Rainbow Recycled Art Party {Kid's Art Party}

**Really, really ridiculously long post. Sorry**

I LOVE PARTIES. Seriously. I will (much to B's dismay) a) look for any minuscule reason to throw a party ; b) spend months planning every tiny detail of said party; and c) decorate the house much too far in advance to be practical, just so that I can enjoy it for longer and see my vision come to life sooner. E's 5th birthday party was no variation from this pattern.

In June or July I started scoping the party blogs I read to get ideas. E said that she wanted a fairy party originally, but after some discussion and reminding her that everyone she knows has had a fairy party, we opted for something a bit different and much more personal - a recycled art party. Here are the details of this crazy-fun shindig:

Invitations

Decorations

I started off by making some rainbow paper hearts for our porch and a birthday sign for the door, just to set the theme.

Next, I made some giant tissue paper flowers (using this tutorial) for the corner of the dining room. Then, we added some streamers in rainbow colors that we had left over from previous parties - it felt so nice to actually use this stuff! It's been sitting in our party box for years.

For the birthday banner, I cut out the pennants using the Silhouette and then used wax paper with melted crayon to fill in the letters. The curly ribbon was left over in our wrapping box from a present that one of the kids got.

For the dessert table, I made some recycled egg carton flowers using this tutorial. I think they turned out just the way I wanted them to!

I also made several tissue paper signs with the scraps from the hanging flowers. It felt so nice to not waste all those scraps. I based these on a tutorial that I found here, but just crumpled the tissue paper and hot glued it on. I also made some paint chip pennant banners that were hanging around the house.

Several art parties that I looked at had mini easels and canvas for the table signs, so I picked up a few on super sale at Joanns and copied the floss and recycled scrap paper banner for the top. The words were made using tiny scraps of black vinyl I had left over from a previous project and using the Silhouette.

We made t-shirts that said "I love recycling" for each of the girls. Of course, I made one for E, too. I just designed it really quick in Photoshop using the heart from Amy Sumralls "Children's Day" digital scrapbooking kit. I printed it out on iron-on transfer paper and went to work. Super simple, but I love the result.

The girls also each got a recycled magazine party hat. E helped me tear up and glue on the magazine pages and then I added some fringe (and glitter, of course ;)).

Food

This being a late afternoon party, I didn’t want to do a full meal. Also, E is so picky, I didn't want everyone else to have to suffer because of her tastes. ;) So we opted for fruit and veggies in rainbow colors and rainbow candies. I found some silly rainbow colored sodas at WinCo for 33 cents, so we just added a cute tag and called it a day.

The cake was made from a mix. A Trader Joe's mix, to be exact. I love these cake mixes - go try them and thank me later. I just frosted in white and added sprinkles to the sides. The surprise was the rainbow colors of the cake itself (thank you, Martha Stewart for the idea).

Activities

The girls made a recycled box castle, recycled magazine bead bracelets and Picasso pops. We kept the activities simple because really, I just wanted them to play.

Goody Bags

As usual, I wanted the goody bags to be special and contain something useful. We started off by using recycled cereal boxes for the bag itself. I simply covered it in 12 x 12 paper and added a few leftover brads from my paper scrapbooking days for the ribbon handles. The ribbon was leftover from previous projects as well.

For the goodies, we gave each girl some rainbow bracelets, a fused-plastic bag pencil holder, and some recycled bottle cap magnets. The pencil holders were loosely based on this tutorial and the bottle cap magnets were nothing more that a quick Photoshop design popped into an old bottle cap with a magnet glued on the back. I made the boxes using my Silhouette.

Of course, the girls also got to take home their recycled magazine bracelets, Picasso pops, and their t-shirts.

All in all, it was a fun party. THANK YOU to everyone for helping and making it possible.

recycled art, recycling party, art party