Party like Picasso - As Featured on Apartment Therapy

Color, paint and play as we celebrate Grace's 3rd birthday. Arts and crafts was the theme of the party from start to finish. If you are interested in the details, keep reading...

Since the party was a crafting themed party, I focused mainly on our crafting center.

To cover the table, I used 2 rolls of packaging paper, from the dollar store. At each seat, I attempted to draw a frame. Instead of recycling my cans, for a month, I kept them figuring they would make perfect containers for crayons and paint brushes. The table had an assortment of washable (these are 3 and 4 year olds after all) paint, water colors and crayons. At Hobby Lobby I was able to find wooden wands for $1 that the girls painted and $2 wooden trains, with wheels that actually moved, for the boys to paint.

Every artist needs a gallery. I found a simple and AMAZING tutorial here that walks you through the process of converting pictures into coloring book pages. I made one for each artist but definitely had a favorite or two. Thanks Photojojo for walking me through the process!

Party favors are my favorite part of any party. I had so much fun figuring out what our little crafters would take home with them. Fortunately, crafting runs in the family, my mom made all the personalized aprons out of the most adorable crayon material. I spelled each guest's name out of crayons, you can see the tutorial here, and used that as not only a party favor but their gift tag. I also sent them home with 2 extra copies of their coloring book page.

Having focused so much time and energy on the crafting table, our decorations were kept simple (if you read between the lines this translates into 'I ran out of time'). 3s, balloons and tissue paper poms decorated the house and outside, though, it was so hot that by the time the party started most of our balloons popped. We also left out a jar for people to leave birthday wishes for the birthday girl. I love anything that has an element of memory keeping, which is probably why I have over 5,000 pictures of Grace and she's only 3.

Yes, we had one of those parties with a photo booth area. After months of searching for the perfect frame, I found one in my mother in law's basement. It never fails, no matter what obscure item I am looking for, she has it in that basement. Are you looking for something you think is impossible to find, let me know, I'll go check her basement for you!

The frame was suspended using heavy gaged fishing line. Eyelet hooks were added to the ceiling of our porch and back of the picture frame. The fishing line was strung between both the hooks on the ceiling and the hooks in the frame. It did take time to get the frame level and hung straight. If you don't have the time to hang a frame, we also took some pictures holding the picture frame. Hung or held, the pictures taken using the frame were among my favorites. I can see why this is such a popular trend right now.

The theme of the party started with the painter's palette invitations, described in greater detail here. Continuing that theme and inspired by the painter's palette cupcake tray I saw here. Using a jig saw and a piece of scrap wood, we were able to create our own version. For the cupcakes, I started with white store bought icing and added a few drops of food coloring to mimic different shades of paint.

All in all, I would say the party was a success. Memories were made. Great pictures were taken. Most importantly, the kids all had fun. Now to start thinking about what to do for 4.