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Rainbow Arts & Crafts -6yr- Four Craft Stations

April 2013

Kara in Collegeville, PA USA

Honorable Mention

For my daughter’s 6th birthday, I planned a Rainbow Arts and Crafts party for 15 girls ranging in age from 5 to 9.

The invitation was shaped like an easel with a painting on it containing all the party details. I drew them myself, scanned it, and then printed as 5X7 matte pictures at Walmart.

I decorated our patio and deck with large plastic crayons that were actually banks I purchased at Dollar Store. We also had rainbow assortment of helium balloons and yards of paper chains my daughter and I made. I bought a pack of 25 multicolored paint brushes at Michael's craft store and set them in Mason jars on the tables. I also used tin mini buckets purchased from Target's Dollar Spot to hold paint pens, glitter glue and other accessories needed for the art projects. The tables had a variety of colored table coverings on them.

When the girls arrived each one chose a purple or pink apron (bought at the Dollar Store). They wrote their names on the aprons with fabric markers.

The activities included four craft stations. When everyone arrived we started the first craft. I had 12X4 wood plagues for each girl. The wood was leftover from a roofing project. My husband cut and routed the edges and I primed and painted them. I bought self-stick wood chip letters and wood cutouts in hearts, stars, seahorses, butterflies, dolphins and flowers. I painted the letters and shapes in pink, purple, yellow, green and blue colors. Some of the paint was leftover and some was acrylic paint from Walmart. The girls spelled out their names and added two shapes with glue dots. They decorated the rest of the plaques with glitter glue and 3-D paint.

The second station was sand art bracelets from Oriental Trading Company. The girls filled their bracelets with different colors of sand and wore them home.

The third station was scratch art. I bought 2 packs of 20 pieces of scratch art paper. The girls used wooden sticks to draw pictures and write their names to reveal the rainbow colors underneath.

The last activity was a Jackson Pollack action painting. I used an old white table cloth and set it on the grass. The girls took turns dipping paintbrushes in the metallic tempura paint and splattered it on the tablecloth. We hung the tablecloth on the porch and took a group picture, which was included in each girls’ thank you note.

For food, I had a local grocery store bakery make a cake with rainbow colored paint splatters. The food table also held cheeseballs (my daughter's favorite) and popcorn. I bought clear paint cans from Michael's and put multicolored licorice, gumballs and skittles in each one. I also had a white tin bucket (Target Dollar Spot) filled with Picasso lollipops (recipe from Better Homes & Gardens). We crushed Jolly Ranchers and my daughter scooped the different colors onto tin foil and baked them for 10 minutes then added lollipop sticks.

The goody bags were plain white handled bags from Michael's and inside was small travel chalkboards and chalk tied up with a ribbon. I made them with chalkboard fabric and laminated cotton. My daughter and I  also made star crayons by breaking up crayons and putting them in a star shaped silicone tray. I put them in the oven until the crayons melted, took them out, cooled them and popped them out. I put them in small clear bags tied with a ribbon. The girls’ art projects and aprons fit into their bags to take home. Everyone had a great time and left with some fun goodies they made themselves.

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