Watercolor Paint Night Party

Hey Alicia here! This year I’ll be posting a party idea for you guys each month with modifications to make it for kids or for a date! This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.  Thanks for your support!
 
Have you seen or even been to one of those Paint Nites? I see a lot of my friends going to do them and it looks fun, but I know the price isn’t in our budget right now. And to be honest, a lot of the paintings I see are pretty but not my aesthetic. I want to join in on the fun, but I don’t want to spend my money on something I think is just not going to fit into my décor.
 
That’s how I came up with this party idea. There are literally thousands of painting tutorials on YouTube. And there are even episodes of Bob Ross on Netflix. So why couldn’t I just have Paint Night at home? While these events usually involve acrylics (as far as I’ve seen), I prefer watercolors. So this party will be a Watercolor Paint Night Party.

Basic party idea: Enjoy food and beverages while learning to paint a scene in the comfort of your own home.
 
Supplies:

• Watercolor paper (This is a great pad for beginners)
• Watercolor paints (This is a set you can keep using after your party)
• Watercolor brushes (These are great for beginners as well)
• Painters tape
• Cardboard (like a cut-up cereal box or leftover from your Amazon delivery)
• TV or Laptop 
• Food
• Drinks

Setup:
Find the video you’d like to use first. I like this video by Wonder Forest. It’s a pretty lake scene and doesn’t use too much paint. If this one isn’t for you, browse until you see one that strikes your fancy! Try searching Watercolor Painting Tutorial on YouTube.

A great thing about YouTube is you can speed up or slow down the video. It does distort the sound a little but might be worth it. You can also rewind, fast-forward, and pause as needed.

For most videos I viewed, you want to tape your paper down to prevent warping when the paper gets wet. Cut a sheet of the watercolor paper in half and tape it down to a piece of cardboard. I think cut-up cereal boxes will work best because they are smooth.

Paper plates or extra cardboard can be used as a paint palette. As you can see from this video, it doesn't take much of these paints to make your picture. But I would wait until everyone is settled and ready to start before you put the paints out. And of course every person will need a cup of water and a paper towel or tissue.

You'll also want to have a table and chairs in front of the screen so everyone can have easy viewing access to the video.

In this video, you have to wait for your painting to dry a little at times before adding more to the painting. This would be a good time to take a snack break!

For food, I think it would be fun to have these little "watercolor" cookies. There's a tutorial at Sweetambs to make cute watercolor feather cookies. Of course you can make them any shape you want with any pattern you want. Or over at Paper & Stitch she makes watercolor popsicles that look super yummy!

For drinks, these things usually include wine. But we are Mormon (click to find out about Mormons) here at 3 Winks so we don't drink alcohol. But we do love sparkling apple juice! I also love specialty lemonades or limeades. Pottery Barn Teen has a neat info-graphic of different lemonade/limeade recipes to try. I have personally tried Raspberry Peach, Watermelon, Mint Limeade, Peach, and Classic Strawberry. I love them all and think they'd all be a refreshing drink for the party.

The great thing about this party is I don't think you need any decorations really! This is more about the fun of learning a new skill. So it's minimal setup, but lots of fun. A combination for a great party.

For invitations I found these cute ones on etsy that you can just print and fill in with your information. They are just $2 for a download so that's a great price for invitations.

via Mommy Budgets

via PB Teen

A quick note about the brushes. These will be the most expensive thing needed for the party in terms of how many you will need. Of course this depends on how many people are invited. I have some suggestions to help on this.

• The brushes I suggested can be shared with 2 guests. They won't get the exact same size of brushes but they will have approximate sizes needed.
• You can ask your guests to bring their own set of brushes.
• Ask that your guests bring money to pay for the brushes you buy for them (they can them take them home to continue their watercolor skills).
• Just buy them as party favors for your guests.
• Keep your group relatively small

Hopefully one of these suggestions works for you. I think that the guest wouldn't mind paying since it would be a lot less than the normal fee for a party.

To make it a more kid friendly party:

• Just buy watercolor sets for each kid. They have these ones for $1 each at Dollar Tree. You can order them online in sets of 4!
  
• You can have the kids create their own masterpieces or paint your own easier painting for them to follow. Most kids won't want to sit for 20 minutes painting so I'd aim for a 10-15 minute painting.
  
• I don't think you will have to change much else. Afterwards you can have the kids hang up their pictures like they are in a museum. Then they can admire each others works of art.
  
• To fill up more time, you can have them rotate stations where they can create with other mediums, like clay, paper mache,etc.
  

For a date I wouldn't change anything!

So what do you think? Does this budget friendly Watercolor Paint Night work for you? Let us know if you try it out and how it goes for you!

PS I'm struggling with my pictures right now so I will get them up soon! Thanks for your patience.