On Sunday my friends Zachary and Felice threw a lovely art trading party. Seeing as I’d never been to one before, I thought I’d share more about it “how to” style, as it’s a perfect excuse for a party!

1. Create your own invitations, DIY style (snail mail preferred)
2. Tell everyone to create 5 original pieces (theme optional…ours was reduce, reuse, recycle)
3. Throw the party (fresh smoothies, french toast casserole, egg frittata and cupcakes make it even better)
4. Make fun name tags so everyone knows everyone
5. Play art party games (we went exquisite corpse style)
game 1: fold paper into thirds, write an idiom/cliche, pass to neighbor who draws a picture of the phrase, hide the original phrase and the third person must guess the idiom;
game 2: fold paper into thirds, draw a “head” and make hatch marks where the next person should start drawing, pass the paper and without peeking, draw a “middle” (and hatch marks), repeat and the third person draws the “legs.”
6. Number art and vote for “the most . . . [fill in the blank]”
7. Go around in a circle pulling numbers out of a hat to see which masterpieces you get . . . Congratulations, you’re the proud owner of 5 new pieces of art! [Note: trading of art is optional, yet encouraged]