fun2make

On Sunday, we hosted 16 lively 8 year olds for our daughter’s 8th birthday party. It was a real test for us of how well our ideas would withstand the harshest of critics, and whether we would have enogh to keep them amused for 2 hours (including tea time).

All the tables were covered in our plastic tablecloths.

Although thin, these really withstood well the stresses of 2 hours of various crafting activities, and were very easy to roll up and dispose of at the end. The first thing the girls received when they arrived was a pink box, about the same size as a shoe box, but half the height (not stocked currently on fun2make). They each had a little bag given to them full of self adhesive foam glitter hearts, self adhesive jewels, small flowers (not currently stocked) and glue dots. They had a great time doing this and having already completed one ourselves, we showed them what could be done which helped some of them a lot.

We had set up different tables for different craft activities. One group of girls went straight into making a bag charm which we had already presorted into small plastic bags. This comprised 4 different lengths of beading cord tied onto a split ring which was then attached to a lanyard hook. The theme of the party was ‘Hello Kitty’, so we had specially bought some HK beads to mix with our own, so that the bag charms would be really colourful. A little plastic bowl for each child was an essential, as was a pair of plastic safety scissors on the table, to cut off the surplus cord.

Another group of girls concentrated on each decorating a canvas bag with fabric pens. We had already drawn a hello kitty outline on each one, so they could then colour them in, and add to the design. On the table we also put a letter stencil, so that each girl could put her name on the bag if she wanted, plus some of our large foam shapes, which they could use as stencils and then colour in. Each canvas bag had a sheet of A4 paper in it, which stopped the paint going through to the other side, and allowed the girls to write their name on it to easily identify their creations.

We then had tea, which proved very successful, as some of the girls wanted to keep munching their kit kats and birthday cake long past the allotted time!! Then back to the crafting. The first lot of fabric paint had now dried, so the girls could now add to the bags some glitter textile paint, to create an even better effect.

Other girls were colouring in a HK picture we had printed off with a variety of Berol verithik pencils. They could then use a gluestick to stick the completed picture onto their white paper going home bag.

Lastly, some of the girls managed to do all the activities including the last one - making a beaded bracelet (we made up an HK one especially, but the heart ones are equally lovely). Those that didn’t manage to do that activity, got the kit to put in their going home bag (along with the sweets and other things already in there).

Quite a few of the children didn’t want to leave at the end, and the parents who came in couldn’t believe that when they walked in to the hall, all the children were sitting calmly crafting (rather than running around and screaming which is so often the case!). All in all, a really successful day for fun2make, and a wonderful celebration for our daughter.