Posh Papier: Playing Catch Up - Jeffrey's 4th Birthday Party

This is probably going to be the longest post that anyone has ever posted because I am obsessed with parties and so there are loads of details to document here, if you want the full effect. I am behind... so this is from June 09.

It all started with the deal I found on crayons last fall. I don't ever remember being able to get a box of crayons for $0.33? Walmart apparently has! I decided at that deal that Jeffrey's next party (mind you, it was 9 months before his party that I bought these crayons) was going to be an arts and crafts party. I mean, why not? I love art, he does too (or he pretends to!). Plus, what an amazing favor this will be - I could already envision it - a paint can full of art supplies for each child with their name personalized on it. Perfect. That $0.33 box of crayons was just the start to the favor. Over the next 7 months, I found watercolors ($1.99-CRAYOLA, too!), stickers ($0.50), glue sticks ($0.50) to stuff in the most adorable cans (Thanks, Kristin - she found these for me at Target for $0.70 each)!

Can you already tell how I plan parties? I work backwards. I find the perfect favor and work backwards. Plan backwards. It has panned out for me this far, so I'll stick with my method.

Anyhow, lets share this event the right way - invitation first. My parents are interior designers and with my love of paper came a love of paint chip charts. I loved fanning out all the beautiful colors and imagining painting a room each of the colors in the chart. That was it - This "Mommy and Me Arts and Crafts party" just HAD to have a paint chip chart invitation.
Here it was:

Notice the strategic placement of the paint brush above to hide my address? Hey - can't ever be too safe these days, right?

So that was the beginning impression - the invitation.

Then we have the decorations. Most you will see throughout this post in other photos, but a few of note are the "Happy Birthday" sign and the artist easel as you walk in the door.

The "Happy Birthday" sign was made of, you guessed it, paint chips. I hung them from a string of raffia with little wooden clothes pins.

The "Yellow" station was the food - pizza, fruit cups and veggie tray.

Next we have the party.

I invited like 20 kids and just KNEW throwing 20 four year olds into a mix of 3 crafts wasn't going to be easy. So, I organized the kids into groups. When they arrived, they received a nametag that had the order in which they would conquer each of 3 tables with crafts. Orange table, Red table and Green table.

I found really fun clear paint cans and filled them with the coordinating color candy and had balloons strung to them as well to designate the table color.

Orange Table: (Outside under a tent) - Decorating T-Shirts with fun foam stamps, puff paint, brushes, sponges, etc.

Green Table: (Inside) Decorate a party hat - We had foam visors and foam stickers (letters, dinosaurs, geometric shapes, etc) for the kids to personalize their visors. We had every color visor you could imagine. (Age appropriate, remember... if they were older I would have had them sew and bead their own hats hah!)

The green balloons are hiding another project - a piece of artwork I did for over the fireplace.... I'm sure I'll be getting to that project in a separate post!

Red Table: This was where J thought I was crossing the line. Bead a bracelet for mommy. Ok, I was desperate for something that Jeffrey LIKED to do, and that helped build their fine motor skills, too! (and something that wasn't messy since this would be in my dining room, for crying out loud) So yes, a little girly, but the moms liked their bracelets (I think).

Now for the sweetest part.... no pun intended. The Goodies!

I baked the sugar cookies (my mom's best recipe ever!) in the shape of artist palettes and paint brushes. I am pretty proud of the fact that I even MADE the cookie cutters. I was fed up with looking for a palette and brush so I made them out of bending tin from a lasagna pan! Worked like a charm!

Then I made the cake (Dr. Otekers organic cake mix... Earth Fare - its the BEST cake mix ever! A few simple ingredients, no hydrogenated oils/HFCS/etc) and plopped a real paint brush on top.

The Favors are always fun. I gave each kid one of the previously mentioned creations along w/ a cello bag full of the fun palette cookies. All wrapped in clear cello and tied w/ raffia, of course!