Last month we celebrated my “baby” Joy’s 6th birthday. How does this happen… the little (well, if 9 lbs is little) baby we brought home from the hospital not too long ago is now 6! Joy has always been the perfect name for this fun, rambunctious, confident little girl. She dives into life head first…and has a few stitches to prove it!
We celebrated Joy’s birthday with a colorful Arts & Crafts Birthday Party. I chose this theme partly because I knew we’d be inviting both boys and girls, and wanted something fun and interactive that everyone would enjoy.
It was a beautiful sunny day, and everyone seemed to have a really great time!
Please enjoy Joy’s Rainbow Art Birthday Party…
I designed the party invitations to fit inside a standard watercolor paint set. Since I knew we’d be hand delivering the invitations, it was a special way to give the guests an idea of the fun we’d be having. I bought the watercolor sets (Wal-Mart is the cheapest place I found), then removed the cardboard Crayola label inside and used that as a template for the invitation. I designed the invitation so that I could fold it in half and the image on one side would show through the box (the “You’re invited… ” part), and the other side (which would be inside the paint box) would include the party details. I added some pretty ribbon and a little name tag for each guest.
As I was planning the dessert/snack table, I made a set of 3 rainbow crayon art canvases to act as the backdrop, and pull in the whole theme. I have a full post with the details of the Rainbow Crayon Art Canvases)
Along the back of the table, I lined up a row of bud vases with bright gerbera daisies.
Snacks included…
Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting, baked in grease-proof polka dot baking cups (called “Color Cups” from Wilton).
Fresh Fruit & Pretzels (in polka dot baking/snack cups)
Decorated Sugar Cookies (here’s my Sugar Cookie Recipe)
I had fun making simple, yet colorful crayon shaped cookies, and added a special personalized cookie to the tray as well. The personalized cookie was hand-painted, in the same way I recently made some hand-painted Valentine’s cookies.
Simple snacks of fresh fruit (above) and pretzels (below) were served in colorful polka dot baking/treat cups (available from TomKat Studio, Shop Sweet Lulu, and Sweet Estelle’s Baking Supply)
I planned two main crafts for the kids to complete during the party. In addition, I covered the entire party table with white paper (from the teacher supply store) and allowed the kids to draw all over the table. The kids were able to color on the table while we waited for all the guests to arrive. I had jars of crayons and colored pencils (as well as paintbrushes for our other craft) all along the table.
The first craft was a personalized mosaic canvas, which included the initial of each child’s name. Each guest chose the color they’d like to paint the letter, and got to work…
The final craft included the painted initial, on top a mosaic covered canvas. I have a full post on how to make the Personalized Mosaic Canvases.
The second party project was for each guest to color their own “cookie canvas” (inspired by The Decorated Cookie). I baked and iced (with royal icing) large cookies in a couple different shapes. I prepared the cookies (and added the frame) just as I did for the Valentine’s cookies I posted HERE. Be sure to allow at least one full day (or more) for the icing to dry before the kids are going to color them. I provided the guests with food color markers, and they had fun being creative!
Certainly, the crafts the children created during the party would have been adequate favors, but before I had even settled on the party crafts I had already prepared these cute favor pails…
Small paint can pails (available from Oriental Tradding Company, or Michael’s) were filled with mini colored pencils, bubbles in a crayon shaped container, an erasser, a rainbow lollipop (from Party City), and multi color crayon “pods” I made from broken, melted crayons.
Joy’s birthday was a fun and creative day, and we really enjoyed sharing it with friends!
All photos, food, and styling by me/Joy’s mommy/Glorious Treats.
How many can be handled well in this themed party?
I imagine the number of kids is mainly only limited by the space you have. Certainly the ages of the children will greatly vary how many helpers you may need to keep things moving along. This party was in my home and most of the parents stayed and helped their children with the projects at least a bit.
I was wondering how did you do the template for the invitation? I have the watercolors but I’m unsure how to do the measurements and how to create overall.
would you share your psd files for the watercolor insert invites?
Its fabulous.. can you suggest on how to make those custom invitations. I saw your custom water bottle labels and would like to know on how to make those custom labels.
Love all of your ideas. My daughter just requested a painting party for her 4th birthday. I’m working on copying/stealing your invite idea- just bought the watercolors from Walmart. ;-). Thanks for all your cute ideas. So far the kiddos are decorating their own painting aprons with foam stickers and stamps, then will be painting initial letters, playing some games with the Gymboree instructors, then coming back to decorate some birthday cupcakes. Thanks again for the super cute and fun ideas!
What a colorful and beautiful party! Happy to have stumbled across your blog this morning.
Great job Glory 🙂
hey I’m wondering if you have any PDF of the party invitation and the thankyou notes as well ? Love your creativity ! what a great blog 🙂 thanks
This is a beautiful party. Thank you for the ideas. What I really like are the containers on the table for the crayons. How did you paint the lids for the mason jars? I have tons of these and want to do this for a party. Thanks
I just came across you blog and absolutely love this birthday idea! I especially love the personalized invitations you created. Would you be willing to share the photoshop file for me to use for my daughters 5th birthday? I completely understand if you would rather not share it. Thanks for documenting all the details, it was very helpful to read where you found items, etc.
Thanks!
Hi Anne, I only have the final file personalized with our party details, so I don’t think you want that. Glad you found some inspiration from our party, have a great party!
What a FAB party!!! Definitely gonna try dis things!