Julia’s Colorful Art Birthday Party

We recently celebrated Julia’s 5th birthday.  5!  I’m not sure how it can be that my girl is 5 and only a few months away from starting Kindergarten.  She still loves hugs and snuggles with Mom, reading books, and pretend play.  Her favorite activities right now are painting, drawing, cutting, pasting… pretty much anything involving arts and crafts.  An art party was the obvious choice for her birthday this year, and the party was so much fun.

The invitations set the theme for the party.  I loved how colorful they were, and it was fun to give an invitation that the guests could use and enjoy.  The best price I found on the watercolor sets was a sale price at Kmart, but unfortunately they didn’t have enough in stock so I bought some there plus a few at Office Depot.

My sister, Lisa, was a huge help in planning and preparing for the party.  She also came to help at the party itself, and I really appreciated having her there to help set up and facilitate the activities.  The decorations included colorful balloons and a colorful birthday banner.  Lisa helped me to make the banner using her Silhouette Cameo.  (Which is such a cool machine by the way- if I was more crafty I would have one on my wish list for sure!)  She also used her Silhouette to make the tags for the favors.  I loved how these turned out, and you’ll see a closer photo of them below.

I decorated the table where the kids would eat with colorful pails and boxes filled with crayons, markers, and colored pencils.  I used white butcher paper (which I found at Michael’s) for a tablecloth, and the kids enjoyed coloring on the table before and after eating their snacks.

The food/dessert table was a full of color!  I used polka dot snack cups in rainbow colors to hold cheese and pretzels for the kids to snack on.  Since the party was in the afternoon, we served snacks and cupcakes rather than a full meal.  Besides the cheese and pretzels, I made a colorful fruit salad and we also had a veggie tray for snacking.  The favors were so cute lining the back of the table.

A few years ago my sister made this colorful crayon art canvas for Julia, and it usually hangs on the wall outside her room, where we keep the kids’ books.  It fit perfectly with the party theme, so we brought it downstairs to hang on the wall above the food table for the party.

I made homemade funfetti cupcakes for the party.  I used grease-proof polka dot cupcake liners made by Wilton, which I found at Safeway but I’m sure you can find them lots of places.

I planned a few different art activities for the kids to do at the party.  The first was a colorful painted mosaic canvas.  This is Julia’s finished canvas:

I had all of the supplies that the kids would need ready to go, and then as soon as everyone had arrived we got started.  I led the kids through the project step-by-step, and it was very doable for our group of 5 year old girls.

To make the painted mosaic canvas, the kids first placed blue painters’ tape across the canvas in whatever pattern they liked.  We helped them to make sure they pressed the tape down well, and wrapped the extra tape around the back of the canvas as needed.  Then the kids painted in between the tape lines with acrylic paint.  We let the canvas’ dry while the kids ate and did other activities, and then carefully took the tape off for them before the end of the party.

These are the kids’ finished products.  They all turned out so beautiful and colorful!

The other activity I planned was a pass the picture drawing game.  The kids sat in a circle and each drew a circle for a face on their own paper.  Then they passed their paper to the next person, who drew the eyes.  We continued passing until the papers had made it all the way around the circle, with each girl adding one part (face, eyes, nose, mouth, hair, and finally, an accessory! 🙂 )  The drawings turned out absolutely adorable.

It seemed that the kids’ favorite activity, though, was playing in our playroom.  They just enjoyed hanging out with each other and playing with the toys!

These are the favors that we made for the kids.  Julia loved helping me put them together!  Inside each bag we put a box of crayons, some stickers, a cute notepad, and a colorful pencil.

Julia, we love you always.  It was a joy to see you have so much fun celebrating your birthday with your friends.  You have another big year ahead, full of so many new things for you to do and learn.  I can’t wait to experience it with you!

A big thank you to Lisa for all of your help.  I couldn’t have done it without you!

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