"Let's Get Crafty" Birthday Party for Tweens

My daughter turned 10 this month.  Man, does that make me feel old!
My kids get to have a birthday party with friends every three years. It feels like I was just throwing her 7 year old baking themed party--and just like that it's three years later and time to start party planning again. It's amazing how time flies! To celebrate turning 10 she decided on a craft themed party this year. My daughter is super creative and very talented artistically so it wasn't surprising that she chose to spend time with her friends doing something she loves.

I like to involve my kids as much as possible when planning their birthday parties so it turns out to be everything they hoped for--and my daughter is a great party planner; she had been doing it since she was four years old after all.  I put my daughter in charge of decorating the party invitations because I knew she would be great at it. She had fun using her creativity to make them each unique. She used my stash of washi tape to create her designs. I like how she made each one different. They turned out so cute!

This birthday cake one was my favorite.

I loved how these invitations folded in the back.

They opened up to display all the party details.

We decorated in pink and blue--my daughters favorite colors . . . and mine too!

When friends arrived they got to pick from these adult coloring pages to color while waiting for the other guests to arrive.

After everyone arrived I introduced the girls to the projects we would be working on. The first was a monogram canvas art. Beforehand I drew the first initial of each girl on the canvas for her to decorate. (I did them lightly in pencil--so that's why you can't see them in the picture below.) I pinned several ideas on my craft party Pinterest board to share with them and to help them brainstorm ideas of how they'd like to decorate their canvas. I decided to have them decorate with sharpie markers instead of paint. Paint just felt too messy for me. I added some buttons to the table too if they wanted to use them as part of their art. I wish I had snapped a picture of the final product--but I got too busy hosting a party and all.  They all turned out unique and creative.  It was fun to see what everyone came up with.

After the canvas art we made these washi tape frames. The girls loved this project! I was worried this craft would eat up a lot of time but they were actually able to complete them pretty quickly.

I provided them with a variety of washi tape to choose from and a blank wood frame. I bought a ton of different styled frames from Michaels so they would have a variety to choose from.  Funny enough they all chose the same style frame.

Next week I will share a more detailed tutorial on the frames but here are a few of the completed ones. I think they turned out so nice.  The girls got to choose a quote to put inside their frames before they went home--I'll be sharing those next week too.

Here's the birthday girl with her completed frame. It looks so cute sitting on her dresser in her room now.



I provided some snacks for the girls to munch on while working on their projects.  Popcorn, fresh cut fruit, and for my sweet tooth birthday girl--candy cups filled with sour jelly beans, strawberry licorice and pomegranate gummy bears.



After the girls completed their projects we played a few games. I tried to come up with games that included drawing to keep with the theme of the party.

The first game we played was called The Sentence Game. It's kind of like the game telephone but instead of whispering a phrase you write a sentence, then draw a picture, then write a sentence. Once your paper makes it around the room and back to you its fun to see how your original sentence ended up. It was a fun and silly game. You can find the free printable game and detailed instructions at The Red Headed Hostess.

To fill in our extra time after opening presents and before parents came we played pictionary. I used these printable Pictionary words.  I set up our easel white board and split the girls into two teams. Some of the words I marked with a pink dot. If they pulled one of those words it was an all-play and either team could guess. The girls had a great time.

Instead of cake my daughter decided on these rice crispy treat paint brushes. She spied them on Pinterest and thought they looked like fun.  I don't think you can really go wrong with rice crispy treats. I used Mel's Brown Buttered Vanilla Rice Krispy Treat recipe and they tasted amazing. We dipped them in a blue icing and added a stick to the top. So fun and festive!

Each girl was given a small goody bag before she left. I tried to keep them pretty simple since they had their crafts to take home too. The bags were filled with a small note book, pencils, and a few pieces of candy.


Hooray for celebrations and a successful party day!