Our Fairy House 7th Birthday Party at Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft Stores

{Busy Hands Crafting Away}

Our daughter turned SEVEN on Sunday.  Can't believe it, seriously, where did the time go?  The little guy is going to be TWO next Monday and now that I have two birthday parties to plan each July it's a little much.  When she asked to have a craft party, I was really excited.  Then I started to think about the mess, the clean up, the coordinating, the hassle.  That's when we started looking for a way for her to get her craft on somewhere else, other than our on the small side house.  I thought I'd share our experience with arranging our party.

{Welcome & Sign In}

The Planning Phase:

We looked into hosting it at two major craft store chains, Jo-Ann's and Micheal's.  Jo-Ann's won hands down for convenience and price.  The base price is $125 for up to eight children, with each additional guests being $10 a piece.  This includes the room reservation, set up, the craft, a planner to figure out the craft and lead the kids through it, frosting and sprinkles for any cupcakes you bring in, and clean up.  Totally worth it.

At Micheal's the base price is $50 for the room rental and an employee to help run the party.  Then you have to figure out the craft and purchase all the supplies yourself - there is a discount but it was not disclosed to us how much of a percentage off it would be.  An employee is available for help with planning but it was unclear if they did the set up/take down and exactly what was included.  There wasn't even a brochure with details clearly listed, like at Jo-Ann's.

I like many parents am on a budget, I don't want there to be surprises going into something like this.  It was much easier for me to figure out what I could expect at Jo-Ann's and our party planner Wanda was great to work with.  It could've been so stress free for me.  But being me, it wasn't.  I had to make it more work with decorations and food BUT I can only imagine how tightly strung I'd have been if I also had to clean my house, plan the craft, run the party etc.  It still was a lot lower key for me and E was super happy so it was a win win. 

{The Craft Table}

The one draw back to having the party on location was that the ambiance wasn't too special.  Like the peg board background and store lighting?  Yeah, not so much. We added some helium balloons and a name banner to liven things up but there wasn't much I could do.  I had pink table cloths but I thought the paint splattered checked cloth kind of looked nice and colorful and perfect for a painting party.

{Work Space}

Each guest had her own work space with a wooden bird house, moss, paint brush, and mini glue - aren't those cute?  Shared supplies like water container, silk flowers and leaves, gems, and glittery foam pieces were spread out on the table.

We placed a fairy standee at each space.  These sweet little additions are part of the printable party Fairy Wonderland by Paper & Cake.  So is the name banner, shown above the craft table.  The name had to be edited out of the photos for privacy but it's very pretty.  You may remember that I used this printable party previously, for my daughter's fourth birthday.  When my daughter decided she wanted to make fairy houses at this craft party, I knew it would the perfect way to add to the fairy theme.

{Fairy House}

This is my daughter's completed fairy house, she's so proud of it.  It was really fun to see how each girl's house turned out and the unique touches the girls came up with.  One lined the roof with rhinestones, another used leaves to make a tree on one side...such creativity!

Party Schedule - Time, Approximately 1.5 Hours

Paint houses

Break for Fairy Bites aka Lunch - While Houses Dry

Embellish Houses with Moss on Roofs, Silk Flowers & Leaves, Foam Shapes, etc.

Decorate Cupcakes & Sing Happy Birthday

Open Presents & Pass Out Party Favors

{Fairy Bites Food Tray}

The easy route would've been to order pizza, but I just couldn't do that.  It didn't seem fairy like at all.  We thought dainty tea sandwiches were much more likely fare for our little winged friends.  In order to also make sure our party goers were also enchanted by the choices, we stuck with kid friendly food and tried to pretty it up a bit.  The birthday girl requested salami sandwiches and something pink. 

Menu:

Salami & Cheese Minis
PB&J Spirals

 Raspberry Cream Cheese Triangles

Cheese Cubes

Mini Fruit Kabobs

Ruffled Potato Chips

Pink Lemonade & Sprite

{Raspberry Cream Cheese Triangles}

{Mini Fruit Kabobs}

{A Sweet Treat}

Also part of our Paper & Cake printable party Fairy Wonderland, are these cupcake picks.  There's a few different designs and I really like how one is customizable.  I was able to add my daughter's name, removed for sharing on the blog, to make them extra special.  We found the flower shaped cupcake holders at Jo-Ann's but there is also a printable cupcake holder included in the printable party.

One more custom fairy touch we put into the party were the favor tags, seen in the Welcome & Sign In photo near the top of this post.  I added each guest's name to her tag and signed them with my daughter's name before printing out.  It was so easy and then cut down on having to buy anything else to make their favor special.  Since it was an craft party, we opted to give each girl a set of paints instead of candy, which they all have too much of, or a bunch of inexpensive plastic favor stuff that usually ends up getting tossed.

All in all, it was a really fun party and once it started it was very low key and stress free for Mom.  It was a great experience and I would recommend Jo-Ann's for a great party that is tailored to your child's interests.  Wanda took our theme request and ran with it.  I could've shown up at the party with nothing but the party girls and cupcakes and had everything else was taken care of. 



Please note that while I review children's products and experiences this is not a sponsored review post and not part of any campaign or promotion with Jo-Ann's.  I have no relationship with that company, other than happy customer.

The printable party used for our celebration is a kit I won from Paper & Cake and also should not be considered a sponsored review of their product.  I am just happy to share what a wonderful addition it was to our themed decor.