What we did for an art party

After two years of gymnastics parties, I thought we would try something different this year.  I looked at doing a party at Wine & Design or something, but it was a little out of our price range.  So, I thought I'd try one at the house.

Food: Snacks and Cupcakes
I did homemade cupcakes with fondant "crayons."

 

Plates and napkins were tye-dyes from Walmart.

Favors: Smocks
I bought mens shirts from a thrift store for $2 each.  Then I got some iron-on letters, flowers, etc. from JoAnn and customized them with the kids' initials.  Madeleine and Lily picked out their own special cupcake patches.


Activities: Decorate a bag, paint a pumpkin, make a bandana, and canvas painting.
Least popular: decorate your bag (paint too wet to make bags useful)
Most popular: paint a pumpkin



For the canvases I had three easels set up.  I also had hooks on about 5 canvases and just hung them on the wall since we had the party in the garage.  I had put down some paper on the floor (didn't want plastic because I envisioned people slipping in wet paint).  I used acrylic paint I got in the kids section at Jerry's Artarama.  I got two big bags of brushes from Walmart and used red Solo cups for water and holding brushes.  We pre-filled palettes with paint before the guests arrived, and I had a roll of paper towels out for every two canvases.

I also printed out some famous paintings and taped them to the wall above the tables for inspiration.

Games: "Pin the Paintbrush" and TWO pinatas

Lily came up with the idea for the paintbrush game.  People had to stick a paintbrush to her homemade palette and get them in the right spots. It went pretty well.  I was nervous because both girls hit the prize spots first, but they were good hostesses and gave out the three prizes I had to their friends.


We started making the pinatas back in Sept.  Madeleine's was the first one.  We'd put so much glue on it it took a week to dry.  The one that was Lily's had the balloon deflate on the first try, so we started hers on the second weekend.  Lily's ended up being less firm.  On the third weekend, we decorated them with tissue paper.  That took close to 3 hours and 3 bottles of tacky glue.



We did Madeleine's first, and it was tough to break.  We did the first round blindfolded, then I took it off.  We went through 4-5 rounds before I just pulled at the rip.  Later on we did Lily's.  I thought it would break sooner, but it didn't.


Final products:

The party just made it to the 2 hour mark, including cupcakes and opening gifts.  Some kids weren't interested in doing the paintings, so it was tough to keep them occupied.   But the girls had a great time and have something to remember the day.