7 tips for hosting a painting party + my first real painting

Did I ever tell you about the painting party we had at my house for my friend Sara a couple of weeks ago? Oh my goodness, we had so much fun. It was super simple- I bought lots of cheap brushes and some of the paints, covered the tables, and everyone brought their own canvases and went after it in the dining room! :) 

None of us were artists or professionals, except for Lindsay {holding the phone below- you can tell by how she's holding her brush here she knows what she's doing!}. It was such a good thing she was there- she gave us consulting advice and helped us all when we needed it! :) She's awesome.

I bought a large set of brushes at Hobby Lobby, and also thanks to Lindsay's advice, instead of spending lots of money on fancy paint for this kind of party, I bought several colors of cheap acrylic paints:

I lit the candles, turned on Pandora, and we relaxed and just ate and painted for a few hours! It was surprisingly therapeutic. :D 

And I loved the birthday girl's painting!! She used painters tape to make the word love, and then painted over it.

And here's how it turned out- isn't it beautiful?



And I was so focused on painting and baby bouncing, I didn't get any shots of the other paintings until the end of the night, but here was Abbie's finished painting:

For my own painting, I wanted to use this birthday notebook from Anthropologie as my inspiration:

I mixed a few colors to get a teal background, and then Lindsay drew the flowers I wanted in chalk for me to get me started:

I only got about halfway through it at the party, so I had to finish it from there without any drawing help {eek!}. I can't actually draw or paint {this was my first real painting!}, so I was scared a little to even try, but again thanks to Lindsay's advice, I drew my flowers on with chalk so I could get it right before I painted it. And when I messed up on the painting part, I just wiped it off!! :D There was plenty of wiping going on for sure, but I really liked this kind of artistic challenge! :)

Here's what my painting looked like as I worked on it the next day:

And after 5 more hours of painting for Elijah's birthday {and a backache from bending over, hehe}, here's the mostly finished product:

I like it! :) It's not exactly perfect and there's one thing I really want to change, but hey, it will work! I really like the colors and I was actually very happy with it considering who painted it! ;) And it's a large piece of art that only cost me $4 plus paint and time. Like the Nester always says, it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful. :) This one might just end up on my gallery wall! :)

If you ever have the chance to get a group of girls together to paint {for any reason!}, you should totally do it. It's a cheap, easy party and it's so much fun. :) I hope to do it again soon!

If you're interested in hosting one, here are 7 things I would do:

1. Buy cheap acrylic paint, decent brushes with lots of tips, and a box of chalk. Have everyone bring their own canvases.

2. Use disposable cups for water.

3. Cover the tables with paper.

4. Have a hair dryer handy to speed up the drying process. 

5. Start a Pinterest board with your girlfriends and share/gather ideas beforehand so you can get right to painting. Choosing what to paint was the hardest thing for almost everyone. :)

6. Add music and candles, and food if you can. Have everyone bring something if possible.

7. Try to do something you can finish in a couple of hours, unless you can finish it later. {my painting was like 10 hours total! LOL}



Have you ever been to a painting party? Or painted a canvas? 

What's the most fun party you've ever been to?
I can't pick just one. My favorites: my own surprise mystery birthday dinner party, this vintage wedding, a game party for my husband's 30th birthday, a square dance party, and this one. :)