Description
An arts and painting themed party was perfect for my son's 3rd birthday! Lots of handmade details (which often included his helping hands!), color coordinated brunch foods, and hands-on projects for the kids made for a lot of fun!
Design Inspiration
My son is a budding little artist thanks to the arts and crafts workshops we host every week! This became the jumping off point for his first birthday celebration. I also figured that since most of his buddies have come to our workshops at least once, it would be an easy way to corral them all into something organized and almost noise/motion-less for at least ten minutes. With 30 people in the house and gloomy weather all day, that was a necessity!
I decided to narrow the themes down a bit to help keep things cohesive. The idea of using primary colors made it nice and simple!
Decorating Style
Simple and bold with lots of bright color.
Project Details
The invitations started with large sheets of watercolor paper. My son splatter painted each sheet with red, yellow, and blue paints, and then I cut each one down to A6 card size. I wanted the invitation to be reminiscent of an art gallery opening poster, so I kept the text bold and simple. This also helped to highlight the splatter painting. Invitations can be ordered here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/jojobeandesigns
The parfait push pops were a great way to highlight the color theme, and the holders were ordered here: http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-415-0644-12-Pack-Treat-Stand/dp/B00C4Y7H74/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1396287427&sr=8-5&keywords=push+pop
All of the paper decor including the paint brush banner around the lights, the color chart signs for the drinks, parfaits, and favors, can all be ordered via the shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/jojobeandesigns
Tips and recipes for all of the food, monogram canvas craft project, DIY playdough favors, and a few more decor items can be found on the blog here: http://jojobean26.blogspot.com/2014/03/three.html
Favorite Items
The invitations are usually my favorite, since I'm a paper junkie, but I really liked the family art gallery wall. It's not a huge feature in the decor, but it was fun to display some of the artwork my husband and I have done. I have my son's artwork hanging everywhere, and now I think I should share more of ours, too!
The parents loved the monogram art canvas project, since they got to take home a ready-to-hang piece of original artwork.
The kids loved the handmade play-dough favors!
Advice
Keep it simple! I was so tempted to add elements and in the end, it worked best to not go too overboard:)