Parties are a whirl of crazy games, food and drink, presents and high emotions! It’s a lovely contrast to have a place where children can continue the fun at a slower, calmer pace. This is the reason why craft tables and kids party crafts have become a popular feature. They are so successful that some parties are entirely centred on arts and crafts activities.
Themed and Seasonal Parties
It’s a good idea to tie kids party crafts into the general theme of the party. Children can make things they can wear as part of their fancy dress or take home as a party favour. Try these kids party craft ideas:
- For a Pirate party, make treasure chests by decorating polystyrene food cartons with coloured paper and filling it with ‘jewels and trinkets’.
- Princess parties are always a hit if the young guests can have a go at designing their own tiaras. Use a simple template on gold card with feathers, jewels and tissue paper to decorate.
- Christmas parties are fun if you set aside a little area so that the children can take time out to make beautiful Christmas cards. All you need are blank cards, patterned paper and motifs from recycled cards.
- Halloween parties are great places for a bit of sticky fun. Biscuit decoration is ideal for this purpose. With small bowls of different coloured glace icing and lots of interesting edibles to decorate with, the children make little round monsters, spiders or pumpkins!
Crafty Ideas
Of course, kids party crafts don’t have to fit in with any theme. The main thing is to pick arts and crafts that fit in with the tone of the party and the age and personality of the guests. Some popular birthday party ideas are:
- Beads and jewellery crafts so the party guests can take home little trinkets as souvenirs.
- Pottery painting is a real favourite. There are many professional craft organisers who will happily arrange this craft for you. They even deliver the finished masterpieces once they have been fired.
- Instead of distributing party bags, send the guests on a treasure hunt and make them search for little novelties and sweets. They can take home the spoils in bags created in the craft corner. This is economical as all you need are brown paper bags, bits and bobs for decoration and lots of imagination. This also works if you have a piñata at the party.
- For a birthday party, another lovely idea is taking a large length of fabric or a T-shirt and asking each reveller to go to town with fabric paints or pens. This gives the birthday boy or girl a fabulous keepsake of their special day.
- For a really impressive take-home gift, take a photo of each child having fun; make sure you use an instant-photo camera. The children can then enjoy making lovely photo frames. Start with basic, unpainted frames and the children can paint them, adorn and personalise them before adding the photo.
Kids Party Craft Tips
Ensure that whatever the children make can be transported home easily, they may have a car journey and will often be wearing their best clothes, so go easy with the paint! Provide lots of overalls and leave time for the artwork to dry out.
Keep your ideas simple, you will have lots of children who may want to take part, so the groups should be small and manageable. Remember the activity is optional; some children may just want to avoid it altogether! Make sure you have a contingency plan for these children as you wouldn’t want them to leave empty-handed.
Arts and crafts is one of the best birthday party ideas to try, it rarely fails to delight. It helps parties to flow better and it’s an excellent ice-breaker. Also, guests will go home with a fantastic gift and brilliant memories.
