Arts - n - Crafts Party

An "Arts n' Crafts" party is an activity get-together.
The birthday child can make the invitations but the guests will decorate the tablecover, party hat, cake, party favors and enjoy some edible craft painting activities, a definite fun time for all the guests to make their own party favors to take home.

Invitations

Materials:
Silver color construction paper or posterboard
Green, Red, Orange, Yellow & Purple construction paper
Envelopes

Directions:
Using pattern above, trace and cut out palette on silver colored paper, including the hole where the finger would go in a real palette. Cut circles from each of the colored construction paper as the paint and glue onto the palette. Cut out and color the artist brush (see pattern above) and glue into hole in the palette (or you can use inexpensive real paintbrushes). Write all the party information on the back:

Birthday child's name:

Date of party:

Time of party (start and ending times):

Location:

Dress: Ask each child to wear a smock or old tee shirt/pants

Name Tags

Party Activity: Guest can make these when they arrive
Materials:

Yellow, red, green and orange construction paper
Black Felt Pens

Directions:
Trace around pattern above and cut out on yellow construction paper. Add orange for the glue tip, red for the lid, and green for the label. Each guest writes their name on a bottle and pins to their smock or shirt.

Tablecover

Party Activity: Guests decorate the party tablecover
Before the guests arrive: cover a table with a white inexpensive sheet. Have ready permanent felt markers and glue ( you can also offer confetti, glitter, etc. if you are brave!!)

If using papergoods, have them where the children can copy the theme on to the sheet to decorate the area of the table they are going to sit at when the cake is served.

Cake

Edible Crayon Sugar Decorations
Party Activity: Guests decorate cupcakes or a large cake
Before the guests arrive: Bake/frost cupcakes and place on a round platter. Have bright colored frostings in tubes and one black frosting in a tube for writing. Colored candy confetti, gum drops, small candies and the guests design their own birthday cupcake. If using a larger cake, draw a palette on cake and use flattened gumdrops for the paint dabs.

Party Favors

Party Activity: Guests use their artist box and decorate their painter's cap to wear.
Before the guests arrive: Purchase inexpensive plastic boxes and add a variety of artist supplies, such as little paints, crayons, markers, paintbrushes, chalk, little notebooks, erasers, etc. Buy inexpensive painter caps from a paint store.

Party Cracker

Party Activity: Each guest gets one toilet paper roll, fills it with candy, wraps in tissue paper, close both ends with curly ribbon and decorate the "party cracker" to take home with them.
Before the guests arrive: Collect empty toilet paper rolls, one for each guest. Materials include small wrapped candies, tissue paper, curly ribbon.

Paint Activities

Two recipes for
EDIBLE &
one NON-Edible
paint crafts
Jell-O Finger-Paint: EDIBLE
In a small bowl, mix dry gelatin with hot water 1 teaspoon at a time until a paste is formed. This will be grainy. By adding more or less water, you can make it the consistency you want it to be. Let the guests paint on butcher paper.

Tasty Paint: EDIBLE
Mix 1 can sweetened condensed milk, several drops of food coloring. Give the children paint brushes and paper or just let them use their fingers. The paint will be a pastel color and when it dries, it will be kind of glossy.

Melted Crayon Paintings: NON-Edible
Melted crayon is thick, aromatic stuff that cools and dries fast. Painting with it produces great results, but the technique is tricky. Large sweeping brush strokes do not work well. dabbing works much better. This needs parental supervision.

Materials:

Crayons
Electric or Regular Frying Pan
Foil lined muffin tins
Cotton swabs or old paint brushes

Directions:

To melt crayons, fill a frying pan with some water and set on low. Set a muffin tin in the warm water. Heat the crayons in the containers until they melt, remove the pan. Remember the tins will be hot. Using cotton swabs or paint brushes, your child can create a masterpiece on paper. Submitted by Shawn - Shawn's Recipe Kitchen

Sun Catchers

Materials:
Crayon shavings
Waxed paper
String or lace
Iron

Directions:

Shave your crayons, using a crayon sharpener, or a cheese grater. Arrange and sandwich the shavings between 2 pieces of wax paper. You can also add some string, paper, lace among the shavings. iron the whole package on low just until the shavings melt, about 5-8 seconds. Cut the sun catchers into shapes and hang them. Submitted by Shawn - Shawn's Recipe Kitchen

Bookmarks

Materials:
Crayons
Clear Plastic (sold at sewing and hardware stores by the foot) or Wax paper
Hand pencil sharpener
Iron

Directions:

Have the kids shred their own crayons. Then they can put the shavings between 2 layers of plastic. Then put a thin linen towel over it and iron them together. Cut the plastic into bookmarks. Punch a hole in the top and insert a ribbon and tie the ends together into a bow. Very effective, each one was quite different as each child used more or less of each color. Submitted by Wendy

FOOD

Hot dogs and/or hamburgers are well liked by children of all ages and can easily be prepared while the children are being little artists. Serve with potato chips and carrot strips.
Before the guest arrive: Have the condiments in bowls (ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, etc.) and have paint brushes in each bowl instead of knives. The guests can paint their hot dog or hamburger.

Enjoy these fun projects with your children by letting your
imagination be your guide… be an "un-grownup", it's fun!