Thursday, May 9, 2013

{Real Party} Camp Arts and Crafts - More!

One last post from Grace's Camp Arts and Crafts party.  I get tired just looking at all of the pictures :) 
 
First up is our food table.  I REALLY wanted a beautiful rainbow ruffled table cloth for the party.  Unfortunately, the $$$ price tag $$$ was not compatible with what I wanted to spend.  So I improvised and made my own rainbow table cloth and skirt. 
 
I used one plastic table cloth of each color.  I first cut the table cloth to cover the table.  I then took the leftover plastic and bunched it, adhering it to the front of the table.  This table is actually my husband's work bench, so I used push pins to gather the plastic and give it the full look.  After I had all of the table covered and the front skirted, I took rainbow festooning and placed it over the push pins.  Not as pretty as the $80 ruffle rainbow table cloth, but for $12, it will do.
 
I made the large Kraft paper pinwheel behind the table to keep with our camp style decorations.  The rainbow pinwheels were purchased from the party store.
 

For our camp style serving wear, I took pie plates from the Dollar Store and lined them with natural deli style paper.  They actually worked out very well for sturdy plates.


We served peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on rainbow bread :)

 
 

The party favors were fun, inexpensive and them appropriate.  I found the caddies in the Target $1 aisle almost a year prior.  I saved them that long!!!  To personalize them, I used my Silhouette machine and cut out each girl's name.  I found the adorable "Camp Like a Girl" badges on eBay and glued them to the caddy.  Inside the caddy was markers, colored pencils, and crayons that I purchased at back to school time.  The prices can't be beat at that time of the year!  I also found paint can puzzles that I added to the caddies.  The caddies were great for the girls to place all of their arts and crafts in as they headed home.


 
 
 
No party is complete without a photo backdrop.  I REALLY was trying to be cost conscious for this party.  In the past I have purchased fabric for the backdrop. This year, I tried wrapping paper that I found at Target.  The wind was not the friendliest to the paper, but overall it worked - and was a lot cheaper!
 
I borrowed the trees from my Aunt and used zip ties form the Dollar Store to make a garland to decorate the two of the trees with.  The other tree was adorned with a flower garland I found at Target on clearance after Easter.  I used small paper fans to top the trees.
 
The pennant is a printable from Dimple Prints.
 


 

If you've ever purchased a printable package from Dimple Prints, you know how much you get!  There are so many great printables.  This package was no different.  I wanted to be able to use all the clever signs in the package.  I decided to glue the signs to a chevron burlap ribbon and hang them from the ceiling.  They turned out cute!




If hosting 12 nine year old girls was not crazy enough, we hosted Grace's family after her girlfriends had left.  One party in the morning, the next in the afternoon!  I know it's crazy, but it really works - one set up, one take down and getting it over in one day is great.  So in addition to the favors for Grace's friends, I had favors for her cousins.  I packaged the favors in brown lunch bags and used chevron washi tape to adhere the printable.  Super cute!

 
 




And last but not least, my inexpensive table coverings and activities.  I wanted to extend the arts and crafts theme to the tables.  I covered the tables in Kraft paper from the Dollar Store and placed pencils, markers and crayons on each table.  I also placed rainbow colored candy on each table to keep the sugar high going :)  The girls had a blast coloring on the tables.





 

 
 
Thanks for looking!  And Happy Birthday Grace!!!
 
 
If anyone would like more information, I'm glad to help you out. 

{Real Party} Camp Arts and Crafts - Arts and Crafts Oh My!


 Our next post features the arts and crafts of the Camp Arts and Crafts party.  This was a ton of fun for the girls! 

Arts and crafts was Grace's pick for a party.  Not sure if there are other 9 year old girls out there that ask to do a arts and crafts project at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday or Sunday morning...  The girl lives for projects!

In putting together the activities, I wanted to stick with camp themed arts and crafts.  Luckily I could remember back to my Girl Scout days of going away to camp and the arts and crafts projects we did to get my ideas moving.

I assembled all of the projects on one table and used plastic table cloths to drape behind.  The printables are from Dimple Prints.

 
Grace is in Girl Scouts herself this year.  I think that was her inspiration to come up with the idea of having a sash for each girl and having each girl adhere a sticker to the sash as they completed their art projects.  I found arts and crafts badges online to adhere to the sashes for each girl.  Of course we had to have rainbow sashes to go with our theme!
 
 
 
Here are some of the arts and crafts projects we did:
 
God's Eyes or Dream Catchers

Sand Art
 


Rainbow Noodle Necklaces

 
 
 
Tie-Dyed Sailor Bracelets
(inspiration from Jac o' lyn Murphy)




 

Paint a Canvas
 
 
 
Grace decided that she did not want her friends to bring her presents for the party, but that she wanted to collect blankets for Project Linus. Project Linus is a non-profit organization that provides hand-made blankets to children in need. It's an amazing organization! In addition to collecting donations, We decided to make a blanket with her friends at the party to give to Project Linus as well. It was  touching to see the girls working together to make the blanket.
 



 
To carry the theme to the tables, I covered the tables in Kraft paper from the Dollar Store and placed markers, pencils and crayons on the tables to let the campers create some masterpieces.  They thought it was the greatest thing to draw on the Kraft paper! 


 
 

 
Thanks for looking!  I'd be happy to provide anyone with a how-to for any of our arts and crafts.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

{Real Party} Camp Arts and Crafts - Trail Mix Table

I'm back with the second post from Grace's Camp Arts and Crafts party.  This post features our DIY Trail Mix bar.  What is a camp party without trail mix?  This was such a fun thing for the kids.
 
The backdrop for the table was lots of paper chains.  These took FOREVER to make but turned out so cute.  I envisioned Grace and I would make them together, but that lasted about 6 links into the first chain :)  I wanted to keep the theme of camp arts and crafts going with this table so we continued the rainbow color scheme with lots of DIY touches.  I also continued the paper fan theme by adding a few to the crates for some interest.
 
The banner was made from hand-cut burlap pennants that I glued together with red pom pom trim.  I painted unfinished letters I found at Hobby Lobby.  A prize to the first person who notices something a little odd with "Trail Mix" :)
 
I hot glued sticks to a piece of wood I had decoupaged wood print fabric on to make the "Camp Grace" sign.  We used Mason Jars that I tied a wood disc to for the kids to label their jars.  I used the same discs to label the jars for the trail mix ingredients. 
 
 


 












 
Vendors:
Jars - Ikea
Wood Discs - Head Change, Etsy
Printables - Dimple Prints
Grace's dress - Gymboree
Grace's headband - Pirouettes and Ponytails, Etsy
Grace's necklace - Create Outside the Box, Etsy