{"id":1190,"date":"2016-11-21T00:31:19","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T05:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/?p=1190"},"modified":"2016-11-21T00:31:19","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T05:31:19","slug":"art-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/?p=1190","title":{"rendered":"Art Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Art<\/a>Why wait for someone’s birthday to throw a party? You may recall our 2014 Star Wars party<\/a> (on May the Fourth, naturally) or our 2015 board game party<\/a>, neither of which were attached to birthdays. It’s become a tradition that the girls and I plan and host a just-for-fun party each year. So back in August, just before school started, we threw an art party for the eight-year-old and a few of her friends. As usual, a couple of the moms read the invite and assumed it was a birthday party, but I cleared that up pretty quickly. The girls and I had a ton of fun putting the party together, and I thought I would share a few highlights here on the blog.<\/p>\n

Decorations<\/h3>\n

We kept the art party decorations simple but… comprehensive. The centerpiece was a set of three paintings that read “ART” that I made all by myself. I bought three square canvases, then applied painters tape to spell out the letters A, R, and T. Then I painted the negative space created by the painters tape using a few different colors, then removed the painters tape so that the A, R, and T were visible as white space. I really like how the piece turned out, and, now that the art party is over, I’m going to hang it in our recently repainted playroom \/ craftroom upstairs.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Pro tip, thanks to a friend of mind: When painting something like this, brush away from the painters tape, so that paint doesn’t get up under the tape. You’ll get cleaner lines when you pull the tape off.<\/p>\n

For the rest of the decorations, we had planned to print out copies of a few famous paintings and hang them around the family room, but that same friend of mine hooked me up with dozens of laminated art posters from a high school art classroom. The girls and I hung them all over the house, covering just about every vertical surface we had. The goal was to have the kids feel like they had walked into an art museum, and I think we achieved it!<\/p>\n

\"Art<\/a>The rest of our set up involved a folding table in the family room, covered with butcher paper, all ready for several rising third graders to make some art! Oh, and some leftover decorations from our Olympics party<\/a> two days earlier. (Yes, we had two parties in one weekend, although the Olympics party was just the three of us.)<\/p>\n

\"Ready<\/a>Snacks<\/h3>\n

One thing I learned from the board game party: Let the twelve-year-old handle snacks. She’s full of creative ideas, she gets the importance of presentation, and, as of this year, she knows how to bake. I took her to Jo-Ann’s to get supplies, not quite knowing what she would put together. “Trust me, Dad, I know what I’m doing,” she said, as she asked me to get fondant and food coloring. Several hours later, we had these awesome artist palette cupcakes!<\/p>\n

\"Artist<\/a>Painters gotta paint, so she put together these tasty paintbrushes, too. It’s hard to go wrong with chocolate-dipped pretzels.<\/p>\n

\"Paintbrush<\/a>My artist friend is a big fan of color wheels, which led me to think we could use a color wheel to add some healthy snack options to the table. Red watermelon, mandarin oranges, yellow bananas, green kiwifruit, blueberries, and some deep purple grapes.<\/p>\n

\"Color<\/a>For drinks, we didn’t have anything as clever as Yoda Soda or Vaderade (from the Star Wars party), but a little labeling from the twelve-year-old (“Creative Juices”) kept our fruit punch and apple juice on theme.<\/p>\n

\"Creative<\/a>Activities<\/h3>\n

The butcher paper and some crayons provided a little diversion for the eight-year-old’s friends as they arrived. Once they were all here, we launched the first of four activities that the girls and I had planned: the Art Box Challenge<\/strong>. Inspired mostly by Top Chef<\/em>‘s “quickfire challenge,” we presented each of the girls with a basket full of art and craft supplies. The supplies included construction paper, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, feathers, stickers, googly eyes, yarn, even some spare playing cards. We bought a few things at Michaels to add to the baskets, but most of the supplies were just leftovers from past craft projects.<\/p>\n

Each girl had roughly the same set of supplies, and we gave them 15 minutes to use those supplies to make the most creative craft they could. The girls jumped right in and started making things. This was a crafty bunch of kids! When we called time, the girls had created a miniature town for pom-pom creatures, a very colorful poker player, a friendly popsicle stick person, and a cute ostrich-like bird. Lily, my little architect, built a miniature playground, complete with slide and swing. We had each girl present their creation to the group and explain what it was. (The pom-pom creature town got quite a backstory.)<\/p>\n

\"Art<\/a>Quick sidebar: I learned from the Star Wars party that one adult alone can’t run one of these parties. For the board game party, I hired one of our regular babysitters to assist. This year, the twelve-year-old invited a friend over, and they played the helper role at the party. Not only were they a big help, but they brought a ton of enthusiasm to the proceedings. Thanks, Hannah and Hannah’s friend.<\/p>\n

After the little girls explained their creations, Hannah and her friend conferred to select the winner. My sweet girl… Instead of selecting just one winner, she announced five winners! Each of the little girls got a special award (“most creative use of feathers,” “most adorable bird thing,” and so on) just for her. I was really proud of my twelve-year-old at that moment!<\/p>\n

Next up was the second of the four activities the girls and I had planned: Splatterpaint Letters<\/strong>. We were originally going to go with a slightly different activity, one in which each girl got a large, white letter (the first letter of her name), then attached paint-filled balloons to the letter, then popped those balloons using straight pins. We saw this on Pinterest, and it looked like a lot of fun. However, when we ran a test at home, we couldn’t get our tiny balloons full enough of paint to pop easily. We were stuck until the eight-year-old mentioned a school art project that involved dipping brushes in paint, then flicking them on a canvas, creating a Jackson Pollock effect. That sounded perfect! Perfectly messy, that is.<\/p>\n

\"Splatter<\/a>So after the Art Box Challenge, we headed to the backyard, where I had a chair covered with a drop cloth, along with a dozen bowls of paint and a whole bunch of paintbrushes. With a lot of help from Hannah and her friend, the little girls took turns selecting their paint colors, then splatterpainting their letters. They took different approaches, some flinging paint from several feet away, others (like Lily) holding their brushes just inches away from the letters and flicking them carefully. Regardless of approach, the letters turned out great, and each girl got to take her colorful letter home with her.<\/p>\n

\"Splatterpaint<\/a>As the girls finished their letters, we had snack time as a segue to our third activity: the Tree of Art<\/strong>. This activity was motivated by me wanting the girls to make something collaboratively. I had thought about getting some giant sheet of paper and having them draw a scene together, but then we something on Pinterest that led us to plan a different activity. I borrowed a giant flip-chart pad from work and used a Sharpie to draw a big tree trunk on it. The girls had a stack of circles of cardstock paper I had cut out by hand (each one maybe 4 inches in diameter), along with lots of watercolor supplies. The girls painted the circles any way they liked, and I took the circles (once they were mostly dry) and glued them to the tree trunk. The result was a very colorful tree that the girls made all together!<\/p>\n

\"Tree<\/a>Looking back, we probably should have done this activity earlier in the afternoon, since the watercolor took a while to dry. There were a few circles that hadn’t dried by the time the party wrapped up, so our guests didn’t get to see the completely finished tree. My girls and I got to enjoy it, however, and now the tree is hanging on the wall next to our staircase. Seeing all the different ways Lily and her friends decorated the “leaves” of the tree reminds me daily of the fun we had at the art party.<\/p>\n

We had one last activity for the day, and I chose it, in part, because it could run long or short. That turned out to be a smart move, since we only had maybe ten minutes left before pick-up at this point in the party. My artist friend suggested the activity; it’s one that she and her family play all the time: Telephone Pictionary<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

You sit in a circle and each player draws their interpretation of a phrase, chosen from a hat. (Hannah and I spent some time prior to the party writing down phrases like “singing in the rain” and “the Little Mermaid” and “Supergirl” that were eight-year-old-appropriate. We also had a bright green hat, procured last year for the Mr. Green role in our Clue photo booth.) After you’ve doodled, you pass your paper to the left. Then you guess the phrase that goes with the doodle you received, writing that down on the paper and folding the paper so that the doodle isn’t visible. Then you pass again, this time drawing your interpretation of the phrase you received and folding the paper so that the phrase you were given isn’t visible.<\/p>\n

This continues, drawing and guessing, drawing and guessing, until the papers make it back around to where they started. Then you unfold the paper to see how your original phrase was interpreted — and misinterpreted — as it went around the circle! We only got one round in before the moms showed up for pick-up, but the girls had a few laughs as they discovered how their friends had guessed at their drawings. I think my favorite was “singing in the rain,” which one girl illustrated with exactly 20 circular raindrops. The second girl in the telephone chain ignored the person singing in the picture and focused on the raindrops. Her guess? “Twenty circles.” Quite the literal thinker, that one.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of the results of Telephone Pictionary. So here’s another shot from our backyard splatterpainting:<\/p>\n

\"Splatterpaint<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s a Wrap<\/h3>\n

I think we’re getting the hang of these themed parties. I over-prepared for the Star Wars party, which made it a little stressful. And we invited too many kids to the board game party, I think. We hit a good balance for the art party in terms of preparation and party size. I hope next year’s party, whatever its theme, will go as well.<\/p>\n

It also occurred to me this year that one reason I like throwing these just-for-fun parties is that, since they’re not birthday parties, I can put together a fun party without needing to run everything by the girls’ mom. We co-parent pretty well, most weeks, but it’s nice to have a chance to do something fun and creative, just me and the girls.<\/p>\n

We’ll do another just-for-fun party next year, I’m sure. As long as the girls have fun throwing them, I’ll keep doing them. And given how quickly the eight-year-old and her friends are working their way through the Harry Potter series, I can guess what theme we’ll go with in 2017…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why wait for someone’s birthday to throw a party? You may recall our 2014 Star Wars party (on May the Fourth, naturally) or our 2015 board game party, neither of which were attached to birthdays. It’s become a tradition that the girls and I plan and host a just-for-fun party …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,110,74,135],"class_list":["post-1190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arts-and-crafts","tag-baking","tag-creativity","tag-parties","column","twocol","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1190"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1213,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions\/1213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}