Birthday party planning begins early for us because my oldest daughter usually has something very specific in mind. Her birthday is close to Christmas and we always try to work around her school breaks and holiday travel. Celebrating turning nine last year was something she anticipated for months. She was so excited to host a craft party at Marketplace 42, a favorite local boutique featuring handmade furniture, jewelry, crafts, art and so much more. Marketplace 42 also has a schedule of classes including everything from painting and wood crafts to baking and distressing furniture. My daughter and I have attended several different classes and events there and always enjoy the experience. While at a recent event at Marketplace 42, my daughter decided the craft class area would be a perfect space to host her friends for her birthday party. We booked the kids craft party date at Marketplace 42 and then they handled all the rest of the complimentary details. It truly could not have been more easy and fun!
My daughter had a very vague idea of what kind of craft she wanted to make with her friends to celebrate her birthday. We discussed a mermaid and pirate craft with Marketplace 42 and they designed a spoon craft that was appropriate for my nine year old daughter and friends as well as our youngest daughter and her younger friends. The spoon craft was perfect for both boys and girls and all 25 party guests enjoyed the activity. Marketplace 42 offered to assist with decorations and we chose to keep the party simple because the store is already full of eclectic and decorative creations from local artisans. A birthday banner, balloons, cupcakes and turquoise tablecloths were excellent additions to the party crafting area.
Every craft party guest received a bag full of supplies to make their own spoon craft.
All supplies were provided by Marketplace 42. A class instructor and assistant helped the children complete the kids craft with step by step instructions.
The spoon craft examples were shown to guests for inspiration but they were able to make anything they wanted. The Marketplace 42 owner and class instructors know my daughter loves the ocean and marine animals. They did an amazing job making sure the event truly captured her personality including adding a sea lion spoon to their craft examples.
The guest had fun crafting without boundaries and with unlimited supplies. Because of the regular schedule of crafting classes, the venue had many different supplies and were able to satisfy all requests from the kids. The spoon craft supplies included mason jars filled with colored sand, spoons, glue, paint, paintbrushes, googly eyes, pipecleaners, felt and more.
The party guests were so creative with the kids craft. They saw the visual prompt of a sea lion, pirate and mermaid but many guests created their own designs like whales, fish, unicorns and even ninjas.
Little sister also attended and invited a couple of younger friends too. The spoon craft was also a fun age appropriate craft for the toddlers and preschool aged children.
Our party was hosted late afternoon so we did not serve a full meal but we did bring cupcakes, snacks and juice boxes.
My daughter insisted on decorating her own cupcakes and she wanted them to match the mermaid craft project. We purchased cupcakes from the grocery store bakery then frosted and decorated them with chocolate mermaid tails. She used a Mermaid Tail Mold (affliliate link) to make swirled purple and pink chocolate mermaid tails to top the party cupcakes. She was very proud of the beautiful cupcakes and so excited to share them with friends at her party.
Guests had so much fun crafting, snacking and eating cupcakes while parents had either dropped them off or stayed to shop the store full of handcrafted items from local artists.
The party guests were friends from her rock climbing team, school, our neighborhood and even some of our closest friends we’ve met through blogging.
The craft party was so easy to host because Marketplace 42 handled everything after we sent invitations. A fun crafting party with no clean up was awesome!
Marketplace 42 is located inside the Power Square Mall in Mesa, Arizona. The mall has changed a lot since I grew up visiting their denim outlet while shopping for school clothes. It’s now full of antique shops, handmade boutiques and a few small food vendors. It’s our favorite place to shop for handmade gifts and support our local creative community.
Our party invitation is one of my most favorite and was created quickly on PicMonkey. We printed the invitations at home on my HP Envy printer for friends we see often but sent most digitally.
Thank you cards were printed with a favorite image of my daughter and her birthday cupcake. Thanks to all our friends that attended and Marketplace 42 for the incredible craft party. Our Arizona birthday party at Marketplace 42 was the best!
Have you ever hosted a craft party where clean up wasn’t required?
Check out the class schedule to register for an upcoming class and learn more about Marketplace 42 by connecting with them on Facebook and Instagram.
What a fantastic idea for a birthday party. I love that she decorated her own cupcakes and had such a unique idea in mind.
that looks like such a fun way to celebrate, and I loved the spoon creations! I love how beautiful the cupcakes are!
This looks like it was such a fun party.. I love how creative the kids got to be. The spoon creations are all wonderful. And it’s great that there were even things for your little one to do! Your birthday girl looks so happy in her pics!
This looks like a really great place to have a birthday party! We don’t have anything like that locally here, but I’m sure if we did, it would be booked solid all the time.
I love the idea of decorating the wooden spoons. They kids look like they had a blast at the craft party.
What a great idea for a birthday party! The kids looked like they had a super fun time at the party!
Wow this looks like so much fun! I looks like the kids really enjoyed the party and were very creative!
The crafts in this party are totally adorable, but I must admit my favorite part of this post was the cupcakes!! I love that your daughter thought of such a great way to tie in the snacks to the theme of the party.
I would love to find a place like this in our area. My oldest daughter would love to do this for her birthday with her friends.
How fun does this look!? We live in Gilbert and I’ve actually never heard of this place. How fun for a craft party.
i love how creative this is! i’d totally do something like that for myself 😛
This is a wonderful idea for a birthday party. Or a sleepover. My daughter loved sleepovers when she was younger and this would have been fun for them to do.
The crafts turned out so cute! What a fun way to celebrate a birthday! I totally need to look and see if there is anything similar in my area because I think my daughter would love it.
All of this looks like so much fun and the kids look like they are enjoying every minute. This idea for a party is genius. I like the creative aspect and no clean up. We need on where we live in CT
That looks like a really neat place to have a birthday party, having two kids with birthdays in December including Christmas Day I know how difficult it can be trying to plan parties around this time.
I love this idea! My oldest son has a birthday coming up and he’d love something like this. Too bad there isn’t anything like this where we live!
This would be a dream party for my niece, she just loves arts and crafts. I’m going to share this with my sister as an idea for my niece’s 5ht bday this summer. Hopefully, there is a place like this near them.
A craft party may be the perfect way to celebrate your budding artist’s birthday. Sharing some craft party ideas from experience, and hope it can inspire to others and throw a fun.