13 Ideas to Inspire Creativity With an Art Birthday Party

For the creative kids or artsy adults in your life, putting together an art birthday party is one of the greatest gifts you can give them. Combining their special day with something they love to do is sure to win brownie points. For people from the ages from nine to 99, we've got some ingenious art party ideas everyone will enjoy.

When it comes to decorations, you can go all out or stick to something simpler. If you're going to be wrangling dozens of kids, you probably don't want to put out too many decorations that they can tear down and accidentally mess up. One cute idea is creating fake paint spills using empty paint cans, some hot glue, and fabric.

Simply, hot glue the end of some fabric into the bottom of the paint can. Then, take a cup, a bookend, candlestick, or anything that you can drape the fabric over, and balance the paint can on top of it. The final result will be a paint-spill in action.

A really exciting way to break from traditional home-based birthday parties is hosting one in a ceramics studio. Granted, not everyone has access to a full-on studio, so if you don't, one way around it is seeing if any studios in your area take parties or big classes. You can bring your whole group along to take a ceramics class and celebrate their birthday. That's a two-for-one deal nobody should pass up on.

Another excursion you can take the birthday kid and company on is to a paint and sip class. These classes are hosted by trained painters who teach everyone how to create a work of art step by step. The best part? They're alcohol friendly (if you're a grownup who is into that sort of thing).

If you're hosting a party for a young kid, a great idea is letting them 'paint' up their punch bowl. Using a kool-aid packet or flavored syrup, your kid can mix the ingredients with their big wooden spoon 'paintbrush.' In a few minutes, you'll have a paint water punch that's actually safe to drink.

Both kids and adults will love these paint palette cupcakes. Pick up a box of confetti cake mix and follow the instructions. For the mini paint palette cupcake toppers, all you need is some cardstock, scissors, glue, and toothpicks. Trace and cut out the shape of a paint palette and some paint spots in different colors. Glue it all together. Then hot glue or tape them to some toothpicks and you're ready to go.

If you're looking to have more of a spread than just sweets, you can set up adorable mini easels with creative titles for a buffet. You can pick these small easels up at any craft store or order them premade online. Take inspiration by playing on famous works of arts' titles and incorporating them into your dishes.

You don't have to be a kid to enjoy finger painting. Set up a huge finger painting station at the party using a card table and some butcher paper. Tape the paper down all over the tabletop and set out paper plates full of washable paint. Let guests go to town on their sections of the table and see what collaborative artwork appears.

If it's calling for sunshine during your artsy birthday party, one way to keep people occupied outside is to have everyone create their own chalk drawings. Draw one square for each guest that they can use to create a work of art. Have them title and sign their work when they're done. Once everyone's finished, you can all take a tour of your outdoor gallery together.

For older kids or adults, another activity you can enjoy is creating drip paintings. Since they don't require too much natural talent, everyone will feel comfortable taking part. Set out canvases or gesso boards and let people glob different colors of paint on the top of their canvas and watch it travel down to create colorful streams of paint.

For an older crowd, nothing gets them more jazzed than a few trivia rounds. Keep in the party theme by putting together some art and artwork trivia. You can focus on topics like "old world masters," "Impressionists," or "Name That Painting." Get people interacting by having rounds with printed images they have to identify, or add buzzers to make everything even more chaotic.

Test everyone's ego and friendships by giving them the task of drawing caricatures of each other. Using bold charcoal or thick markers, set about exaggerating your friend's features and see which of the party goers can create the most recognizable piece.

If you have a projector, you can harken back to a long-since forgotten family practice of getting silhouette portraits done of their kids. With everything digital today and photos just a click away, these portraits fell out of fashion. Yet, you can bring back the challenge in your art-themed birthday party by setting up black butcher paper and a projector.

Have everyone sit parallel to the butcher paper and project the light onto their face. Using the shadow as a guideline, take some chalk or a white-colored pencil and trace everyone's profile. Give each person their section of the butcher paper to cut out, and voila! They have a silhouette portrait to take home.

You can be just like every elementary school class before the year is out and let your guests customize their own commemorative t-shirts for the birthday party. Set up a huge table full of craft supplies like puff paint, fabric markers, sequins, glitter glue, pom poms, etc., and let the kids run wild. It'll keep them occupied for at least 30 minutes, or long enough for you to get the cake and presents safely in place.

Whenever it comes time for a new birthday, that familiar stress of planning a party they'll enjoy comes creeping back in. If you're someone with a creative in the family, then try your hand at putting together an art-themed birthday party this year. And after all your hard work, you should consider yourself an artist, because birthday parties can be works of art, too.