Your child needn’t be a mini Monet to have a blast at an art party. Gather some pals and get the creative juices and fun flowing by setting up one or all of these art stations in your living room or garden.

* Offer face painting: Designate an area where kids can get their faces, arms, feet painted by an adult or, if kids are older, by the “artist” in the bunch.

* Create a mural: Cover a large table with butcher paper and, in big block letters, write “Happy Birthday” or any other message the guest of honour wishes, and invite each guest to color in letters and add drawings around the message.

* Frame the moment: Take a Polaroid of each guest for him or her to keep. Or take group photos. Then give each guest a small frame to decorate. Supply stickers, pens, glue, shells and beads and let kids create fabulous frames for their photos.

* Make custom shirts: Buy a few packages of children’s white T-shirts and an array of fabric markers and pens. Give kids a keepsake shirt and let them decorate it. But be sure to set up in an area where permanent marker won’t make its way to your favourite furnishings.

* Art and Craft Projects: there are some great inexpensive arty and crafty project kits available now. Try Pink Frosting’s Paint a Pot kits or our necklace beading kits, which are very reasonable and loads of fun.

Finish it all off by letting the kids decorate their own cupcake with lots of fun lollies, decorations and frosting colours!

Happy celebrating!

Kathryn