Art Party Activities for Toddlers

Little O is going to be 2 in less than a month! WHAT??? Where did the time go? I feel just a few months ago I was planning her 1st Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday party. I can't believe that was a whole year ago.

I showed you the invitations I made for this year's art party last week. I've finalized my plans for the arts and craft projects for the toddlers attending the party, and I created signs for each station.

The plan is to open up all three stations at the same time and let the kids move freely from one to the next at their own pace. Each activity can be child directed with parental support for those who need it.

At the drawing center, I am planning to cover the whole table with white butcher paper and tape it down underneath. Little O has a hard time keeping the paper still when she's coloring, so I thought this would be the best solution, plus, it would keep the table clean. For drawing supplies, I'm providing crayons and markers in assorted colors, stamps and a variety of stamp pads, and stickers.

I'm really excited about the sculpting table. I'm making homemade playdough (since some of Little O's friends still like to experiment by tasting things). This is my favorite no cook playdough recipe from The Imagination Tree. I like to add the color to the water before adding it to the dry ingredients. I found this keeps my hands clean. In addition to the playdough, I'll provide a selection of cookie cutters, rolling pins, and other playdough toys. For an extra element, I'm planning to add pipe cleaners and feathers so the kids can make some interesting creatures.

The last table is the painting table. I was going to make homemade paint, but I haven't found a recipe that I love yet. So I opted for washable tempera paint. I found some really awesome bottles that have glitter mixed in. And of course I'll have the basic primary and secondary colors as well.

Earlier this week, I went shopping for some of the supplies for the stations. I was really excited when I discovered cute little smocks (just the right size for toddlers) at the Dollar Tree. I had been planning to make smocks for each child as the party favor, but there was no way I could make them for $1. So I went ahead and picked up 12. We may not have all 12 kids attend the party, but I'll keep the extras for play dates at our house. While the invitations did say to wear "art clothes," I'm sure most of the parents will be happy to have a little smock for their kiddos to wear.

I'm getting really excited about Little O's art party. She's going to love it!

Art Party Invitations

I can't believe it. Little O is turning two next month! She's really into arts and crafts right now, so I decided to throw her an art party. It will be at a local community center because I really don't want to have 10 toddlers crafting in my house!

Here are the invitations I made for her party.

I was inspired by some I found on Etsy. I added the little poem at the top, and included all the pertinent information. Except the RSVP date. I can't believe I forgot that!

To make these I designed the palette on my computer with all the text. Then I printed them out four to a page on 8.5x11" brown card stock. I like that the card stock resembles cardboard.

I used scissors to cut out each palette, including the outside notch. I used an exacto knife to cut out the hole. I just free-handed it. Actually, my mom did the first one (pictured below), and then I took over.

After all the invitations were cut out, I used glitter glue pens to make blobs of paint. The one that inspired me used cut out glitter card stock, but I didn't want to cut out all those pieces. Plus, I didn't have glitter card stock. But I did have glitter glue pens left over from my felt Christmas tree. I like the way the glitter glue looks anyway.

I let the glitter glue dry overnight. I was pretty blobby, so I wanted to make sure it was completely dry before gluing the palettes on the background and stuffing them into envelopes.

Once they were dry, I used rubber cement to attach the palettes to some cute polka dot paper I had on hand. I used a piece of red card stock 1/4" larger to frame up the polka dots and give the invitations some much-needed sturdiness.

Here they are. The finished product. I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

I'm not sure which I like better, these or the Hungry Caterpillar invitations I made last year for Little O's first birthday party. What do you think?

Tutorial: Very Hungry Caterpillar Invitations

I'm planning my daughter's first birthday party this month, and I've decided to run with The Very Hungry Caterpillar as the theme. I found some really cute invitations in the community area of What to Expect. And I decided they were so cute, I wanted to make them for Little O's party.

Click Here to see how I made them!
Update: Since making these, I've made some other invitations too!
Jessica