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Art Themed Birthday Party
A colorful birthday party for our 8-year-old
One of my favorite things to do is throw birthday parties for my kids. If you are looking for ideas keep an eye on the blog as I post the birthday party themes we have had over the years.
For my oldest daughter’s 8th birthday we did an art themed party and it was one of my favorite ones I’ve ever hosted.
Table of contents
Decor
For the tables I purchased paint splatter table cloths. We also made a rainbow out of tablecloths and paint cans. We made it so the paint cans appeared to be pouring out the colorful tablecloths.
We added some colorful paper honeycombs around our canopy. We got some paint splatter plates and colorful neon silverware (We got our plates and silverware from Party City before they went out of business, but these ones look similar). I made signs for each of the stations that we had and put them on cute little easels.
Food
I tried to make the food as colorful as possible. For the main food we had a charcuterie board, colorful veggies, meatballs, “paint chips” (bags of various chips), and fruit in the shape of a rainbow.
For dessert we had “paint brushes” - rice krispies in the shape of a paint brush on a popsicle stick with colorful candy melts on the end as well as the candy melts on the paint can they were being held in like the paint spilled. I purchased a paint palette cookie cutter and made sugar cookies with white royal icing. I then added various color mini M&Ms to make it look like a real paint palette. These were a big hit!
Here is the recipe we use to make amazing rice crispy treats:
- 12 tbsp - unsalted butter
- 20 ounce - mini marshmallows
- 3⁄4 tsp - vanilla extract
- 1⁄2 tsp - salt
- 8 1⁄2 cup - crisp rice cereal
- Line a 9x13 pan with aluminum foil and then grease with softened butter.
- In a large pot, melt 12 tbsp unsalted butter over medium heat. Ensure that the butter is cooking evenly. Once the butter turns from yellow to gold to brown, take the pot off the heat.
- Save 2 cups of mini marshmallows and add the rest to the pot with the butter. Also add 3⁄4 tsp vanilla extract and 1⁄2 tsp salt.
- Over medium heat, stir the mixture until the marshmallows have melted. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in 8 1⁄2 cup crisp rice cereal until thoroughly mixed.
- Mix in the rest of the mini marshmallows and transfer it into the 9x13 pan. Spread the mixture into a layer and let it cool for about an hour.
We also purchased a box of macaroons from Etsy that were delicious. Instead of a cake we did decorate-your-own cupcakes with vanilla icing. Each cupcake was placed on round paint tray palettes. I then added various candies to the tray palette for decorations.
For drinks we had an Italian soda bar with colorful cups. We had a sign explaining how to make your Italian soda by mixing the soda with different flavors of Torani syrups. For those that didn’t like Italian soda we made some lemonade that could also be flavored.
Activities
We had various stations at our art party to keep the kids entertained.
We had a “paint a masterpiece” station where I put out some easels and canvases. Each place also had a paint tray and a paintbrush. I put some acrylic paint on the table so they could add some to their paint trays and paint away on their canvases.
The next station was the “create a sand sculpture” station. I purchased a sand art kit and set them all out for the kids to make their own necklaces.
We also had a “color the banner” station. I purchased a large birthday banner/tablecloth and set out markers for the kids to color.
The last station was the “sketch a design with chalk” station. I purchased a large box of chalk that also had some stencils and put it in the driveway so the kids could create as they wanted.
All the kids had a blast creating and using their imaginations throughout the afternoon.
