When our kids were little, we had big blowout birthday parties at our home. We figured at the toddler age, we were getting in on the celebration just as much as they were — simply for all making it through another year! But now that they are in school, they have their own ideas of the kind of party they want, and we’ve tended to scale back and have smaller parties outside of our house. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want them to look fabulous and be festive!
For her sixth birthday this year, our daughter Cameron wanted to have an art birthday party. We are so fortunate to have an amazing kids’ art studio space close by — Little Loft — and we jumped on booking that. The space is a beautiful, light-filled set of rooms that really invites kids to explore and create. I knew that I wanted to add our own fun twist to the décor and was super happy to find that Paper Source had an amazing set of bright items that travel easily (and many are re-usable too!).
When we had parties at our home, I’d spend all day and night decorating. When you’re renting a party space, though, you need to be able to decorate fairly quickly. Fortunately, Paper Source has tons of fabulous items to do just that. Because Cam was having an art party, I started with the Painted Celebrate Banner and pulled colors out from there, with a focus on pink and gold because, well, that’s just Cam in a nutshell. I added in a Glitter Mini Banner for some extra sparkle too. And a few Bright Confetti Balloons were the perfect endcap.
This was going to be a “working” party, so the table decor needed to be functional. One of my most favorite (and cost-efficient) party décor tricks is to liberally use table runners. They quickly polish up a space and bring a theme together. Paper Source’s Confetti Table Runner worked perfectly in the art space and food table. I also sprinkled extra confetti from the balloon kit for a color pop.
I kept the food really simple: just Cam’s favorite cupcakes (Baked + Wired!!) and a few festive drinks, served in cups with gold straws, of course. Meri Meri’s bright Happy Birthday plates and napkins helped carry color throughout the room.
The kids started out the party by donning the cutest Mini Party Hats ever. Nothing says party time like a party hat! While we waited for everyone to arrive, they set about exploring the great sensory projects set up in Little Loft’s front room — playdough, colored rice, and sand kept them completely fixated for quite some time. I love that the studio’s open-ended invitations to play and make truly take advantage of kids’ creativity.
When we were ready to start, Lia from Little Loft read the kids a great book about space, which was the theme Cami had picked for her party. Then everyone moved over to the art area to work on making Outer space Shadow Boxes! The project combined drawing with metallic pencils, shimmery glitter paint, a layer of painted stars, and a small space toy to create a truly awesome work of art.
After cupcakes, Cam was excited to hand out the goody bags she’d help put together. We used Paper Source’s Gold Gift Bags and added our own little artsy yarn pom pom for a bit of color. Inside we sent the party home with her friends by including a Gold Confetti Cracker, a Bright Ideas Pencils and Fruit Erasers, a few fun tattoos, stickers, and a hamburger notepad! We like to give our friends a fun favor to say thanks, but try to stay away from giving too many trinkets. I think we hit a good balance with this one!
The kids spent a little extra time checking out the other art items and books in the space before heading home. Cam had a great time and I was so happy to have Paper Source’s party decorations and supplies to easily put together a super fun party in a wonderful space!
Rebecca is a mom to two young kiddos and, in her spare time (ha!), likes to pretend she’s a back-up dancer, craft cocktails, and run long distances. She blogs family-friendly activities, DIYs, and celebration fun at Not-So-SAHM. Her first book, an activity-based book for parents, is full of things you’ll actually enjoying doing with your kiddos – due out this fall.