My oldest daughter had a friend birthday party on Saturday. The theme was an ART STUDIO. My daughter loves to draw, paint, sculpt and do all sorts of crafty things so this was the perfect party for her. She planned a lot of the party herself, from the invitations to the cupcakes and even some of the games.
For the invitations, I took a picture of her with arms outstretched so we could add in a paint palette and a paintbrush. We used Picmonkey to create it adding words so her guests would know where and when the party was.
On the day of the party, we created a sign that said "Welcome to (my daughter's) Art Party". We set the easel on the front porch and added some balloons.
When the girls arrived, we showed them into the dining room where they could use colored pencils to color in some zentangle drawings. We did this while waiting for everyone to arrive.
The girls had a great time coloring and talking, but I had to interrupt them so we could get on with the next activity which needed to dry before they went home.
Next, they went outside where I had two tables set up with canvases, paint and paint brushes. The girls got to paint whatever they wanted.
Little sister was even given her own special spot to paint. She loved feeling like one of the big kids and hanging out with the older girls.
We let them paint for about 20 minutes and then moved them back inside for a few drawing games and snacks. The girls worked in pairs so not all the girls needed to come in at once.
The first drawing game was to draw your partners face without looking at your paper. Of course they found this hilarious and the portraits where very impressionistic.
The next drawing game had them scribbling all over the paper. Then they were to look at their scribbles and see what sort of shapes, images popped out. They could use markers to outline those images.
The snacks were simple: popcorn, some sprinkle covered donut holes and bottled water with a "Creative Juices" label. The bottles also had their names on it which made it easy to keep track of whose drink was whose.
Then it was time to go back outside. This time I handed each girls a clump of the Air Dry Sculpting Clay and let them create whatever they wanted. Most of the girls made some sort of animal.
I had planned to have the girls go back inside for another drawing game, which would allow me time to clean up the tables outside and set up for the next art activity which was water color painting. However, the girls were taking longer than I anticipated to do each activity. We skipped the water color painting and the two other indoor drawing games I had planned. I'm glad I over planned rather than under planned the amount of activities.
Some girls were still sculpting, but others were finished so we handed out the popsicles. I had gotten ones that looked like crayons. The girls all thought they were cute.
And then it was time for the paint balloons. I had gotten some water balloons with a swirly design on them so they looked cool to begin with, and then we filled them up with a drop of paint and some water. This was the messiest part of the party preparations, but so worth it once I saw how much fun the girls had with it. My daughter really wanted to do this so of course I had to make it happen. The balloons were in a bucket on the lawn with an old white sheet held down by some rocks on the corners.
We had practiced this before the party with a regular water balloon and found that the balloon bounced on the sheet so it worked better to throw the balloon onto the grass right in front of the sheet and then it would splatter onto the sheet. Also, I told the girls to stay on the patio so they wouldn't get covered in paint...
It started out pretty calm, with the girls taking turns throwing the paint balloons...
However, once the balloons didn't pop, the girls went after them, not caring that other girls were still throwing balloons. It was all fun and no one got too messy. Glad I told them to dress accordingly for the art party.
And here's what the sheet looked like after all the balloons had been popped.
Once the girls cleaned themselves up, we headed back into the dining room for singing, cupcakes and presents. My daughter wanted to have cupcakes that looked like paint palettes. I made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing then added some mini M&M's and a chocolate chip to create the palette.
And finally, the gift bags. Each girl was sent home with a little goodie bag that contained a scratch off bookmark, a tube of paint, and a ceramic thing to paint. There was also a thank you note that said, "Thank you for making my birthday party a masterpiece".
I know the girls all had fun at this party and the moms were impressed with their masterpieces. It wasn't too hard to set things up and once the party got started, the girls were so good that they didn't need much supervision at all. In fact at one point, I saw down to chat with my mom and sister who had come up to help.
After all the friends went home, it was time to get ready for the second party of the day. More on that party later.
