A Painting Birthday Party

We recently celebrated my daughter’s fifth birthday in an all out painting party. I have grown up surrounded by a family of talented artists and art has always been a passion of mine so when she told me she wanted an art party, I of course loved the idea. ​

Before I got started I took a quick peek at Pinterest to gain some inspiration. There are so many great ideas out there, but what I love best is taking those ideas and making them your own - even if it is just making a few little tweaks. My Pinterest search turned up plenty of painting parties, and while I can appreciate a good rainbow, nearly everything I saw was centered around those 6 magic colors.  I knew immediately that  I wanted to go in a different direction and my first step was to pick a color scheme. I hopped over to Paper Source and perused their goods...and there are so many. When I spotted their brushstrokes paper, I knew I had found just what I was looking for. I grabbed several rolls knowing it would play a key part in helping tie everything together.

With paper in hand, my first step was to work on the invitation. I designed something simple on my computer tying in pink and teal. I used the brushstrokes paper as a liner for the envelopes and hand wrote names in a simple font on the front.  

Next, I pulled cupcake liners, straws, tissue paper pom poms, my nana’s pink tablecloth and a few other goodies to help create a cohesive look. 

Once the back end of the details were set, it was time to focus on the events of the day. Instead of painting on canvases I knew right away that I wanted to do something that I loved as a child and paint ceramics. When I was a little girl, we had a small neighborhood place called the Snoop Shop. It was a childs dream -  a messy room filled with hundreds of ceramic pieces begging to be painted, a table full of paints, old orange juice concentrate cans filled with water  and men's dress shirts to be used as smocks. On top of that, Mimi the owner was like everyone's favorite grandma, ready to help you roll up your sleeves and paint!  It’s not terribly easy to come across sizeable ceramic pieces for kids to paint without paying a fortune, so I did a little searching and came across some ceramic molds. The price was right and all it would require from me was a little time and and a 10 lb. tub of plaster of paris. ​

Knowing that kids finish things at different times, I also created a few smaller pieces and had some other small crafts that they could do on their own once they were done. 

Lunch was simple: pizza, fruit and veggies with some lemonade. For dessert each child was served a cupcake on a palette filled with sprinkles that they could decorate in any style they chose. After lunch we played a few rounds of art bingo using boards I created to go with the theme until it was time to go. 

Their take home favors were personalized smocks I created, using the same icon from the invitation. They used them during the party and they will hopefully get some good use out of them in the future. I also made painter’s palette sugar cookies that they could take home along with their painted piece. In the end, I think it was a total success. The kids had a great time and we managed to not spill too much paint!

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