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Parties/celebrations

Whether you're planning a birthday or a hen do, you'll find plenty of ideas for your celebration on our Party forum.

Original poster

Suggestions for a straightforward and not too messy craft activity for 7 year old DD's party, please?

27 replies

Ceolas · 02/02/2007 13:09

12 children. They will be all girls except my DS (he's 3 so won't care!). Aged from 5 to 10.

I have a cream carpet in the living room and kitchen is too small. Must be mad!

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Marina · 02/02/2007 13:11

Tee-shirt painting with fabric pens. Given that these are mostly gurls you can also get stick on gems etc

Huge success for ds' 7 year old party, for boys and girls alike

Minimal mess

spudmasher · 02/02/2007 13:13

How about jewellery making if your ds could cope with beads? There are some lovely kits about.

LoveMyGirls · 02/02/2007 13:13

cornflour - 27p per box u can use red food colouring to make it pink its fab and it just wipes off everything!!! and i love it!

southeastastra · 02/02/2007 13:14

buy a tarapaulin from a diy store and put that down to keep mess in one place and protect your carpet!

LoveMyGirls · 02/02/2007 13:16

though just seen the cream carpet............hummmmmmmmm can u get a big old sheet to cover the floor?

princessmel · 02/02/2007 13:17

We went to a party where the children decorated bowls with special pens. These were then taken home and cooked in the oven to 'set' the pen. Each bowl had a slip of paper in with the cooking instructions on.

The bowls were pence from Ikea, but the pens were a bit more expensive. They last for a while though so not just for that party.

It was a really popular activity. For all ages. My ds who was 4 did it and my dd ,1 ,had a go too. Most of the kids were about 10. ( I did 2!!)

It was done on the floor on a large plastic sheet.

Original poster
Ceolas · 02/02/2007 13:18

Yes I'm going to put sheets down for the food anyway

Do they actually wear the t-shirts, Marina? I thought about it, but wondered if they'd wear them afterwards.

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princessmel · 02/02/2007 13:19

They'd probably still be wet. You'd need to hang them somewhere to dry. maybe on hangers out of reach.

Marina · 02/02/2007 13:19

Fair point, they don't but it kept them all completely engrossed for a whole HOUR of a two hour party

Original poster
Ceolas · 02/02/2007 13:21

Princessmel, were the pens really messy? I mean wet and all over hands, clothes, etc?

I sound really anal, and I'm not at all. Usually crafts take place in the kitchen here, though

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Original poster
Ceolas · 02/02/2007 13:23

Spudmasher, good idea about the jewellery. We did that last year though

I did wonder about necklaces with their names. You know the wooden alphabet beads. Wouldn't take very long though...

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spudmasher · 02/02/2007 13:26

ummmm. How about cut out a fish shape for each child - quite big and get them to decorate the fish with crayons, gummed paper shapes- whatever your carpet can tolerate- then use them later for a game of flip the kipper. You could have a best fish competition to motivate them.

spudmasher · 02/02/2007 13:27

Some people call it wallop the cod.

spudmasher · 02/02/2007 13:33

What about paper flowers? No glue, just cutting out tissue paper circles. ELC do a lovely kit.

Original poster
Ceolas · 02/02/2007 13:37

Wallop the cod? Sounds fun!

I would like to go with the porcelain painting but not sure I have the courage...

They have the pens at Baker Ross.

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spudmasher · 02/02/2007 13:39

Give each kid a magazine, put the fish on the floor and they flap the mag so that the breeze pushes the fish along. Funny.

wheelybug · 02/02/2007 13:40

decorating biscuits and then they take them home in the party bag. Mind you, I just did this with a load of 2 year olds and they scoffed them on the spot ! I had a tray from party pieces which made star shaped cookies on a stick and I bought icing pens and various different cake decorating things to stick on them. Would have thought this would work with 6 year olds as well.

Original poster
Ceolas · 02/02/2007 16:19

Oh biscuits a good idea too. We could have 2 activities going on and they could swap. Maybe the porcelain painting would be more tolerable in a smaller group?

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princessmel · 03/02/2007 08:13

Hi, sorry just seen message. Very busy yesterday with school runs etc!

No they weren't really that messy. My dd got some on her hands but she is just 1. They were just like felt pens really.

They all did it at once and there was about 20 children. The lady who's house it was at is very tidy and doesn't do this normally either . It was done on a large sheet in the dining room on the carpet. If I did it and my carpet was pale, I'd put plastic under the sheet too. You could just do it in groups in the kitchen at the table.

It really was good fun.

3sEnough · 03/02/2007 08:22

HI - just to back up princessmel - pens aren't messy at all - thin felt tips - we do them for our school fair and they're great!

princessmel · 03/02/2007 08:26

3sEnough, Do you use the ones that you cook in the Oven ?

geekgrrl · 03/02/2007 08:49

when I saw the topic, I immediately thought of those pens, and I usually hate crafty stuff because it gets so blooming messy. The pens really are fab and the finish is beautiful.
I got ours from Yellow Moon and bought plain white mugs from Asda.

princessmel · 03/02/2007 08:51

Oooh they are much cheaper than the ones my friend used.

Brill

wheelybug · 03/02/2007 09:54

Here's the tin I used for the cookies on a stick. You need to buy the tin, sticks and bags separately (I made the mistake of not realising they did the sticks so didn't order them and someone on here had to point out I could get them from the same site ).

cookie tin

Original poster
Ceolas · 03/02/2007 12:53

I am veering towards the porcelain painting. Look at these plates in IKEA. 19p. Can that be right?

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