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.

Chalkboards and Backdrops

Growing up, I was the kid that always wanted to draw on the chalkboard at school. Something about it seemed so grown up and important, maybe even forbidden. SO when I saw this post on Oh dee doh about chalkboards, I knew I had to try it. Using chalk on a sidewalk or driveway is fun but drawing on a giant chalkboard, at least the kid in me thinks, is so much cooler.

I figured it would be the would be a perfect addition to Grace's arts and crafts birthday, not only for the fun element but also because...

1. it would hide our unsightly chain linked fence

and 2. it would hide our neighbor's unkempt yard.

It was so easy. I used some plywood and 2 cans of Rust-Oleum chalkboard paint, 2 coats per board. When they have completely dried, prime the board by rubbing it with chalk and then it's ready to use. I drilled some holes along the top and used zip strips to attach each chalkboard to the fence. After all my hard work, Martha Stewart emailed me her tip of the day, how to make your own chalkboard paint (ironic). I am not sure how well that would have worked but if you'd rather try a DIY, you can find that formula here.

When I saw the finished chalkboards, the kid in me came out, I had to grab some chalk and start writing. Which turned into an impromptu photo session. Rarely does a day pass that I am not begging someone to say 'cheese'.

And since I can't show favoritism. I had to include my other baby as well.

Though, she was anything but a willing participant.

C is for Crayon

In preparation the arts and crafts birthday party we had for Grace. I had feverishly started working on party favors months in advance (mostly because, I admit, I am crazy). One of which, personalized crayons.

I used alphabet silicone ice cube trays as a mold for my crayon letters.

If you are looking for the same ones I used, you can find them here.

There are so many cute silicone ice cube trays out there, please don't feel limited to use the alphabet mold. Just do a search for 'food safe silicone ice cube trays' and see what you find. I just found these...

You can buy them here. How cute would they be for a dinosaur themed party?

Grab your crayons, I found Crayola worked the best something about the color to wax ratio they use compared to generic crayons, and start to peel off the labels.

When your crayons have been peeled, start to break them into pieces and stuff your silicone mold. I used about 2 1/2 crayons on average per letter. I also stuck with similar colored crayons for each individual letter.

Preheat your oven to 225. Set your silicone molds on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 25 minutes.

This is the hardest part...wait until they have completely cooled off and solidified. If you get tempted to take the letters out before they have completed hardened, which I may have done once or twice, the result is not pretty, sad little broken letters.

Can you guess what name I was making? If you use generic crayons, you may want to try and mix the wax, which will rise to the surface of your letter, using an opened up paperclip. If you opt to do this step, you need to do it immediately before the crayon starts to solidify.

If you opt to use the letters to create personalized party favors, like I did, spell out the name, using your crayon letters on white paper and take a picture.

Once you have all your names photographed, open up a word document and insert your picture into a text box. I added 'personalized crayons' under the picture of the name, so there would be no question what their gift was. Print it out and use it for a gift tag.

Then put your crayons in a clear party favor bag, attach your gift tag and admire!

*Avoid reusing any molds for their original purpose (ice cubes or baking), if they were used to melt crayons.

Be sure to check out the Arts and Crafts Party we used these personalized favors for.

You've Got Mail - Art Party Invitations

I always look forward to the time of day when our mail carrier arrives. I rush to the mailbox hoping to find something interesting waiting for me. Most of the time, though, it's usually bills (yeah, we still need to go paperless) or junk mail.

When I do open the mailbox and find the new Martha Stewart Living magazine has arrived or a handwritten envelope smiling up at me, my heart swells. Being a stay at home mom, sometimes it truly is the simple things that make me smile.

In a world of evites and text messages, we wanted to set the tone for Grace's 3rd birthday party, an arts and crafts party, with these handmade invitations.

I was almost tempted to mail one to myself (I joke). Believe it or not they actually made it through the postal system, with paintbrushes still intact.

The invitations were cut in the shape of a painter's palette. The 1 inch circles of color, yet another reason I love trips to Home Depot, came from paint chips.

The paintbrushes, a 12 piece paintbrush set purchased from The Dollar Store for, you guessed it, a dollar.

If you happen to be curious, today was one of those bills/junk mail days.

Be sure to check out the rest of the details from Grace's Art Party.

Balloons = Party Location Theory

I remember watching the movie Stepmom while Julia Roberts, attempting to pick up her stepdaughter from a birthday party, is driving around frantically trying to figure out which house is the house. In a panic Julia calls their mom, Susan Sarandon who answers simply, find the house with the balloons and you've found the house.

I can relate to Julia Roberts in this scene because being a mom of a 3 year old, kids parties are still relatively new to me. Chances are this simply theory of balloons=party location might have eluded me. Plus, I have a TERRIBLE sense of direction and often find myself frantically lost.

Though I had balloons prepared, ready to flag down anyone well versed in the balloon=party location theory, I also added "Happy Birthday Grace" to our front of our risers on our front porch stairs. Thanks to my Silhouette and some black vinyl!

Not only did it eliminate the question 'is this the right house' for our guests but it also provided a great photo area.

Like many things, I didn't realize until after the fact, I hadn't taken a picture of just the birthday girl on her stairs. So the next day, with the promise of cupcakes, I had a willing participant and some great pictures to mark her 3rd birthday.