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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.

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Original poster

Arts and crafts birthday party -whats your experience? Any recommendations?

16 replies

BettySpaghetti · 17/09/2007 11:10

DD will be 8 soon. We chatted about an arts and crafts party at home for about 6-8 friends and she loves the idea.

Had a brief look at Baker Ross website for ideas -like the look of a few things on there.

What have you found that works well/doesn't work? Anything I should avoid like the plague?

TIA

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lilolilmanchester · 17/09/2007 12:15

Did this for my DDs party using Baker Ross stuff. I got masks (but they didn't come with elastic, had to buy that); draw-your-own jigsaws; bookmarks (had some blank card as well as pre-printed from BR); and the biggest hit was key rings. They all wanted to make more keyrings for Mum/Dad etc but I'd only got one each. Would buy more next time! I hired a hall, so glitter etc wasn't an issue. As well as lots of pens, I got some cheap stickers (from the pound shop), feathers, wobbly eyes, also from cheaper shops. I gave each child a large freezer bag with their name on, and they put their finished items in there ready to take home, and this doubled as a party bag. Just added a bar of chocolate and a bit of cake. One of the cheapest, most effective parties I've ever done. Good luck!

thirtysomething · 17/09/2007 12:20

Oooh great ideas lilo- am also considering this for DD soon to be 7 - how many did ou invite and how old were they? We've got 16 on the list and would do it at home - is that madness?

quickdrawmcgraw · 17/09/2007 12:21

I had one for dd's 6th birthday. They decorated t-shirts and painted glass tumblers. I divided them into 2 groups so there were 6 at each activity.

It worked really well. The glasses were ready for them to go home with but the t-shirts took a little longer and I had to give them to them a few days later.

You could also get a white paper table cloth and get them to decorate their place with markers.

Make sure to tell the parents to dress them in old clothes or else have old shirts from a charity shop they can wear.

lilolilmanchester · 17/09/2007 12:23

I think my DD was 7. We had about 15. I hired a hall - it was £15 but I figured that it was well spent as they had big tables and an easy sweep floor. I could then set up separate tables ready for the food. Would have struggled for space at home. Was also more relaxing cos wasn't worried about glue and glitter everywhere. Prefer parties at home, but would only have had a small number for craft party in our house. Depends on your space.

Original poster

BettySpaghetti · 17/09/2007 12:29

Glad I'm not the only one mad enough to be considering doing this then!

Does anyone know of any other websites other than Baker Ross that stock arts/crafts stuff?

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Original poster

BettySpaghetti · 17/09/2007 21:02

bump

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MaureenMLove · 17/09/2007 21:12

Hi Betty, I have a side line doing childrens craft parties! I use Baker Ross & Yellow Moon for bits and also Hobbycraft. I would avoid anything that needs painting as they do like to slop it on at that age and it'll take hours to dry. I also try to use glue dots for instant and mess free sticking. Some of my favourite makes are funky foam picture frames and flower pot people. I can try to explain flower pot people if you like. They are very effective and easy to do, although having just said do do paint, these are painted, but because you use terricotta pots, they dry within about 5 minutes. I bought cheap shower curtains (Pound shop) and cut out tabbard style aprons, to protect the childrens clothes.

MaureenMLove · 17/09/2007 21:13

Just thought, Wilkinsons are cheap for craft stuff and have started stocking a lot more now.

MaureenMLove · 17/09/2007 21:17

Here you are! Found the flower pot people. There's lots of other ideas on here you could adapt with stuff bought from shops other than Hobbycraft, because it can get quite expensive in there!

Original poster

BettySpaghetti · 17/09/2007 21:19

Thanks Maureen -good tips about the cheap shower curtains and glue dots.

The foam photo frames or door hangers were probably one of the things we would do (easy, relatively mess free and can take home withou having to dry).

Something DD saw on the Baker Ross site (which I can't find now) were Teddies with T-shirts you could decorate. Trouble is they came in packs of 12 or 15 and we were thinking of having 6-8 girls. They would be a lovely thing for the guests to have to take home. Have you come across anything similar?

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scienceteacher · 17/09/2007 21:22

My DD had a sleepover party when she turned 8 and we had a few crafty things for the girls to do. I bought a bunch of stuff from www.fun2make.co.uk - foam book marks and visors to decorate, as well as decent-looking bracelets.

We had a church holiday club a few weeks ago, and had the kids make umbrellas. I think we got the umbrellas from Baker Ross, which they then decorated with fabric pens. They were a real hit - definitely something worth repeating.

MaureenMLove · 17/09/2007 21:28

I think I know the ones you mean, but I haven't seen them anywhere else I'm afraid.

Love the umbrella idea ST!

cherrycake · 17/09/2007 21:45

I have done a few arts n crafts parties for my lot, favourite items being...

...painting bird houses (baker ross), they dry v quickly.
...mirror tiles (from b&q etc) decorated with glass pebbles and 3d stickers.
...each child's name in wooden letters, decorated with thick felt pens/small stickers (order individual letters from panduro.) They especially loved this as it was so personal.
...finally large canvas bags (baker ross) for them to decorate and use as a party bag.
I could go on and on but won't!

I had ginderbread men on standby to decorate if we had extra time (we didn't!)
Would recommend having a tray handy for each child for them to put their items while they dry.
Enjoy!!

catesmum · 30/09/2007 14:25

we've just had one and it went really well! They decorated canvas bags (from yellow moon) with fabric pens which we then ironed and they used as their party bags. We made mini scrapbooks, covered hardbacked notebooks (really cheap from Tesco) with beautiful wrapping paper and foam bits and made chocolate truffles

bubbas · 20/05/2010 11:03

There are lots of art and craft party organisers out there. If you go direct to Yellow Moon you can miss out paying a premium to a third party. You get all the same stuff and with free postage. Easy!

EduStudent · 20/05/2010 15:14

It's worth looking in places like the Poundshop and The Works, they often have crafty bits and bobs very cheaply. Our poundshop seems to have a constant supply of bumper packs of tissue paper which works for just about everything! The Ealry Learning Centre is sometimes quite good as well, especially for things like paint.

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