can include some Bible verses. There are also some other links you may also like to check out.
French Rose – vintage tags (shabbyblogs) free printable
Tea in Paris – vintage tags (vintageglamstudio; scroll down) free printable
Shabby – pretty scrapbooking tags (freeprettythingsforyou) – also check out this pretty rose gift box and gift tags; heart-shaped shabby flower tags; and Parisian – romantic scrapbook printables; free printable
Paris – scrapbooking papers and tags (astridsartisticefforts; scroll down) lots of mix and match items for a Paris theme; free printable
Hearts & Rose – soft pink labels (lilac-n-lavender; scroll down to ‘Heart & Rose Label’) free printable
Paris – scrapbook paper (stampindamour) flowers on apricot pink shabby background; and Paris – scrapbook paper with vintage chair and music notes; free printable
This pretty scrapbook page with butterflies, doilies and a young girl; or this gorgeous mini album are both perfect for a Paris theme. Imagine a paper version of these.
Paris – free printables (duckduckgo)
What a wonderful site this one is: Fabulous Paris images in soft colours; some lovely photos of Paris and have a flick through the beautiful e-mag Paris photos; there is also a calendar to purchase if you wish.
Paris – scrapbook templates and freebies from Marisa Lerin – you will have to register if you wish to download, but you can get free downloads and Marisa has heaps of great ideas to choose from.
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MORE PARIS PRINTABLES
Paris – stationery (jodieleedesigns) free printable
Paris – sunset photos (duckduckgo)
Paris – photos (duckduckgo)
Paris village – craft (myfantastictoys) this looks interesting for younger children; for purchase
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MORE CREATIVE IDEAS
Add a Bible verse to your favourite Paris image to make your own:
Bible Poster or Verse Card
Bible Wallet Cards
Bible Note Cards
Bible Stickers
Board Game
Stationery
If you are doing a travel theme for your child, you may also like to jazz up your colouring pages, jazz up your envelopes with some cute Paris clip art or stickers; and make your own puzzles specifically for your child.
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MORE TRAVEL IDEAS
I also thought about making up more travel items for Estefany with pink, white and black colours ~ a passport; a plane ticket and boarding pass; some Paris postcards. I really liked these sweet, girly ideas from Simone Made It. There are also some travel / world map / country flags / geography ideas in Cool Links that I could have used. In fact, I found so many great free printable Paris / travel ideas, I think I could have done a Paris theme all year! :)
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RELATED LINKS
And maybe you may like to ‘bless your child’s mom’ or teacher with some of these wonderful Paris ideas as well.
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How special your 15 year old will feel! You are so good at developing creative ideas. Now wondering about boys? I do not sponsor any girls in El Salvador, but do have 3 boys, and wondering if there is a special age to celebrate for them too?
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Hmmm… that’s a great question, Susan. I haven’t heard anything about the boys, but it makes sense, doesn’t it? I’m not sure about this. I only found out about the girls side of things from someone on http://ourcompassion.org/ who had been able to visit their sponsor girls and had been able to give a decent enough family gift, so they could celebrate it in style. Otherwise I would not have known about this all. His girls looked absolutely gorgeous. Like princesses. It was like a wedding! If you wanted to be sure, go to OC and check there. Someone on the forum is sure to know. Sadly, we were only able to send Estefany a small family gift for this special birthday. :( But at least it may be enough for a small quinc party for her at her Compassion centre, with her friends. In her last letter, she told us that she was not having a quinc, but when she wrote that, she would not have received our gift by then. I hope that her Paris package of love will bring her great joy. Thanks so much for your kind comments.
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