::the Candy and Canvas Party::

The Candy and Canvas Party went off with out a hitch!

I rented two tables and chairs from a local party rental place.  It was $40 well spent.  

We had to rainbow them up, so we went with some cheap streamers.

Since the weather was terrible we had the party inside.  

We had eight girls so I held myself back with the candy table.

I got Lily's favorite candies but I didn't buy 10 of every type.

At least I showed a little restraint?

I made the petal cake.  It was shockingly easy.  

Pintrest is loaded with tutorials and it really is just as easy as they said it would be.  

I made the Lily sign with markers and a $5 wooden pallet.

I wrapped the water bottles in bright duct tape.  They soaked in the ice bucket the whole night and that tape stuck perfectly.  

$1 premade decorations from the party aisle fit our theme perfectly and were cheap enough to buy a punch.  

Paint chips folded in half got used as place cards.  

 The table was set with suckers and paper for the kids to decorate.

I fed the kids pizza and let them run around wild till the guest of honor arrived.

Here is were I left my usually party pattern.

I like to be very controlling...

I know - you are shocked.

It's true.

But this idea was beyond me.  We wanted to do this Candy and Canvas party but I am not a real artist.  I looked into online kits, but they were pricey once you got all the brushes and they paints.  I was going to do it anyway when I got a suggestions on facebook to like a page.  The page was for a company called Canvas Paintings by Katie.  For what I thought was very reasonable - Katie comes out to your house and leads a group of kids or adults to paint a canvas.  She brings every thing.  Easels, paint, canvas's, brushes, all of it.  I was nervous about trusting such a huge part of the party to someone else, but I went for it.  BEST CHOICE EVER!  She was wonderful.  The girls loved her.  Even my Emma got talked into joining in.  

 

Lily decided she wanted to paint a peacock.  Katie didn't have a peacock listed.  So she painted one up and sent me a picture.  

Lily approved and KAtie brought the example to show the girls.  

RAINBOW!  

Man - was I happy she organized her paints in rainbow order.  

She led them through every step. 

Quinn watched carefully and drank too much orange soda. 

And they took home a real canvas painting that they were so proud of.    

Each little girl did an amazing job.  What great art.  

My little bug was one happy kid.  

She loved her party.  

AND I LOVED having my Emma as the photographer.  

All pictures from the party were taken by Emma.

Isn't she so talented?

I am trying to talk her into a super sweet 16 painting party. 

Invitations for this party can be seen here. 

::lollipop invitations::

These were the easiest invitation yet!

I got the lollipops on sale at Cracker Barrel.

Buy one get one half off.

Price is steep at $3 each, but I only needed 10 and decided to splurge just a little.  

Double sided tape attached the information to the front.

Done - and it took less than 20 minutes from start to finish.  

 

::candy and canvas birthday party - the plan::

Guess what is coming up?????
 



The best time of year!



My favorite thing in the universe!
 





GUESS!!!

 

photo credit to emma

It's Lily's birthday party time!!!

This may be the first you are hearing of it on here but I have been making lists for months.

She said that she wanted a NORMAL sleep over this year.  NORMAL!!!  I would have rather she say she wanted a tattoo on her neck.  

Normal is some bad language around this place.  I just can't do normal.  But she wanted normal.  I tried to embrace it.

For about five minutes.
 
To try to help her shake this normal concept I had her sit with me and start digging through Pintrest.  The creative little soul of hers talked herself right out of normal in a hurry. And next thing I knew we had come up with an idea.  I am pretty sure it doesn't meet the requirements of NORMAL, but don't tell Lily.

She wants an art party. 

But wait you say - haven't you already done that?

Yes, but stay with with me.

But this one is for all grown up fourth graders, and girls only.

We are calling it a:

CANDY AND CANVAS PARTY

The party starts after school on Friday.  I will pick the girls up from school and bring them straight to our house.  Lawn twister will be all ready for them in the yard to burn off some energy.  I will have snacks of rainbow Jello in champagne glasses, Cokes in bottles, and fresh popcorn from the machine.  

I'll feed them dinner at about 5pm and have them ready for the main event by 6pm. 



Originally I looked into running the painting session myself.  I even found some kits online that are supposed to walk you through it all.  That same day that I was going to order a kit I got a request on Facebook to like a new page.  Normally I ignore that stuff but this one happened to be for a local artist that runs painting parties for kids or adults.  Her prices were cheaper than buying the kit myself, and she comes with her experience - something I can't buy in a kit.  If things go well after the party I will list her referral information.      

I am looking into renting a few large tables and some chairs so every one will have space to paint.  I looked at round tables first, but I have a table cloth trick that wouldn't work with round.  The trick is easy - Walmart has flat sheets for $4 in bright colors that make perfect birthday table clothes.  Cheap but not ugly like plastic table clothes.  Back to the rental issue - after doing a bit of looking around I think I might have some decent options for around $40 that should give me plenty of chairs and two big tables. 

Since it is a Candy and Canvas party I will have a candy table set up inside.  The back drop will be all different color balloons or all different color paper chains.  The table cloth will be bright teal (thank you flat sheet at Walmart) with various candy option.  

Next to the treat table will be a cake table with a petal cake and a few other baked items like brownies and Rice Krispy treats.  I am going back to making her cake this year, but I will dearly miss my cake lady.  We are not breaking up - I will be using her for Max's pirate party in the winter.      

In the kitchen I will set up the island with buffalo chicken dip and chips. 

The take home favor is the painting they make and I will make them each a sketch book with a pack of colored pencils and a sharpener.   I need to find some inspiration on etsy.

Now - open forum to the group - what else should I add?  Anything too far that I need to take away?  What am I missing?

All photos are my own or are linked on my Pintrest page.