Crafts for a "fairy & gnome" birthday party (for 3yos!)

[WindyCityMom]

My DD will be turning 3 in December. She wants a "Fairy" birthday party, so we're going to give her one She'll have five 2.5-3yos at her party. Four of them are her close cousins, one is a close friend.

What kind of craft would be both theme and age appropriate? We've got mostlya "Fairy" theme going, but since three of the guests are (mainstreamish) boys we're incorporating gnomes into it too.

I was thinking of having various "nature" things available for the kids to glue to thick paper. I then thought of wet-on-wet painting, but I think that only 2 of our guests would enjoy that. My DH wants to tie-dye t-shirts but I'm not sure how that ties into our theme. Maybe we could dye blank playsilks? That seems more fun than T-Shirts

[henny penny]

When I saw your title, before I even read your message, I thought "dye silks!" Perfect fairy fun! And makes a really nice party favor.

[Tashakittie]

Dyeing shirts, to me, is cool b/c they'd get to wear them later. Silks even more fun!

[ldsmom06]

My dd will also be 3 in December and she wants a fairy birthday too. I was thinking about dying playsilks but wasn't sure if it will be too hard for them. I was thinking they can make wands instead but again not sure if the younger ones could do that so I thought since my dd loves nature I thought we could make winter suncatchers. It seems like it would be great for all ages
http://ordinarylifemagic.com/blog/20...4/suncatchers/ (it wouldn't work if you live somewhere warm though but I see you live in IL so it would be cold)

[E.V. Lowi]

For my dd's 3, we bought pony packs of bedding flowers and 5" clay flower pots which the children first painted with fast dying acrylic paint, then planted with the flowers.

[mommariffic]

Fairy gardens! Little clay pots, moss, some little mushrooms [you can even make them, we often buy the caps and paint them red/with white dots or get crazy with other colors] and maybe little signs that say "fairy crossing" or something?

[Melaniee]

You could pre-sew simple little gnome hats (think Robinhood-style) and then let them decorate them.

[coyotemist]

Somebodies blog just posted to make little mushrooms out of wooden drawer pulls. Maybe it was Weefolkart? Cute stuff.

[kennedy444]

Originally Posted by Melaniee

You could pre-sew simple little gnome hats (think Robinhood-style) and then let them decorate them.

THis is a craft at our local school's holiday fair - big hit. Lots of fun!

[tallulahma]

i think dyeing playsilks is pretty great... also building little fairy houses.

wands can be incredibly fun to make and quite easy.


you could make ribbon wands with sticks found in nature- they could add embelishments like bells, glitter, stars, etc.

[ASusan]

Maybe 3-yr-old boys (and 1 girl), but I could not have gotten the children at DS's recent party to engage in a craft. I couldn't even get them to look for stickers with their parents' help. The easy-to-assemble foam airplanes? Still in the box, maybe for next year.

Buy a bunch of balloons and let them toss them around. Seriously. Save yourself some time and lots of money. If you want $10 worth of stickers, let me know. (but I can send you only $5 worth, because the other half are still hidden)

[WindyCityMom]

Originally Posted by ASusan 

Maybe 3-yr-old boys (and 1 girl), but I could not have gotten the children at DS's recent party to engage in a craft. I couldn't even get them to look for stickers with their parents' help. The easy-to-assemble foam airplanes? Still in the box, maybe for next year.

Buy a bunch of balloons and let them toss them around. Seriously. Save yourself some time and lots of money. If you want $10 worth of stickers, let me know. (but I can send you only $5 worth, because the other half are still hidden)

Hehe, that made me giggle.  I think you're right.  I'm probably just going to set up a table with some art supplies and let them go to town coloring :)  

My MIL has been "Oh! We'll send the parents upstairs and we'll do the hokey pokey, hot potato..." Um, no.  They're 3.  Some not even 3 yet.  We're going to stick with a laid back party :)

I might do what the author suggested in Heaven on Earth- let the kids knead little lumps of dough and bake rolls for them.  That'd be nice, but I wouldn't want to have to watch an oven *and* be hostess at the same time.  Hm.

What about snacks?  I feel like I should have at least something on hand for a snack (other than cake).  WWYD?  No one has food allergies.

[slaggyc]

How fun! We are doing the same thing for my daughter's 3rd birthday. She wanted a fairy birthday, but we will have quite a few boys over too. I think we are aiming for woodland fairy things, animals, nature etc. All I've got so far is making fairy houses. I was going to make the little girls fairy outfits and maybe felt hats for the boys? Not sure yet...