Craft party for 6 year old at home..:

[Craftyparty]

10 girls at home for 2 hours for my daughter’s birthday in early summer…am I mad or is this do able…!? So I’m thinking of buying lots of craft decorating bits: beads, bows, stickers, badges etc. and then have some different things they can decorate one by one e.g notepads, sunglasses and pencil case etc. get some glue guns and go for it…! Then lunch followed by cupcake decorating to either take home or eat after. Play in garden/pass the parcel etc. Any suggestions of crafts or ideas to make it better/easier?

Or do I just go for the easier/a bit more expensive route of hiring a pottery place for a party 😆 or just get a bouncy castle in the garden and wait until she’s older for the crafts…!?

https://www.bakerross.co.uk/

Get some ideas from here. If you can afford it, I would buy a couple of their kits to get things started.
I would also have couple of games etc up my sleeve just in case 2hrs of crafting is too much.

Yes I was thinking an hour crafts, half hour food and then half hour pass the parcel/games?!

Well, a craft party is perfectly doable. 10 is quite a lot depending on how many adults you’ve got. Glue guns are NOT suitable for a 6 year old to use alone. Even the cool melt ones can cause a decent burn (from butter experience).
I’ve done similar in the past and my suggestions would be-
1 craft is usually enough, I find painting things to be most successful - all sorts of ideas in hobbycraft or look on the baker Ross website. Also paint pens and plates or mugs have worked well.
we then also have some games - pass the parcel, musical statues etc
fake Tattoos and basic face paints also good.

I second no craft guns but would definitely suggest canvas’s, and tote bags. You can get a mini canvas and easel from Hobbycraft and plain tote bags, get some normal felt tips and they can take all their crafts home in the tote bags as party bags!

Good point about the glue guns. I didn’t really think about this as she already uses the glue gun with me but you’re probably right maybe I should reconsider. I was hoping for decorating their own bits and bobs rather than then usual packs of crafts you get but can’t see it working without glue guns. Back to the drawing board maybe..

Yes I will reconsider. Was hoping to avoid paint but pens would be ok! Anyway things can be stuck onto the bags/canvas without glue guns?

Cupcakes is a fun idea, or alternatively plain digestive biscuits with coloured icing and dolly mixture/buttons/strawberry laces/silver balls etc. then get a plain cake type box they can decorate (self-stick on sequins, beads, stickers, foam shapes etc are always easier than things like pom-poms that never stick properly with glue - cost about £1 per sheet from the works, look in the card making section)

then they can take 3 or 4 biscuits home in their box!

Anything with a sticky back really, peel off things are infinitely easier- it might not last forever but it’ll do the job!

you’ll easily be able to get supplies from the works, home bargains, b and m, hobbycraft. Also glitter glue pens are easy enough for that age to use and can be bought cheaply. Don’t even think about real glitter though 🤣

Amazon have some too this sort of thing

Bead stringing, making bracelets would work too.

Imho, after a lifetime of craft parties at home, six is too young, as you will need too many people supervising. It’s quite hard to hold their attention for something that isn’t splashing paint around!

Nine is a better age to start art and craft activities with fine motor skills.

We have had success with more traditional party games with six year olds though.

And it’s always good to have stickers or some colouring activities out that children can do when parents are collecting or dropping off.

Good luck!

Thank you. I have been worried about this tbh! Mine loves crafts and they are all a sensible bunch of girls but maybe they would just prefer running about the garden with a bouncy castle…!

We had a craft party for my 6 year old (or maybe 5 I can’t remember!) with the be my bear kits - ordered in advance and they made their own cuddly toy. It was absolutely gorgeous. Would see the toys on play dates years later! We also bought little plain T-shirts for the toys that they decorated with fabric pens.

https://www.bemybear.com/

It’s like build my bear but much cheaper and can do at home with the kits. Probably more expensive than a normal craft party - though that does add up!

I have done very successful craft parties with 6 year olds. Especially with a bunch of reasonably well behaved girls.
Why not paint? It was definitely the most successful in my experience. They are used to doing this kind of thing in large groups at school.

This sounds lovely and what 6 year old doesn’t love teddies…! I was just worried it making the teddies doesn’t take that long … or does it? How did you schedule the 2 hours? Thanks!

I can’t remember exactly (said child is now 14!) but it took a little while because you do each step bit by bit, you have a little heart you shove in to make a wish and all that sort of stuff. We did need a few adults to help (a couple of parents stayed and my mum was here too). That’s partly why we did the T-shirts for the toys as well - that took more time. They also wrote out the “birth certificates”.

We also had a few games too - we had a kids bow and arrow set with a sucker and they all took turns and got a sweet. Then party tea, cake, and to finish up, musical silly faces (music stops, they all pull the silliest face, you select a winner, they all carry on, make sure you select all of them in turn). That’s why I like musical silly faces when they’re little - it’s funny, and easy to fix. I don’t want to be dealing with people crying at being out age 5 - leave that to when they’re a little older and it’s not me in charge at a birthday party!

edited to add - the cuddly toy then becomes the party bag, all in one. Very efficient. Just make sure you get a pic of all of them lined up with their teddies because I forgot!

Another craft thing we had at another home party was buying those paper mache or wood shapes from Hobbycraft, and they decorated them with stickers and glitter and sequins. It’s easy to stick things to them so no need for glue guns.