Art Party

This has to be one of my favorite parties for this little girl – who is no longer little. She loves to craft and create so we decided on an art party this year. She invited her 3 dearest friends which made this party manageable. Once you go outside of the circle of best friends it’s hard to keep the number below 10!  I’d suggest keeping the numbers small unless you’re one of those crazy moms. (I’ve don’t that and it was crazy!)

ACTIVITIES

First on the agenda - APRONS - so they can ART without fear.  Well, let’s be honest, kids always create without fear; this was to save any parental fear and … clothing. These no-sew aprons were made by cutting some white t-shirts. I used adult large. I probably would have used round necklines but I already had these v-neck t’s. We did Sharpie Tie-Dye, which is awesome and easy. The girls could have spent a lot of time filling the entire thing with color but we just did and few and turned them into flowers so we could continue with the ARTing.

Onto the canvas…

It was fun to teach the kids to notice brush strokes, patterns, etc. I found examples of art online and pulled them up on the TV (enlarged) so they could see an example and then create their own. These mixed medium suns were fun and allowed for lots of personalizing.

This table cloth is about to meet it’s match.  Makes sure you get something you can toss when the fun is done.

I really wanted the girls to paint something amazing. When they saw the example they were excited and doubtful. We broke it up and did a few parts at a time. I drew an outline on the canvas for them so they would have some confidence that it would turn out similar to the original.  While parts were drying we opened presents and had treats. They were always excited to return to the project and loved the finished piece.

After this picture I noticed that my daughters painting needed some correcting. She probably would not have noticed or cared but the center of her flower ended up too small so she did some touchup.  I love how it turned out and she can’t wait to hang it in her room.

I don’t do big goody bags at parties but I usually send a little Thank You treat. At this party it was a small frame with a picture of the girls from the party. I took a picture with their aprons and then printed them while they worked on other projects. If time would have permitted they could have painted their frames, I also had buttons and beads for gluing – as it was, the party had been going for 3 1/2 hours and I was a little done. They didn’t even know there were other options and they enjoyed decorating their frames.  It was a backup project. If the other projects went quicker than planned we could have done more with this.

At the end of it all the girls went home with 4 projects and they were thrilled with each one!

FOOD

I don’t do fondant and I wasn’t in the mood for too much creativity when it came to the food – I like easy but unique… introducing Art-in-a-Jar.  These colorful cupcakes in a jar were awesome. The girls loved eating down to another color.  Since the cupcake was in a jar I decided to serve everything in a jar.  They had a jar with ice cream and another jar of milk.

I think the girls could have spent another hour creating but we already went overtime.  In fact, I’d suggest giving a start time only for the party. It’s just easier to finish when they finish all their art projects.

Tips

#1 - Plan ahead! Like a month ahead, if only to watch sales and use coupons at craft stores.

#2 - Use coupons. An art party can add up quickly. If money is an issue you can save a lot with the great store coupons, Joann’s and Michael’s for my neck of the woods.

#3 - Scour your own art/craft stash. I found the frames in a box of craft things. I also had most of the paint colors and brushes already along with scrapbook paper, nick-nacks for the frames, etc. The small canvases were another item I had around with a print on them. I painted them white for repurposing. The shirts for the aprons was also something I happened to have from my HB’s business trip. The materials I had around the house definitely helped me decide what kind of projects we would do. But splurging for the big canvases was totally worth it.

#4 - Have a “filler” project. Kids seem to work at different speeds. You’ll also find that something needs to dry and it’s time for a filler.

#5 - Don’t be afraid to expect them to do their best. I really pushed a few of them to “straighten their lines” and such. These were not a rush-through-school-project. Some kids took their time, some were naturally good at art and others, well, others needed more guidance. I wanted their best effort so they would be proud of the outcome and they were.

Invitations

You can download an invite for your own use below. I also separate the wordart if you’d like to grab things in pieces. Hopefully you can use them for your own art party.

Good Times Kit & QP

This kit is perfect for all your summer pictures.  It is packed with fun stuff and bright colors.  Here’s some Summer Fun in the Sun and a free QP for you.

Free QP – click image below.

And to get this awesome kit GOOD TIMES, from Word Art World, click the image below.

Pre-teen Craft Party

SURPRISE!!!!

Paige had this brilliant idea for her birthday party - she wanted a surprise party. Well, you can’t just know you’re having a surprise party so I told her we were just doing a regular party and the invites went out for her crafting party. But Paige didn’t know that all the girls were going to come an hour early while Paige and I went to the store. So she got her surprise party and was thrilled!

It was so fun to have all her friends here - a whopping 11 girls.

The girls painted and created and had lots of laughs. It was really fun (if not slightly exhausting. Thank heavens my sister was here to help me. Totally couldn’t have done it all without her.) We made Halloween blocks, washer necklaces and chalkboard advent calendars. The calendars are cool because they are on little picture frames with changeable papers for the different holidays. The blocks turned out adorable and the girls loved designing their own necklaces. Whew - it really was kind of a lot with so many girls. But it was also a lot of fun and totally worth it.

The trick to a party like this is knowing how long everything will take to make (paint and dry). We started with painting blocks. Then moved to the necklaces. The gel on the necklaces dried fairly quickly when put in front of a heater. Next we did gifts. After that we made the calendars – those are quick and no drying is needed. We had our dessert and FINALY we put the vinyl on the blocks and finished the necklaces. The girls only made one Halloween block each but had 3 to choose from and tons of vinyl faces from Simple Sayings Vinyl.

Instead of traditional cake - I went with the “creating” theme and let the girls create their own ice cream sundays - and boy did they load up!  Tweens can chow!

This is not a one man show – unless you have 5 or less friends. But go and get your craft on – Birthday style!

Glow Party

Celebrating this 12 year old’s birthday – Glow style! Before you get started planning your own glow in the dark party here is tip #1 – buy a UV flashlight. You can find them online or as close as walmart for about $10.  Keep this little baby in the purse and take it with you EVERYWHERE while you prep for this party. You can use it in stores to see if something “neon” actually glows.  There are some bright things that surprisingly don’t glow.  The kids had a blast taking the flashlight to their closets and throughout the house to find other things that glow as we prepared and planned.

ACTIVITIES

We used two blacklights and a lamp with a blacklight bulb. The more lights the better. Some fun glow parties I have seen are in unfinished basements where blacklights could be hung from the ceiling (ideal) but we had to put them on shelves and tables. It worked great.

The girls did coloring, which was super cool with the blacklights. We just went through our crayons and highlighters, used our nifty UV flashlight, and found everything we needed and already had. They made rubberband bracelets that glowed and necklaces with glowing beads.

Since we are always telling our kids not to draw on themselves, of course they loved designing and painting body art with gel pens and highlighters. We tried this out before the party (again with our now-favorite UV flashlight). It’s so cool!  The girls also painted their nails with some glow in the dark polish.

Glam Shop Dress Up. Most of these items came from the dollar store or my own closet.

We had one outdoor scavenger hunt for glow bugs hidden in the yard. They took turns with the flashlight to find all of them. They were clear bugs from the dollarstore that glow with the blacklight. (ok, this picture looks likes something si-fi or something you’d see under a microscope … but they were the only bugs I found that glowed. Boys would eat this up and the girls could have cared less what they looked like – they were on the hunt.)

FOOD

After a while of playing in the dark it was time for cake and ice cream. I decided to avoid eating in the dark all together and just made fun and bright cupcakes.  There’s plenty of awesome things people do with food, but mostly it is the plasticware that glows and I decided to save money and skip that.

DECORATING

It was hard to end the party because the fun just never stopped.  We had simple decorations with streamers and posters. Beyond that the glow was all that was needed.

TIPS

#1 - Buy a UV Flashlight

#2 - Don’t think you have to do glowing food. You can save a lot of money by not glowing your food, plus it will save you a huge mess to clean up later.

#3 - A tripod is best for photos in the dark, but that only helps if your subject isn’t moving – which obviously isn’t the case with kids. I played around with the settings on my phone before the party and found that the pictures weren’t crisp but were good enough.

#4 - I saved money by borrowing a blacklight. Start asking around for friends or neighbors who have a light you can borrow.

#5 – Plan on this party lasting a long time. Playing in the dark is so much fun! I think a small group is ideal, but if your space allows for more people, by all means PARTY IT UP!

INVITATIONS

It was tricky to make an invite that appeared bright enough to be glowing. This has a lot going on. You can just as easly do black with basic bright font and it will look awesome. We didn’t do thank you cards for this party, Paige just gave them stuff that glowed with a thank you tag.

Download a blank invite below.