Start your engines
Full disclaimer, I am not an artist in any way, shape or form. I am sorry for the insufficient quantity of my drawings; I can all but try.
Hopefully, your artistic skills are better than mine, and you can take inspiration and pop your spin on it. Continuing with the theme of ‘what’s in the house,’ my son loves his engines and cars; they are scattered everywhere and underfoot. I was thinking of ways to incorporate them into a decoration; they were a bit lost just placed on the table, lacking direction. So I had a quick idea which took me about 15 minutes to set up. Used in this set up is the following;
White drawing paper, MALA, but any drawing paper would work
Cars
Colouring crayons or pens.
I started by rolling the paper across the tables to create a table runner and tapping it on four corners. It was a perfect size which was lucky. I started by simply drawing a road in the middle with roundabouts. I used a ruler to draw the streets, but you could go freehand or trace a map if you felt more artistic.
I didn’t over-complaint the drawing; just a simple few prompts, a little park, duck pond etc. Using the drawing paper as a table runner, you can also easily personalise the place setting by either writing the name above the plate or, in this case, drawing a house or naming a street the child lives on.
To create an activity, I placed two pots with coloured pencils on the table and found a packet of truck stickers and voila! I let the children do the rest. The results were so fantastic and heartwarming. The table ended up with roads around mountains, pools, parks, a picture of granny’s house, woods, and the school; there was a petrol station and drawings of family pets and family members. Whilst the four-year-old was more than happy drawing, the two-year-old used the cars and drove them around the roads. The table setting created a place for them to eat and drink and an activity to keep multiple ages range happy. The cars also decorated the table, and again everything had been used. There were no new items bought. The plates will be washed and reused, the paper can be flipped over, and another creation can be made.
If you're looking for a keepsake of the party, cut out your favourite sections and frame them. Let the children take home the area they created into their party bags. If this is being used for a family party or bbq, you can leave the table out with the paper on, and you’ll find the children keep coming back to it and adding to it repeatedly. The imagination can go wild. For the colours of the plates, I kept it simple with greys and whites and let the colours of the pictures add that flare to it.