simple craft activity for 3 year old party

[puddle]

DD is soon to be three and we're ahving a little party at home for her on a princess theme (her choice....sigh).

I'd like to do a craft activity - there'll be about 10 little girls there and I want something simple and not too messy. I thought about making crowns or those cone like princess hats with drapey bits coming out of the top but wondered whether anyone else has any bright ideas? Would prefer no glue and no glitter!

anyone?

We did something similar, we decorated party hats for DS2s 2nd birthday (mixed ages at the party) but it involved huge amounts of glue and glitter you could always use sparkly stickers instead though.

You could print out princess themed coluring sheets for them to do? Unfortunately all the crafty stuff we do tends to involve mess!

Other ideas - decorating plain fairy cakes? Couple of bowls of different colured icing and spoons, lots of things to stick on, raisins, smarties, 100's and 1000's etc.

I'll have a think....

I came to suggest decorating cakes - and it's here already!

Message withdrawn

I think the hats sound good- if you want no glue or glitter then the ideal thing would be stick-on jewels . Might be a bit fiddly for some 3 year olds, but with a bit of help they could do it. Would glitter glue pens be out of the question? They're less messy but harder to use.

We've done face masks out of paper plates, crowns, hats, biscuit decorating (that's a good one because they can eat them at teatime)

Glitter glue by the way takes an age to dry, and is very messy, so think you're wise to avoid it!

Ok I accept I'll probably need to use glue! I just want to LIMIT the mess - obviously having a party in my house will create a fair bit, even if I don't get the glitter out. Maybe I could get glitter pens..

Bethron those cone hats were what I meant - they could decorate them with jewels and things and then add the ribbons/ tissue etc.

Similair to decorating the cakes but do rich tea biscuits. Our toddler group do this and is always a hit with the kids.

or what about the face mask things oyu can get from baker ross as they can decorate with feathers, glitter and stick on jewellery etc. Then they can wear them

I wouldn't get the glitter pens - the glue in them seems to be incredibly sticky and we have remnants of several tubes all over the floor and the table - also small children can find the tubes quite hard to squeeze (and then you end up with big blobs everywhere!)

I meant glitter glue not pens doh!!

Lovely ideas everyone keep em coming. Cake icing great - had forgotten that one (did it at one of ds's parties many moons ago)

Go to a craft shop and buy a tub of pink (normally have variations of the same colour in one tub) plastic beeds and some elatic-y string... they can make their own necklaces and bracelets (v cheap and keeps them occupied).

You could buy some white (or pink) tesco value t-shirts or vests and give them some fabris pens and they could make their own t-shirts (draw on some fairy wings etc)

Decorate their own party bags? I got some plain white bags from Ebay (similar to take-away bags) for my dd's birthday and the children had great fun decorating them - just make sure you write their names on the inside first!!

You could get cheap plain wooden picture frames and let them stick jewels on them. If you're very organised you could take photos of them at the party to go in the frames.

We planned on doing that over the holidays, but didn't get around to it. We got these ones

DD+ fourth birthday is a princess party and we are doing lots of art and crafty things. Although she is four there are a few two and three year olds.

We have ordered some crown cut outs from party pieces as well as some party bags to decorate and some disposable aprons as dd insisted on fancy dress! I have then got in supplies of glitter, pva glue, stickers, sprinkles for the to decorate crowns. I also got some shapes from a mumsnetter (Charliecat) for thre children to colour in/decorate or add to their party bags.

I am having a playdough table with lots of cutters. A colouring table: downloaded, printed and photocopied pictures of disney princesses. I also got a bumper bag of beads from woolies for necklace making.

We have also printed off some colour pitures of disney princesses and laminated them to use in a treasure hunt.

I am sure most of the above could be done with three year olds and aren't too costly either.

For my invites - which look rather fab I bought a pad of reduced water colour paper which I printed the invite on in old fashioned handwriting, says something along the lines of

"Princess takes great pleasure in inviting you to a grand ball to be held at.... on.... Please wear your finest royal attire. Can you please RSVP the Grand Duchess of .... on...."

I then got dd to stain them with watered down coffee, rolled them up and tied with red ribbon.

They do look rather fabulous and are very cheap, although a friend today said they look like Jordan's wedding invites!

I would second the idea of avoiding glitter glue as it does take ages to dry, PVa needn;t be messy and things stick better than using a prittstick - and kids prefer it. But as I run art and craft sessions for pre schoolers I am hardened to mess!

Kids love decorating fairy cakes, we did that last year - mainly because I had forgotten to ice them. I bought a tub of ready icing - the ones you heat in the microwave and dished out the cakes with bowls of little sweets. It was the highlight of the party. We are doing it again this year with fruit kebabs, plates of assorted fruit and wooden skewers with the points cut off. Kids love putting them together.

Crowns - stick on jewels and stickers, and they can wear them home - you just need cardboard and sellotape - just realised you've said this - sorry! What about wooden pegs with stick on faces and arms (draw faces, cut out circles and use pipe cleaners as arms) - or get a piece of card and 'make a dolly' - you draw doll, and they stick on woollen hair with sellotape, and bits of tissue paper etc. Or spiders made with ovals cut out of card, 8 holes - thread pipe cleaners through holes and stick those sticky wobbly eyes on -draw mouth and hang with cotton?,...

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HTH