Birthday Party Ideas for Young Artists

When we decided to celebrate my daughter's and niece's birthdays together, we had the dilemma of how to celebrate a shared birthday for a five and twelve year old. My niece loves to draw, sew, and create just about anything she can think of, and I will add my very biased opinion that she is VERY talented. My daughter is following closely in her big cousin's footsteps and has taken quite an interest in drawing and creating projects. So I decided to capitalize on their interests and create a birthday party with an art theme.

Your invitation is the first chance that your guests will have to get a sense of the party experience that they will have at your event. Creating a unique and exciting invitation will entice your guests to be sure that they attend your celebration. If you are looking for simplicity and cutting expenses, creating your own invitation can be fun, easy to do and adds just a little something extra special to your party.

If you have ever read any of my other hubs about hosting parties for children, you know that I am not a hostess that lets the kids just run wild. I guess that it's the teacher in me that wants controlled chaos. Not only that, I believe that when children are involved in activities at parties, they tend to remember those the most. Depending on the ages of the kids, they may need a little assistance, but it definitely makes for a much more enjoyable party for everyone.

There are so many crafts and art activities that are both fun and inexpensive. Most children love to do crafts and these are very simple and engaging for children of all ages. From painting to coloring to molding objects out of clay, there is an endless amount of crafts for children to do. You can provide one or two simple crafts for your young guests or you can create a more complex activity if your guests are a little older.

If you are lucky to have nice weather, you can even create chalk art. Try providing the artists with a cup of water to dip their pieces of chalk in. The colors become much more vibrant and create very interesting pictures.

When I think of artists, I must admit that I think of the starving kind of artists. So for this party, we will be served appetizers. The menu for any party can be as simple or as extravagant as you wish for it to be. These are the appetizers that we served.

• Vegetables and dip
• Chips and salsa
• Mozzarella sticks
• Chicken strips
• Fruit tray
• taco dip
• Hummus with pita chips

This menu is very flexible. Add whatever appetizers that your young guests would enjoy. Keep in mind that some children can be picky eaters and you want to appeal to the majority of your guests.

This was the easiest birthday "cake" that I have ever made. I knew that since this was mostly a family party, we did not want to have a lot of left over cake. I decided that the best solution would be for us to have cupcakes. In order to keep with the theme, I created an artist palette to display the cupcakes. I simply took a rectangular cardboard cake board and drew the outline of a palette and cut it out. That was the hardest part.

For each cupcake, I mixed a different color of frosting. When I frosted each cupcake, I used a round tip to give the frosting the look of paint coming out of a tube. The variety of colors of cupcakes were added to the palette. I used frosting to write a birthday note on the cardboard palette and added a paint brush with a squirt of yellow "paint" coming from it. Quick and fun!

Sending your guests home with a little art starter bag is a great parting gift. There are many ways to do this but one fun way is to provide a bag similar to the one in the picture and allow your young artists to decorate the bags. Then as they leave, they can put any crafts that they created in their bags as well as a couple of parting gifts from the birthday girl or boy. Here are some ideas for party favors.

• crayons or markers
• small coloring books
• play doh or clay
• small pre-printed canvases
• color or paint by number sheets or books
• wooden picture frames (Allow your guests to decorate them and then send a picture from the party with your thank you note.)

Anything that is art or craft related would be a hit for your guests. Remember that you do not need to spend a lot of money if you decide to give gift bags at the end of your party. All of the examples that I have listed and shown in the pictures can be purchased at dollar stores or a local craft store like Michaels or Joann Fabrics. The ones that I bought were all a dollar or less and often times you can find multiple items in a package for a dollar such as the play doh.

Although we hosted our party at home, there are many other places that would be perfect for your little artist's party. Think about the venues in your area that may offer an opportunity to create artwork or crafts. Here are some suggestions.

• pottery painting store
• art museum
• Michaels craft store