Coolest Ideas for Child Parties

Fashion - Makeover child parties are great for kids (mainly little girls) with a passion for fashion!

And.. here are separate pages for those of you searching for specific Barbie or Bratz party ideas.

This is a really cute invitation idea. Take a photo of the birthday child dressed up all dirty and with ugly clothes, hair all messed up, some makeup smeared unfashionably on the face, etc. This will be the BEFORE picture. Then, clean them up and have them look great (very nice clothes, hair made really well, make-up, etc.) and take a picture. This will be the AFTER picture.

Take a piece a paper that, when folded in half, will fit into the envelope. On the front put the picture of your kid all messy and underneath the picture write in big letters "BEFORE".

Then open the invitation and on the inner left side, glue (or print) the picture where your child is looking fabulous and below it write "AFTER!". Then on the right you still have room to write all the party information.

You can decorate this invitation with a collage of fashion magazine cutouts. On the envelope you can write something like "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". If the invitations will be hand-delivered you can get lots of cheap dress-up purses at the dollar store and put your invitations inside.

DecorationsHere's an entire page full of pictures of Barbie, posters, coloring pages, and all sorts of other imagery to help you create awesome homemade decorations and invitations for your fashionable child parties. And here's a complete page with lots of Bratz pictures.

The colors you choose depend on what style you want. For example, if you want more of an elegant look you would use black and any other color, let's say black, gold, pink and purple for a color scheme. If you want it to be more playful you could choose pink, purple, and light blue. It's best to let your child decide.

Once you choose the colors for your fashionable child parties, you'll want to decorate with lots of balloons and streamers. Put all sorts of little fashion accessories inside balloons before filling them up (gems, earrings, bracelets, etc.), and later the kids can pop them and have surprises fall out.

To make your party entrance glamorous, put up these dazzling metallic curtains in your doorway or around the party area. You can even put a fan behind these curtains and have them blow endless waves of metallic strands.

Disperse lots of fashion items around the party area. For instance, high heels, fashion dolls of all kinds, dresses, jewelry, etc. It would also give a nice touch for such child parties to decorate with flowers, spread flower petals all over the table, in vases, etc.

What's the highlight of fashionable child parties? A fashion show of course! You'll want to assign an area to be the walkway. You can use a long piece of fabric or carpet to be the walkway. To create the effect of a real fashion show you'll want to make curtains so that the kids can stand behind them and come out one by one. You can even just hang sheets from the ceiling on both sides of the long walkway. Take a look at this ready-made (and VERY COOL) Fashion Runway. It's flanked with colorful flowers and stars and even comes with its own metallic curtains....

You can even make one of these on your own. Cut out lots of different fashion pictures from fashion magazines and put them everywhere. You can even tape them to balloons. Hang up pictures of famous models and draw mustaches, glasses, and warts on their face. Write "Before" under the picture and then find other model pictures and leave them as they are writing "After" underneath them.

If you're having different makeover stations you can put up different signs saying things like "Ashley's Beauty Parlor" or "Judy's Dazzling Hair Salon". You can put lots of pretty dress-up clothes (skirts, blouses, boas, tiaras, high-heeled shoes, ribbons, shawls, hats, gloves, costume jewelry, etc.) to create your own high fashion wardrobe in a room or area (put oversized price tags on each piece of clothing) that can be designated the "fashion shop". Once kids start coming, give them some play money and tell them they can "shop around" for clothes.

If you want the kids to go through a makeover, you can create stations either in different rooms or in different designated areas, as in a make-up station, hair salon, pedicure and manicure area, clothing section, etc.

Make sure to have lots of cotton swabs, pads, and tissues for applicators to minimize germ transfer, and small trash-cans nearby to simplify clean up.

You can ask some of your friends to help you. It's great if there are some teen sisters, babysitters, neighbors, etc. They'll have fun doing it and you can treat them with a small gift. And remember to take before and after pictures!!

To intensify the difference between the "before" and "after" pictures, as the girls arrive give each one an old yucky outfit. Once they're dressed, smear cookie crumbs on their face, black out a tooth, and mess up their hair-this can be quite hilarious! Once the guest arrive you can also give them a quick facial with cucumber slices on their eyes and there you've got another great "before" picture. You can also hand out these Feathery Boas (that are cool gifts to take home...)

If you're having an ALL girl's party, you can invite the girls to come with their mothers. You can then invite a make-up specialist who can teach everyone tips and tricks with makeup, how best to apply it, different and better brands, etc. Then everyone can give each other makeovers. This is a great way moms can also have fun together with their daughters at child parties!

*Beaded Jewelry: A great activity for fashionable child parties is to let the girls make their own beaded jewelry. You'll find lots and lots of different bead shapes, sizes, colors and other materials at a nearby craft store. If you're inviting boys to the party, necklaces and bracelets made with wood or ceramic beads strung on leather are very popular with both boys and girls. You can also have the kids make jewelry out of candy by using licorice strings for thread and Fruit Loops, Life Savers, Gummy Savers, etc. for the jewels.

*Fashion Designers: Here is where you can give the kids a creative opportunity to be young designers. What you'll need is large pieces of butcher paper. You can tape the butcher paper on the wall or lay it on the floor if you have a smooth surface. Let the kids trace each other and give them each crayons, markers, paints, glue on gems, scrap fabric, etc. to decorate and make up their own unique fashions on their own body outline.

*FloWEAR: It's a great idea at such child parties to let the kids make lots of wearable items out of flowers. They can make headbands, bracelets, necklaces, etc. You can either gather or buy fresh flowers, or purchase silk/paper flowers at a craft store. Provide each kid with a piece of ribbon, about 3 ft long and demonstrate how to start. Lay the ribbon on a table, hold a flower by the stem and lay it flat on the ribbon. Then tightly wrap the ribbon around the stem and add another flower (make sure the stems are lying flat on the ribbon as you wind the ribbon around them). Keep this going until you have a wreath large enough to fit a wrist or head, and tie a knot with the extra ribbon. You can use different colors of flowers and a few colors of ribbons for a pretty effect.

*Beautiful Fans: This cool child parties activity makes a great party favor. Give each kid some pretty and colorful papers and let them decorate it with crayons, markers, glitter, etc. Once they're done have them fold the paper like an accordion. Fasten one end with tape or a staple for the fan handle. Then delicately spread the other end out for a beautiful fan!

Mirror Cake: Bake your kid's favorite cake in a round or rectangular cake pan. Once cool, take a hand mirror (smaller than the cake), wash it and place it on top of the cake. Frost the cake in the color you choose (all around including sides). Then add candles around the mirror and once you light them it will be reflected in the mirror. The kids will look into the cake and see their own reflections with beautiful lighted candles.

And here's a whole page with cool cake pictures, recipes and tips to help you make a Barbie cake...

*Granola, Yogurt and Fruit: A light and tasty treat. In parfait cups, layer yogurt (any flavor you choose), granola and fresh fruit (strawberries, bananas, raspberries, etc.).

*Pink Macaroni and cheese: Buy white cheese macaroni boxes and once it's cooking add a few drops of red food coloring to make it pink.

*Dainty Sandwiches: cut them into heart, star, and flower shapes using a cookie cutter.

*Jewel Salad (a salad with dried cranberries, golden raisins, cherries etc.) Tip: on bowls and such you can put fabric trimmings (even your bowls can be fashionable!!). And remember that you can make anything pink with just a little bit of red food coloring.

*Pretty Pink Lemonade: You can either purchase pink lemonade, or make your own. Combine 1 cup lemon juice (from freshly squeezed lemons), 2 cups of sugar (you can make the sugar dissolve by putting it in a small cup and adding just a few drops of boiling water); then stir until sugar has dissolved. Pour this mixture into a 2-quart container and fill the rest with cold water (to make it pink add a couple drops of red food coloring). Using a star-shaped, heart-shaped, and/or a flower-shaped ice tray, prepare cool-shaped ice ahead of time. When it's time to serve, you can also garnish with a little cute umbrella.

*Sparkling Apple Cider (you can pour it into disposable plastic wine glasses and let the kids decorate the glasses with jewels, sequins and glitter beforehand.)

*Daiquiris (no alcohol of course!): Why not treat the kids with great-tasting different flavored "grown-up" drinks?! Tip: cut slices of lemons and strawberries, and then stick them on the rims of the cups.

*Pink Sweet Popcorn: Boil two cups of sugar, one cup of light corn syrup, and 2/3 cup of margarine for a few minutes. Then stir in two packs of pink or red Koolaid and one teaspoon of soda. Then pour this mixture over about 6 quarts of popped popcorn and bake at around 225 F for at-least 45 minutes (stirring the popcorn every 15 minutes). Once done, remove from the oven and break up.

*Strawberries to Dip: You can have different sweet sauces such as chocolate, butterscotch, cream, etc.

*Frozen Grapes: This is a delicious treat and very simple! Just freeze different colored grapes in the fridge and after a few hours you have little grape icicles.

*Fruit Skewers: Cut up various fruits and place them on skewers (strawberries, pineapple, grapes, cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, etc.). *Red Rubies (strawberries, cranberries and cherries)

You can fill jewelry boxes or small velvet bags with all kinds of "girly" accessories, such as glitter nail polish, lip-gloss, pink bubble yum, tiaras, dolls, anything pink, rings, bracelets, necklaces, fingernail tattoos, basically anything fashionable!!

Another great idea for child parties favors (if you've got a digital camera and color printer) is to take "before" and "after" pictures of the girls, print each picture out as many times as there are guests, have them autograph their pictures, and put them inside small photo albums. You could probably get these albums pretty cheap from a nearby photo shop and have the girls decorate them beforehand. This is a really cool souvenir from the party.

Here's an entire page with the coolest game ideas for fashion - makeover child parties, such as a Fashion Show, Makeup Mania, Toilet Paper Dress, Don't Break a Nail and more. You'll also find some VERY important tips to help you survive (and enjoy) game time.

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Coolest Fashion - Makeover Child Parties