10554

Art Party -1yr- Foot & Hand Prints

March 2005

Jennifer in Rome, GA

Honorable Mention

ART PARTY - 1ST BIRTHDAY  For my son's first birthday party, I knew we would have lots of kids of different ages (mostly toddler and preschool age) so I needed something fun to entertain them all. I decided to do an art party where we could all get messy and make stuff.

For the invitations I used plain white cards gotten from Oriental Trading. I painted my son's little foot with red paint and made a foot print on the cover of each card. Below the print I put his age and name. They were so cute and a cute momento of his growth. On the inside I had a poem about coming to celebrate, color, draw and paint because it was his first birthday. They turned out so cute.

For decorations, I used all primary color balloons, tablecloths, napkins, plates, cups, etc. It looked so nice! As the kids arrived they could use sidewalk chalk to decorate the driveway. We had a huge tarp on the carport and we used that as our art station. The kids made hand or footprints as a momento of their growth. They used stamps to stamp pictures with paint. They used a cool crayon I found from Oriental trading that makes a rainbow of color when you use it. I had some of those out for them to use to make "rubbings" (basically putting paper over textured objects and coloring over it to get the texture).

The paper we used for all of this was unused newsprint paper from our local newspaper(you can usually get this free - go to your paper and ask if they give away "end rolls"). I also prepared little baggies with Fruit Loop cereals and a piece of plastic "string." They could make colored necklaces they could eat! Some of the activites the little babies could do and some of them they couldn't. We let the babies play in a kid sized wading pool (without water).

In the pool we put plastic plates and paint brushes dipped in water. They "painted" their plates and explored with the water. We then them play with different colored and textured toys. After all the activities were done (and drying!) we went inside for cake. 

I made a cute cake that looked like an artists' palette. I used two real paintbrushes and put on it as well. Since it was a first birthday, our family tradition is to give the baby his own small chocolate cake and let him explore it. We did that and everyone had fun watching the baby get messy.

To occupy the kids during this, each kid had a cupcake with white icing that they got to decorate with various sprinkles and things. The kids' goody bags had a rainbow crayon and a cute crayon shaped cup from Oriental Trading. They also took all of their creations. It came off really well and everyone had fun!

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