Street Market Party Theme Ideas

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Street Market Party Theme Ideas

A birthday crafts party becomes a street fair in the backyard for delighted artisans.

Invent a one-of-a-kind party to celebrate a birthday or encourage community spirit with a street fair. Your backyard can be the scene of a lively market as artists prepare crafts to display in their booths or young guests sample the joys of carrot cake and heritage tomatoes. A street market party can raise money to improve the block while introducing everyone to their talented neighbors.

Juried Crafts Market Party

A crafts market, just like the ones that spring up around Christmas and Mother's Day, is a perfect party theme for aspiring artists. Long tables go at one end of the room or yard for making crafts like painted paper kites, collaged and decoupaged gift boxes, linoleum block prints, simple jewelry or decorated art-to-wear like blue jean purses or feather headbands. Booths created of card tables with fabric canopies are set up around the rest of the space, just like a street market, with two or more artists sharing each table. The artists get to work producing art for their booths and organize displays of their work when the crafts are finished. Everybody has cake and ice cream as the jurists view the art and award prizes; ensure that each project gets an award of some kind. Then the artists take turns staffing their booths and wandering around the market, admiring everyone's work. The crafts can be traded or simply taken home at the end of the party.

Tasting Green Market Party

The whole family gets involved with a child's green market birthday party. Set up market booths in a large yard, rec room or in several rooms of the house. At the first booth, the guests get a plain canvas bag to decorate and use as an environmentally-friendly shopping bag. Use non-toxic fabric paint markers or glue and crafts items to decorate the bags; one or two teens or adults can help. Then have the party-goers visit the remaining booths where they can taste locally-grown green market fare and learn about "green" food production and healthy diet choices. At a tomato booth, for example, serve garden-grown cherry tomato halves with tiny slices of mozzarella and give each child a seed packet of tomatoes for their shopping bag. A smoothie station hands out laminated recipes as well as a sample. Offer a tasting "lunch" with takeaway samples and educational information. At the end, set up a tent or party table with juice, banana or carrot cake, and fruit sorbets.

Community Street Market Party

Beautify the block and get to know the neighbors with a street market that raises money for fencing and mini-gardens to surround sidewalk trees. Arrange in advance for the street to be closed to traffic for a day or afternoon. Each household can set up one or two tables to sell homemade crafts and barter bake sale-style street market food and lemonade for hours of work time. Use local talents for entertainment; teens with a garage band can play, a talented parent can run a face-painting or hair-braiding booth for donations, and a neighbor can blow up balloons and turn them into flowers and animals. All the money raised goes to pay for materials to beautify the block and the hours bartered for food are redeemed in the beautification project.

Century bird cages

Tuesday, May 28, 2013