How to Throw a Craft Party!

I love to plan kids birthday parties around cool craft kits that my kids have seen on TV or that their friends are talking about school. My daughter Lili has been talking about Beados This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. for a long time, so I thought it would be fun to create a craft party, making Beados crafts as one of our projects!

The Craft Party Invitation:

I create all my birthday party invitations using PicMonkey This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. (you can check out my tutorial on how to use PicMonkey to create birthday party invitations here).

This invite gives all of the important info- the theme, the time, date, and place, and lets the guests know that it is also a sleepover party and what they should bring along.

You can download a blank version of this invite for your own personal use at the bottom of this post!

Craft Party Set Up

My daughter wanted to keep her party small so that she could invite the girls to sleep over, so she invited 8 girls to her party (and this being a summer party, only 5 girls were able to make it).

Craft Birthday Party Food and Cake

Lili asked that instead of offering a pasta bar or ordering pizza as we often do at our parties, that instead we order in Chinese food for dinner.

For smaller birthday parties, I usually forgo the paper/plastic party goods (saving money and creating less waste) and just use our regular dinner dishes and cloth napkins.

And it wouldn’t be a party without some of our Perfect Party Punch!

Pro party tip: put a Sharpie on the table and ask guests to write their names on the cups and to reuse them!

Instead of a birthday cake, we decided to make Homemade Oreos (recipe can be found at Your Cup of Cake), where we rolled the edges in sprinkles so that are Oreos looked as if they were wearing Beados!

These soft homemade Oreos were easy to make (they come from a doctored-up cake mix!) and they taste scrumptious!

Craft Party Order of Events

6:30 pm- Guests Arrive and Eat Dinner

When the guests walked in the door, we had them stash their sleeping bags and jammies in the room downstairs where they would be sleeping. The girls then went into the dining room to dig into dinner and chat (they hadn't seen each other all summer long!).

After dinner we sang “Happy Birthday” and Lili blew out the candles on her Oreo cookie “cake”!

7:00 pm- Beados Time!

Each of the party guests received a Beados paper mat to work on, and they each selected a design that they wanted to create.

I used the Beados organizers that came with the Beados refill kits This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. to place Beados beads all along the table so the kids could find the color beads they wanted to use easily.

The great thing about Beados is that it is so intuitive, the kids can easily figure out how to place the beads to create the cute critter they want…. and then it's just a few sprays of water to “melt” the beads together.

As it dries the beads stick together.

To make sure that your critter doesn't come apart, you can turn it over (once the first side is dry in about 15 minutes), and spritz the back of the critter as well, and then allow to dry again.

After the girls completed their creations, my husband rounded them all up outside for a group photo shoot, and later while the girls were watching their movie, I printed the photos, inserted them into these adorable pink frames This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. , and then used a hot glue gun This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. to attach one of their Beados creations to the frame!

The girls loved their picture of all of their friends, the way that they were personalized, and this pulled double-duty as both our craft project as well as the party favor!

7:30 pm- Outside Play Time

It's always a good idea to let the kids run around outside a bit and blow off some steam- so the girls had some time to do just that before….

8:00 pm- Bonfire and S'mores!

For our summer birthday parties, we love to build a bonfire and roast s'mores with the kids. Because what's more fun than summer s'mores?

8:30 pm- Movie Time!

For sleepover parties, I like to include a movie so the kids can put on their pjs and enjoy some popcorn while laughing at the onscreen antics!

10:00 pm- Party Pick Up and Settling In

When hosting a sleepover party for younger kids, you should keep in mind that not every guest will be comfortable spending the night. So I always let parents know that kids are welcome to stay or not, and what time to pick up the kids that plan to go home that evening.

At 10:00 pm we had a few kids go home for the night (with their picture frame favor in hand), and the rest of the guests headed down to our finished basement to roll out their sleeping bags and settle in.

We declared “lights out” at 10:30 pm, but truthfully- the chatting and TV watching lasted at least another hour before the girls fell asleep!

8:30 am- Breakfast is Served!

You never know what to expect at a sleepover… sometimes the kids are up at 6am looking for something to do, so we always stash a second movie downstairs that the kids can turn on when they wake up.

My daughter requested a yogurt bar where the girls could make their own yogurt parfaits with toppings such as granola, dried fruits, and strawberries, and a sweet side dish- Monkey Bread!

9:30 am- Party Pick Up

After breakfast, we helped the girls put away their sleeping bags, and then they got dressed and played outside until their parents arrived to pick them up.

Craft Party Thank You Notes:

I also created this cute fill-in-the-blank style thank you note- which you can download below!

Lili loved her craft birthday party! (Disclosure: Moose Toys sent me some of their Beados craft kits to try out with my kids. But it was my idea to turn them into a party theme- and all opinions expressed here are my own!)

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Check out some more awesome Kids Birthday Party Ideas:

Check out all of our Kids Birthday Parties here:

How to Throw Your Own Kids Birthday Parties at Home!

Do you think your daughter would love a craft party like this one?

How to Throw a Craft Party!

The Craft Party Invitation:

Craft Party Set Up

Craft Birthday Party Food and Cake