7 Year Old's "Painting" Birthday Party Ideas

My daughter is turning 7 at the end of this month. She is such a "crafty" little girl and loves anything that has to do with being creative. So, we are going to have her party at our local pottery store. The kids can paint a piece of clay and then they will get fired. For her invitation, we had to come up with something "creative" so we saw a picture online and came up with this:

We went to Michaels and found the paint cans, brushes and easels.

The easels were a clearance score! I thought they would be cute place cards on the table with the girls' names on them.

We painted the wood paint brushes pink.

We dipped the ends of the paint brushes in the paint as well and let them dry.

My husband printed off these invites which look like paint swatches! It has the details of the party typed in each color. They read: "Purple, pink, orange and blue. Gabrielle wants to paint with you! It's Gabrielle's 7th birthday!" Then date, time, location, etc.



I added pink paper to the inside of each paint can.

We added M&M's to the paint can and then wrapped it up in tissue paper. We tied them up with a ribbon and added the brush and paint swatch to the outside! Cute!

Instead of a cake, I saw an idea once for cupcakes being paints. So, I had my husband cut out a painter's "pallet" out of wood and I painted it brown.





I then just made cupcakes and frosted them different "paint colors" and set them around the pallet! I think it turned out cute and it was so easy. Very easy to transport to the pottery place too!



This is how the easels turned out. I painted their names on them and hot glued little plastic flowers on them. These acted as their place markers at the pottery place.

I planned this party for 1.5 hours. I didn't know how long the girls would paint and I didn't want a lot of "extra" time because they couldn't really play in the pottery place. The girls painted for almost the entire time. We handed out some snacks and then cupcakes towards the end and Gabrielle was still opening presents when parents arrived to pick up! All in all it was a successful party and one that Gabrielle was happy with!


Six Year Old Princess Party

Gabrielle turned 6 on November 29th. She wanted another Princess Party (we had one a few years ago for her). For the invitations, I printed them out on 11x17 paper. The invite read:

King Matt and Queen Lindsay
Request your appearance at
A Royal Celebration

Princess Gabrielle’s
Sixth Birthday

To be held on the 20th day of November, 2011
Drop Off: 2 PM
Pick Up: 4 PM
At Castle (then our last name and address)

I rolled them up and taped them shut. I put them inside a paper towel roll. I took some scrapbook paper and rolled them up on a diagonal and folded in the ends so the invites couldn't fall out. I tied a pink ribbon around the middle of them and wrote the guests names (Princess Madelyn, Prince Ethan, etc.) on tags tied to the ribbon.

For the games/activities:

As soon as the guests arrived, I had them come to the table and decorate a crown. I bought jewels that had sticker backs so they didn't have to wait for glue to dry and could wear them right away.

Game #1: I bought a princess crown pinata this year because I found one on clearance for $8! I got the candy on clearance from Halloween and filled the pinata with that. We made a "wand" to hit the pinata with. We took our child sized broom and unscrewed the handle from it and wrapped it in pink fabric. On the top, I attached a star cut out of strong construction paper (I put silver glitter all over the star so it wasn't just cardboard).

Game #2: Find the Lost Princess so she can get to the ball. I found Cinderella "wall decorations" at the card outlet store for 50 cents! They were perfect because they were only about 8" tall and there were 4 in a package so there were 20 princesses hidden around the house to find. You could easily replicate this game with pictures of princesses printed off the computer.

Game #3: We played Poison Apple. I took an apple out of Gabrielle's play kitchen and wrote "Poison" on it. I had all the guests sit in a circle and I started playing some princess music. The one who had the apple when the music went off had to lay down and "sleep". At the end of the game, whoever was still "awake", had to go around and wake all the other guests by giving them a kiss (a Hershey kiss that is).

Game #4: We drew a picture of a princess on poster board and printed off some tiaras that we laminated. The guests had to "pin the tiara on the princess".

Game #5: Princess Bingo! We made our own Princess Bingo cards with pictures like crowns, castles, wands, dragons, carriages, etc. For the markers, we used purple coins.

Take Home Bags:

Throughout the party, we listened to Gabrielle's favorite songs from her favorite princess movies. We downloaded the songs and gave each guest the "Soundtrack from Gabrielle's Sixth Birthday Party". I also put in the bags princess erasers, bracelets, lip gloss, wands and lotions. They also got to pick things from the prize baskets after the games and those were added to their bags.

The Cake:

For the cake, I made three round cakes. The bottom one I made in a spring form pan and the top layer were 2 - 8" round cakes. For the base cake, I covered it with white fondant and then made a quilted pattern using a straw. I added pink edible pearls to the corners of the quilt pattern. For the top layer, I frosted it pink and then added pink glitter sprinkles to it. I topped it off with a crown and a wand and her candle. She loved it and it was pretty simple.

I hope some of these ideas help you in your "princess party" planning! May your party be pink and perfect for your little princess!!!