Finally we have hit spring! I can’t believe it’s been a month since we celebrated Miss Ella’s 7th birthday, so much has happened since then, including a super fabulous holiday to Disneyland!

I’m excited today to share with you her party! Ella loves art and this year requested an Art Party. I looked at outsourcing it, as I have for the last few parties (thus the lack of party posts!) but decided it was probably time to have another party at home! I’m so glad i did, it was so much fun, and the kids had a blast, creating some gorgeous pieces to take home and show off!

I started the theme with a chalkboard style party invitation to go with the arty theme, and carried it across the decorations during the day.

I had a lot of fun with a tin of blackboard paint! Blackboard paint was used for the party table backdrop and photo board. I also used it on the paint tin favours and drink bottles – leaving chalk on the table so kids could write their names on their drinks. My gorgeous friend Lisa lent me the table, wooden crates and divine metal cake stand.

Above: Arty Party Printables by Alannah Rose; drink bottles hand painted with black board paint, Sambellina polka dot Party Ware from the Party Parlour

We didn’t go overboard with food for this party, it was more about the art and projects, but what we did create, we kept on theme. I purchased some edible ink pens and Ella decorated all of the gingerbread cookies herself – each one an edible art piece! Her friends loved picking out their favourite one to eat! Also on the table were ‘jackson pollock’ rice bubble bars – basically a rice bubble slice drizzled with coloured white chocolate. Also an art palette cake to finish off the Arty theme.

Each party guest took home a  ‘Sample Pot’ – an empty paint tin which I painted with blackboard paint and wrote each child’s name on with chalk. They were filled with an assortment of lollies. The photo board was a huge hit, simply painted with blackboard paint and the logo from the invitations drawn on with chalk for the kids to pose under.

I have to say, the day of the party was absolutely freezing, hands down one of the coldest days Melbourne had all winter I think! Never the less we still managed to set up the ‘Art Studio’ outside under the pergola, complete with portable heater and tarps to keep the weather and rain at bay! We had 20 guests at this party, but unless you have a lot of helping hands, I’d recommend keeping the numbers to around 10 if you can. Much easier on the hostess!

We did a lot of practising in the school holidays in the lead up to the party to figure out which projects Ella enjoyed doing, and what we though the kids would be capable of.

We started out the day with Folio Labels – each child when they arrived was asked to do a self portrait of themselves onto the label, which was then stuck to their folio bag.

Perhaps one of the most enjoyed projects was the ‘Squishy Men’ – balloons filled with flour, and decorated with wool and sharpy textas – easy and cheap to do – just remember you’ll need an adult running this station as the filling of the balloons can be tricky for some little hands!

Other projects that we did included Sharpie Patterns, Sharpie Mugs, Mini Canvas and Shaving Cream Marbling. The kids did such and amazing job and took some beautiful art pieces home at the end of the party.

We followed up the party with handwritten thank you notes by Ella.

I hope you enjoyed the images – we had so much fun, I can’t believe how fast my baby is growing up.

Special thanks also to my gorgeous team of helpers on the day, an arty party is definitely one that needs many hands on deck!

For those that are interested I’ve created a printable Arty Party range for this theme – you can purchase the Arty Party Printables here.