If you've done a party with arts & crafts as the theme or activity, what arts/crafts did you do and were they successful, or a disaster? I have some ideas for DD's upcoming party, but I want to learn from other people's mistakes ;-p. Group of kids will be 6, 7, 8-ish with one 4 year old, probably mostly girls.
Thanks!!!
Great ideas, so far! I tend to over think and worry about kids getting bored, but I think just a couple of activities might work. We'll be serving dinner, drinks, and cake, and I assume the kids will want to just hang out and play as well at some point.
I am not doing a Michael's party because it would easily cost me over $200 there not including food or cake. They want a $50 deposit for set up, clean up, etc. PLUS the cost of each craft item that each kid does. I'd have to pay per kid and with the current trend of non-responses to invitations, I'd rather not throw money in the garbage. Doing it at home allows me more flexibility.
At that age, we made jewelry: bracelets & necklaces. A huge hit.
Or you could have each girl paint a canvas or small piece of pottery (like
a piggy bank). Have them bring an old shirt (maybe one of dad's white
shirts) to wear over their clothes so they don't get ruined.
I took my kiddos (3 and 5) to a party three weeks ago that had an arts and craft theme. The mom took butcher paper and cut it into 11x17 (ish - it wasn't exact) sheets, and the hung them up along the fence. Between every spot she had cups with tempura paint and brushes. Kids were asked to bring an old button down shirt to wear as a smock. Then they all got to paint their own "masterpiece". She also had crafty stuff, buttons, ribbon, flowers, etc on a table with glue sticks that the kids could get if they wanted to. It was alot of fun, and, because it was all outside, clean up was easy. The art dried while the kids had lunch and cake, and then all the kids brought home their artwork instead of a goody-bag. We got both of theirs framed and they are currently hanging in their rooms. It was so much fun, I plan to steal that idea for my daughters party in October. :)
T-shirt decorating is always a great option and is fun for that range of ages. My son (5) slept over at my parents' house on Friday night with his twin girl cousins (3). My mom said they spent nearly half an hour decorating their shirts. She put out an old sheet and had them in "junk" clothes and let them go nuts. They had fabric markers and fabric paints. Took a solid two hours for them to dry, but they had a blast!
Disaster? Anything with too many "steps". At that age, trying to get them to follow tons of directions at a party is going to be tough.
Agreed that if you can do it outside, that would be best!! Do you have a local chain type craft store? We have Michael's here. They always have some sort of wooden cute thing that kids can paint for cheap! Just go walk around and check it out - some even come with a little thing of paints. And I agree that the kids can just take home their creation as a goodie - no need to fill up a bag with junk!!
Girls also like to make necklaces and bracelts with beads!
We've done tie dyed shirts too - a little more labor intensive, but each kid got a nice T to take home!
We did a painting party for my daughter's 3rd birthday. Covered the table with butcher paper and decorated it (also served to protect the table during the craft). Bought a few various wooden items from Michaels and had each kid choose 2 things to paint. Each kid got their face painted and the babies (both 1 year old) were set on a picnic table (being held by mom) on butcher paper and cups of pudding and allowed to 'paint' with their fingers. They were a mess but loved it!! The cake was a mad hatter style that looked like a paint pallete!
For my kids' next birthday, I'm going to buy the Magic Scratch masks because my kids love anything Magic Scratch!
I just went to a 2nd birthday party (Elmo themed) and each kid got a cupcake and were to decorte it like the Elmo one that she made. Very cute!
Michael's craft stores do birthday parties.
I had the party guests color, decorate and sign their names on the "Happy Birthday" poster. I just outlined the letters ahead of time. After the party I laminated the poster and still hang it on the wall every year for my kids' birthdays.
MY SIL threw a bracelet-making birthday party for my niece. She actually hired someone to come and handle it all and the woman brought all the supplies needed. I have no idea where she found her or what it cost, but my SIL is rather frugal so it couldn't have been to expensive.
