Arts and Crafts Party

Invitations: Outside~ Arts & Craft Clip art with a Mardi Gras flair Come Make a Party with "name" Inside~ My Studio: Date: Time: RSVP: Bring an old shirt or apron to wear while crafting

Artist invite Party-ware in solid colors

Another Theme: Paintin' the Town Red
make invites from paper splattered with paint...by the birthday child of course. 

Invitations .... by computer, add all sorts of paint graphics to the front and inside of the invitation. Outside: <name> is turning 3 and is having a PAINT birthday party.
Inside: Please join us for a PAINT party on Saturday, Date:
Time
Address

Decorations:
Lots of balloons and streamers in Purple (justice), Green (faith) and Gold (power)
need tables set up for crafts.

Cake: 
Serve a Mardi Gras King Cake (or one like it).   Bake it in a Bundt Cake pan and frost.  Decorate with purple, green and gold.  You could bake in small prizes that the kids could fish out before eating.

Put together 2 sheet cakes (for a large group)
Cut them in the shape of an artists palette. Then cut a hole where the thumb would go. Frosted it with white frosting and then with eight different colors of BRIGHTLY colored frosting.  Put "glops" of paint around the edges of the palette. To complete the palette, put a real paint brush through the thumb hole at an angle. ~idea by Barb

10" round cake and cover it with pink fondant.  Then use the leftover fondant.  Separated some out, leave it white in color and cut out an artist's palette shape.  Then color small quantities of the fondant and cut out different colored circles to be the "paint" blobs on the palette.  Lastly use real kids paint brushes (clean of course) and stick them in the edge of the cake for decoration

Rainbow Fruit: Serve fruit dipped in different Jell-O flavors.  Strawberries, grapes, bananas.  Serve on paper plates, afterwards the plate will be rainbow colored.

Goodie Boxes or cans:
Fill pencil boxes or clean paint cans with candy, crayons, paints, paint brushes, small school supplies, glitter glue, Mardi Gras beads, watercolors, washable markers and things they make.

Activities: You may wish to have the birthday child open presents very early and serve the cake before starting the messy activities.
Need for all decorating Projects:  Need for all decorating Projects:  Felt, paint, foam, construction paper, beads, sequins, glitter, jewels, flowers, feathers, stickers, bows, ribbon, wrapping paper, Cotton balls, pasta, beans, pipe cleaners, tissue paper and any other thing you can think of.

Things to Decorate:
Their goodie can or box

Masks -Mardi Gras style or other

Visors (plastic)

Flower pots:  Have inexpensive bedding plants for them to put in them.

T-Shirts:  purchase inexpensive shirts and fabric paints OR pre-print t-shirt transfers.  Use one or two pictures they can use.  Also, use fabric pieces cut into designs, fuse to shirt with 'iron web'

Make Tissue Paper Hats:
Choose two pieces of tissue paper of coordinating colors.  Place them with a piece of newspaper between (use masking tape to hold them together).  Place the pieces on top of the child head and wrap masking tape around the crown of the head over the paper.  then turn the tissue paper up all the way around the hat to form a brim using tape as you go.  Decorate with flowers, stickers etc.

Pony Bead Critters - search online for designs
 

Compound Clay Critters:   Use Fimo or Sculpey III.  Use small amounts to make tiny animals.

Make Craft Stick Frames:   decorate with markers, 'jewels' etc

Have the kids decorate t-shirts to take home or make one for the birthday child. Use fabric paint and put their handprints on them and add decoration around with the fabric paint to make it their own.

Play "Pin the ear on Van Gogh".

Spread large sheets of paper out on tables and give the kids washable markers to color with. Great way to keep them busy, then hang up the artwork to decorate the room.

Pound wooden tomato stakes into the ground in a straight line across a portion of your backyard. String a ROLL of paper, 3 feet high/wide across the tomato stakes and attached with packaging tape on the backside.  This will create a painting canvas about 10 yards long.  Set up 3 (child-size) tables and fill with plastic pudding and Jell-O snack size cups (saved and cleaned) with 6 different colors of kids' paint at each table. 
Supply each child with his/her own paint brush and have a bucket of water on the ground next to each table for rinsing brushes.  Have available wet rags (or you could use wipes) for the kids to wipe their hands, arms, whatever on.  When they are all done, you'll have a 10 yard masterpiece.  (The paint on the ground washes away with the next rain -- no big deal or messy clean up.)  ~