Moving is no joke! In the last 8 months, our family has lived in different 4 houses. About 2 weeks ago, we moved into a home with a longer lease (thank heavens). But if you’ve wondered why my blogging has been less frequent, that’s the reason! Moving takes it out on me… on us!
This year, we moved during the week of Silas’ birthday. For my own sanity, I told him that we wouldn’t be able to do a huge party. Instead, we planned to take him to a super special birthday place, once things settled down.
Then for some unknown reason, I caved. The moving truck was set to arrive on Sunday morning, so I scheduled a party for Saturday afternoon! I made a quick trip to walmart a and dollar tree for supplies and texted friends a last minute invite.
But what kind of party do you throw with quite literally zero preparation?
…
Creative Galaxy has been a long-time favorite of ours on Amazon Prime. Have you seen it? Our kids (currently 4 and 6) love to make crafts; they love art and music. Creative Galaxy is a kids cartoon that teaches kids life lessons through art! If there’s a problem that they need to solve, they fix it… with art! *and they sing about it too*
If you are familiar with Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, it’s a lot like that. Instead of a neighborhood with friendly helpers and songs, you see a cute alien family. They live in a galaxy where the main character (Artie) flies in his little spaceship to art-themed planets:
Paperia- the paper arts planet
Sculpturon- chiseled and sculpted art planet
Fabrictopia-fiber arts
Paintoria-painting
Groovopolis-music
Cooktopia and Bakeria-art with food
Museo-museums and fine art
plenty more…
Artie creates a new art project and uses it to solve each episode’s dilemma. Best of all, at the end of each episode, real children are featured creating their own version of the art projects Artie made on the show! If my kids could make crafts 24/7, they would. So naturally, they adore this show.
Crunched for time and searching for a birthday theme, I decided to surprise Silas with a Creative Craft (creative galaxy) birthday party! 
If you’ve seen some of our big birthday parties before, you’ll know, there are Tons of activities for the kids to do. With a Creative Galaxy theme, our activity stations became the planets from the show!
Activities:
Paintoria (the painting planet) was a big hit! 
I found mini easels for $0.80 and 2×2 inch canvas magnets for $0.40 in the craft section at walmart. They were perfect for our kids to make their own souvenir masterpiece! Dollar Tree had packs of paint and brushes (table cloths too!) 
All of the supplies above were less than $10! Best of all, each of our guests got to bring home a special magnet that was unique and beautiful!
Sculpturon (the planet of statues and sculptures) was the perfect place to use clay! 
For a gluten free family, play-doh is not an option; the first ingredient is wheat flour! Instead, I found colorful clay for under $2 at walmart with no gluten in the ingredients. Each child was able to mold their own masterpiece out of this clay! 
Fabrictopia is the fiber arts planet. Fabric-topia is filled with yarn and fabrics and needles and thread and anything cloth related!
For this activity station, I went to my massive stock-pile of felt. (What crafty mom doesn’t have piles of colorful felt on hand?) I also bought a pack of darning needles for about $4 in the sewing section at walmart. I drew and cut out various shapes for each kid to sew together. *I recommend pre-threading darning needles for them to use to join the pieces together! 
Everyone should learn to sew. It’s a life skill we will all need at some point! Sewing these little pockets or pillows is a great starter project for kids to play around with! (it also makes another great souvenir!)
Paperia Planet -There are tons of paper crafts to do! 
For our paper planet activity, I wanted something easy for the kids to master. I chose a simple origami! They were able to fold a little pocket.
After that, there was a collage project to do! I simply tore up construction paper and had the kids glue the colorful pieces in a pattern they chose! 
Groov-opolis is the music planet!
This is a super simple idea, but a huge hit with the kiddos! For Groovopolis, we threw a dance party in our living room! I had Alexa play kidz-bop. But just as easily, you can find a youtube channel and rock out to some of your favorite kid songs… or create your own playlist!
Groove-opolis is a great way to get their wiggles out after snacks and cake! We danced for 5 or 6 songs and had a blast!
LET’S TALK FOOD!
For party snacks, we kept it simple: chips and dips, deviled eggs, muddy buddies, sliced veggies and ranch.
But for the cake, I made a gluten free chocolate chip cookie cake! I used the pillsbury brand gluten free chocolate chip cookie mix. Instead of spooning the mix into small cookie sized pieces, I spread it all onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet.
The key with changing GF chocolate chip cookies into cookie Cakes is simple:
-make sure the dough is spread as evenly as possible (about 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick)
-bake until golden brown (about 12 to 14 minutes)
I used a small kids cup and a knife to trace and remove a circle into my oval cookie cake. I promptly ate that circle.
Then I added a little food coloring to vanilla frosting (betty crocker brand) for the rainbow colors.
In the Creative Galaxy, they tell us that food can be art! So with that in mind, our kids got to visit the baking planet:
On Bakeria planet the kids were each able to decorate their own cupcakes! Since I had already used a little food dye to add color to the “paint” on the cake, I simply set that out with plastic butter knives for decorating!
Truly, any type of cupcakes will do.
I used GF funfetti (pillsbury) cupcake mix with vanilla frosting.
I also made these little masterpieces for the mama’s to enjoy! 
It was simple. It was last minute. It was a hit!
We even had time at the end to play an episode of creative galaxy on Prime for the kids to watch while they played some more!
If you would like to recreate this party for your crafty kids, I’ve put together a little shopping list for you for each activity station! I also have a few more ideas that I simply didn’t have time to do!
All Stations:
Colorful Plastic Table cloths ($1 each at dollar tree or walmart)
Plates, Napkins and Cutlery in bright colors ($1 per pack at dollar tree)
Paintoria:
Paint (washable, non toxic) $1 at dollar tree for primary colors+green
Mini Canvases ($.40 each at walmart)
Mini easels ($.80 each at walmart)
Paint Brushes ($2 pack of 10 at walmart)
Paper towels or old washcloths
Water bowls for rinsing brushes!
Museo: (the museum planet!)
For this station, Simply print and hang or display framed pictures
of the birthday boy or girl!
Bakeria:
Baked and cooled cupcakes or cookies
plastic butter knives for spreading
Frosting (colorful is awesome!)
sprinkles
napkins!
Groovopolis:
You just need music and space to boogie!
Paperia Planet (2 projects):
Collage:
-construction paper, ripped
-construction paper
-glue sticks
Origami:
Paper 8.5×11 computer paper, cut into squares
printable instructions: 
Fabrictopia:
-Felt cut into shapes (at least 3 inches large!)
Be sure to cut 2 of each shape!
-large needles (darning needles are great!)
-yarn or thread
-scissors
Sculpturon:
-Molding Clay or play doh
*Get Baking clay so your guests can have a treat to paint and take home!
Buildera: (a planet of building!)
Get out the lincoln logs and get to work!
For younger children, megablox can be a great activity for the building planet!
Thank you so much for visiting the site today! Hopefully this gives you some fun ideas to bring to your very own art-party! ps: Creative Galaxy just released a 3rd season!! Go check it out!
Let me know what you think in the comments below!
softandsouthern.com 