Earlier this week I shared photos from my youngest daughter’s Rainbow Art Birthday Party. Today, I’ll share all the details of one of the main crafts the children completed at the party.
When thinking of craft ideas for the party, I wanted something that would take a little time to create, be personalized for each child, and result in a craft that would look great enough to save. I was quite happy with what I came up with, and this craft is very adaptable to a variety of occasions, and ages.
At our party, the children creating the crafts were all about 6 years old. They were able to enjoy the craft, and complete it with just a little bit of adult help. This project would be great for boys or girls ages 6+ (again, ages 6-7 may need a bit of help).
Here’s how we made them…
The supplies you’ll need are…
1- Bottle of Mod Podge (pictured above) – Sold near other glues in the craft store.
Sponge paint brushes (2 per child) – 1 brush will be used to paint the letter, one will be used to mod podge the tissue to the canvas, planning two brushes per child prevents you from having to wash the brushes between stages.
Cardboard (chipboard) letters (1 per child) – I bought the letters at Hobby Lobby, they are sold in the scrapbooking section. The letters pictured cost $1.95 each.
8″x10″ paint canvas (1 per child) - Use any size canvas you like, that is large enough to hold the letters you buy. I found the best price was at Michael’s, where I bought a 10 pack of canvases for $20.
Assorted craft paint (as shown above) - I find it’s best to limit the choices a bit, or children will spend too long making their selection. Provide 4-6 total color choices, making sure there are appropriate choices for boys and girls (if you have both boys and girls at the party).
Assorted colors of tissue paper, cut or torn into small pieces – I bought a box of pre-cut tissue paper squares from Lakeshore Learning Store. There are lots of alternatives here… you could cut your own tissue squares, have the children tear tissue for the project, or use assorted colored papers of any kind.
Hot glue gun (and glue)
The cost for each project was under $5 (this will vary of course based on your supplies). For me, the canvases were $2 each, the letters were $2 each, the paint less than $5 (for 6 bottles). I already had the bottle of mod podge, the tissue and the hot glue gun.
Note- It may be good to prepare a sample mosaic, so kids can see what the final project will look like. I had my older daugher prepare the example a few days before the party.
Getting started…
Allow the children to choose the paint color, and start painting their letter. I had each letter laying on a piece of paper, so that paint would not get on the table (at least not too much). Once the letters are painted, move them (with the paper underneath) to a place to dry (preferably outside, where they will dry the quickest).
Next, get started on the canvases. Provide each child with a small dish of mod podge glue, and allow them to chose a mix of colored tissue to cover their canvas. Using a sponge brush, apply mod modge to the canvas, in a small section, then lay a single layer of tissue paper squares (overlapping just a bit). Apply a second layer of mod podge glue on top of the tissue paper. Continue working in sections around the canvas. Make sure there is a good layer of mod podge BOTH below and on top of the tissue paper. The mod podge glue will dry clear.
Allow the mosaic canvases to dry. Our canvases were mostly dry after being outside about an hour (depending on the weather, they make take a longer).
Once the letters and canvases are dry, attach the letters to the canvas using hot glue. Drying time will vary based on your weather and how thick the paint or mod podge was layered. If the projects are not quite dry at the end of your party, you could send the two pieces home separately, to be glued together (at home) once dry.
It was fun to see each child’s personality a bit, in the way they created their mosaics.
This would be a fun project for a birthday party, holiday craft party, school art project or church camp/Vacation Bible School.
Happy Crafting!
Last month we celebrated my “baby” Joy’s 6th birthday. How does this happen… the little (well, if 9 lbs is little) baby we brought home from the hospital not too long ago is now 6! Joy has always been the perfect name for this fun, rambunctious, confident little girl. She dives into life head first…and has a few stitches to prove it!
We celebrated Joy’s birthday with a colorful Arts & Crafts Birthday Party. I chose this theme partly because I knew we’d be inviting both boys and girls, and wanted something fun and interactive that everyone would enjoy.
It was a beautiful sunny day, and everyone seemed to have a really great time!
Please enjoy Joy’s Rainbow Art Birthday Party…
I designed the party invitations to fit inside a standard watercolor paint set. Since I knew we’d be hand delivering the invitations, it was a special way to give the guests an idea of the fun we’d be having. I bought the watercolor sets (Wal-Mart is the cheapest place I found), then removed the cardboard Crayola label inside and used that as a template for the invitation. I designed the invitation so that I could fold it in half and the image on one side would show through the box (the “You’re invited… ” part), and the other side (which would be inside the paint box) would include the party details. I added some pretty ribbon and a little name tag for each guest.
As I was planning the dessert/snack table, I made a set of 3 rainbow crayon art canvases to act as the backdrop, and pull in the whole theme. I have a full post with the details of the Rainbow Crayon Art Canvases)
Along the back of the table, I lined up a row of bud vases with bright gerbera daisies.
Snacks included…
Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting, baked in grease-proof polka dot baking cups (called ”Color Cups” from Wilton).
Fresh Fruit & Pretzels (in polka dot baking/snack cups)
Decorated Sugar Cookies (here’s my Sugar Cookie Recipe)
I had fun making simple, yet colorful crayon shaped cookies, and added a special personalized cookie to the tray as well. The personalized cookie was hand-painted, in the same way I recently made some hand-painted Valentine’s cookies.
Simple snacks of fresh fruit (above) and pretzels (below) were served in colorful polka dot baking/treat cups (available from TomKat Studio, Shop Sweet Lulu, and Sweet Estelle’s Baking Supply)
I planned two main crafts for the kids to complete during the party. In addition, I covered the entire party table with white paper (from the teacher supply store) and allowed the kids to draw all over the table. The kids were able to color on the table while we waited for all the guests to arrive. I had jars of crayons and colored pencils (as well as paintbrushes for our other craft) all along the table.
The first craft was a personalized mosaic canvas, which included the initial of each child’s name. Each guest chose the color they’d like to paint the letter, and got to work…
The final craft included the painted initial, on top a mosaic covered canvas. I have a full post on how to make the Personalized Mosaic Canvases.
The second party project was for each guest to color their own “cookie canvas” (inspired by The Decorated Cookie). I baked and iced (with royal icing) large cookies in a couple different shapes. I prepared the cookies (and added the frame) just as I did for the Valentine’s cookies I posted HERE. Be sure to allow at least one full day (or more) for the icing to dry before the kids are going to color them. I provided the guests with food color markers, and they had fun being creative!
Certainly, the crafts the children created during the party would have been adequate favors, but before I had even settled on the party crafts I had already prepared these cute favor pails…
Small paint can pails (available from Oriental Tradding Company, or Michael’s) were filled with mini colored pencils, bubbles in a crayon shaped container, an erasser, a rainbow lollipop (from Party City), and multi color crayon “pods” I made from broken, melted crayons.
Joy’s birthday was a fun and creative day, and we really enjoyed sharing it with friends!
All photos, food, and styling by me/Joy’s mommy/Glorious Treats.
Chocolate and Valentine’s Day just seem to go hand in hand….
Although, if you love chocolate like I do, you may find lots of reasons to make these amazingly delicious Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes!
I’ve enjoyed Chocolate Lava Cakes at restaurants in the past, but never realized how easy they are to make! In fact, since first making this recipe a couple weeks ago I’ve made 2 or 3 more times (just to make sure it was good enough to share… of course!)
If you’ve never enjoyed a Chocolate Lava Cake before, they are rich chocolate cakes with a high ratio of chocolate and butter to flour. The cakes are baked just long enough to hold their shape, but are purposely under-baked, in order to retain a delicious, “molten” hot fudge center.
This rich and delicious dessert is elegant enough to serve for a dinner party, but easy enough to make anytime you want a chocolate treat.
Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes
These cakes are so rich and delicious, and you'll be amazed how easy they are to make!
Ingredients:
6 oz. (6, 1 oz squares) bittersweet chocolate
2 oz. (2, 1 oz squares) semi sweet chocolate
10 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425*F.
Grease 6-8 (6oz) ramekins (oven safe dustard cups) with butter, or non-stick cooking spray. You can fill 6 dishes full, or 8 dishes 3/4 full.
Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave, or in a double boiler.
Stir the melted chocolate and butter until smooth, then add the flour and sugar and stir just a couple times.
Add in the eggs, yolks and vanilla, and stir until incorporated and smooth.
Divide the batter as evenly as possible among the ramekins.
Bake 14 minutes if using 6 dishes, or 12 minutes if batter is divided into 8 dishes. The edges should be firm, but the center will be loose.
Allow to cool 1-2 minutes. Enjoy directly from the dish, or run a knife around the edges of the dish, and invert onto a dessert plate.
Dust with powdered sugar, or serve with whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream.
Share some chocolate with someone you love this week!
Happy baking!
A couple weeks ago I prepared some “cookie canvases” for my youngest daughter’s Art Birthday (which I’ll be sharing soon!). I had an extra cookie and took the opportunity to experiment with painting (with food coloring) on cookies. I was very happy with the results (and shared an image of the cookie on Instagram)! The bit of success with the one cookie gave me the bit of confidence I needed to try a whole set.
Although I’ve seen pretty painted cookies from several cookie artists, it’s the work of Arty McGoo that has captivated me for quite some time! Only after seeing Liz (“Arty”) demonstrate painting on cookies at Cookie Con last fall did I really feel like I might be able to give it a try! Here is a link to Liz’s blog post on Cookie Con, along with a video of her painting on cookies that brought a room of 200 people to the verge of tears (in a good way).
The general design of this set of Valentine’s inspired cookies would certainly work well for other occasions as well. I would love to see a cookie like this as a name plate (and/or favor) at a tea party, and I think they would work beautifully for Mother’s Day as well.
Let’s get started!
First, you’ll need a batch of cookies (here’s my Sugar Cookie Recipe). For these cookies I used a variety of pretty plaque/frame shapes. Two of the three shapes shown are from Copper Gifts, and the largest was a custom made gift from a friend. Karen’s Cookies also sells several pretty plaque shapes.
Once your cookies are baked, prepare a batch of Royal Icing. For this set you’ll only need white icing (in a medium/flood consistency), and a gold/dark yellow color (in a thick, but not overly stiff, consistency).
Outline your cookies with the gold/dark yellow color, creating a frame as thick or thin as you like. Allow the icing to set up a bit (30 minutes or s0).
Flood the cookies with white icing, then allow the icing to dry FULLY (overnight).
Once the icing is dry, then you are ready to paint!
For the gold frame, I mixed a couple different luster dusts (as shown above- the two thin bottles are Wilton Brand, the small bottle labeled “Super Gold” is by CK Products). A note about luster dust… some are labeled as “non-toxic” but not necessarily a food product. Read the labels to chose a product you’re comfortable with. Mix the luster dust in a small bowl with a clear extract, or clear alcohol. Use a small paintbrush (new/used only with food) to paint the luster dust/extract “paint” along the frame, as desired. In the image above (on the right) you can see the difference between the area I had painted and not yet painted.
After you’ve painted the frame (and technically, you could do the frame after the other painting), you’re ready to get creative with the rest of the cookie!
Add some concentrated food coloring (paste, such as Wilton, is best) to a (new/clean) paint pallet. Set up your work area with a few small (new) paintbrushes, a paper towel (or dish cloth) moistened with water, and a small bowl of water.
Use the food coloring as you would water color, by dipping your brush in water, working it into the color of your choice, then lightly dabbing the brush on the moist paper towel before painting on the cookie. You do not want to be adding tons of liquid on top of your iced cookie, or it may deteriorate your icing. With each stroke you should be adding just the tiniest bit of color and moisture.
Again, Arty McGoo demonstrates this technique in her video’s (such as HERE and HERE), so that is place to start if you want to see it done.
Now, let’s paint on a cookie…
Painting on cookies, step by step (as pictured above)
1. Simply add some ‘C’ shapes, creating the outline of some roses.
2. Continue “doodling” simple curves, and some broken circles to fill in the roses.
3. Add a bit of a darker color, using the same “C” shape, and concentrating in the center of each flower (this will be just a few stokes per rose).
4. Begin adding leaves (very simply).
5. Fill in the leaves, as desired. I left some white space, in keeping with the shabby-chic, scribble look I was going for.
6. Add some swirly “vines”, as desired.
7. Complete the cookie with a word, or name. Allow to dry before packaging.
Again, thanks to Arty McGoo for sharing her creative talents and inspiring me to try something new!
Happy baking and happy painting!
No matter how many cute, or fancy, or delicious treats I bake… chocolate cupcakes are always on my list of favorites! Whenever my husband requests a treat to bring into his work, or for a special occasion… it’s almost always chocolate cupcakes!
And when you top a delicious chocolate cupcake with rich chocolate cream cheese frosting, you have a chocolate lovers dream!
Once you have the yummy part… adding a bit of cute never hurts! These little heart decorations are easy and fun to make!
Since I love cute and delicious treats… I thought they were the perfect thing to bring along while I visit over at My Baking Addiction today. If you don’t know Jamie of My Baking Addiction, you are missing out on a treat… in fact LOTS of beautiful treats!
Head on over to My Baking Addiction, where I’m sharing all the details on these cupcakes, and the easy heart toppers.
