My first mission, find at least 14 locks. Locks, though, can be kind of expensive and my party planning motto is to try and be as frugal as possible. The best option proved to be ordering a case, which included 24 locks, from the Dollar Store. The locks were just what a wanted but I decided to dress each one up with some fun paper gem tags that I made. The tags added a little color and style to the locks.
Originally, I was going to hide the locks around the party room we rented and send the girls off with keys on a hunt to find the match. One day, though, I noticed my neighbor had an unused gate leaning against her fence and inspiration struck {and fortunately, I have a great neighbor who happily gave me her gate}.
And, that is how my Love Locks Game came to be. With my new gate acting as the pont des arts, I hung 24 locks with the keys attached.
Since we had a few extra locks, I couldn't help but decorate one for myself, before the party.
During the party, each girl was asked to take a set of keys out of the lock and stand in a circle. I called out various things like, trade keys with the person to your right or trade keys with someone wearing something French themed. When the keys were sufficiently switched around, they were free to try and locate where their matching lock was.
Once they succeeded in finding the match, they were able to decorate their love lock with permanent markers. It was interesting to see what a group of 9 year old girls love...
The decorated locks could be rehung on the gate or taken home to perhaps one day be placed on a love lock gate in Paris.
