Creative Birthday Parties at Project Joy Studio
Celebrate your birthday with a creative experience that guests will remember long after the candles are blown out.
At Project Joy Studio, birthday parties become joyful art adventures where guests explore color, creativity, and imagination together.
We host birthday celebrations for all ages—from kids as young as 3 to adults celebrating their 86th birthday.
No artistic experience is needed. Just curiosity and a willingness to play.
Where: 1241 Carpenter St. Philadelphia, PA 19147 *Parking available in back on Montrose St. between 12th and 13th St.
What: 2 hours plus set up and clean up time.
When: Contact us on the form below to let us know your preferred time(s).
Choose Your Birthday Party Experience
Puddle Painting Party
Our signature Project Joy experience.
Guests use pipettes instead of brushes to drip, swirl, bubble, and move vibrant colors across the paper to create mesmerizing abstract paintings.
It’s playful, relaxing, and exciting to watch the colors interact and transform.
Because the paintings take time to dry, the celebration includes a special second moment of discovery.
When families return the following week, participants peel away the materials used during the process to reveal their finished artwork.
The results are always surprising and beautiful.
Puddle Painting Party Options
Option 1 – Individual Creations
Each participant creates:
• Two 5" × 7" paintings
• One 11" × 14" painting
Option 2 – Individual + Birthday Masterpiece
Everything included in Option 1, plus:
• A 24" × 36" collaborative painting created together for the birthday guest of honor.
This makes a wonderful keepsake for the birthday child.
Option 3 – Giant Group Painting
Everyone works together to create one massive 4' × 5' painting.
This option is especially fun for groups that love working collaboratively and creates an incredible statement artwork. This piece can be laser cut in multiple pieces for you and your guests after you come back to peel all the materials off.
The Puddle Painting Materials Bar
Puddle Painting parties also include access to our Puddle Painting Materials Bar, a playful collection of materials that guests can experiment with to create surprising textures and patterns in their artwork.
Participants can explore a variety of unexpected materials to place into their puddle paintings, such as:
• Alphabet pasta for spelling words
• Rubber bands for creating surprising shapes and patterns
• Onion skins for beautiful natural textures
• Mini LEGOs for stamping geometric designs
• Toy cars you can roll through the paint to create tire tracks
• Feathers for soft, flowing marks
• Skeleton leaves that reveal delicate natural patterns
• Buttons for playful circles and textures
• And many other creative surprises to experiment withAs the colors flow and interact with these materials, they create beautiful textures, shapes, and patterns that make every painting completely unique.
Guests love experimenting with the Materials Bar and discovering new effects they never expected.
Finding the Hidden Masterpieces
After peeling away the materials and revealing the finished paintings, the fun continues.
Using special viewfinders, we explore the artwork together to discover the most beautiful compositions hiding within the colors, textures, and patterns.
Puddle paintings are full of tiny details and surprising moments, and the viewfinders help us zoom in on the most magical sections of the artwork.
Once we find them, Joy can laser cut multiple pieces from the larger paintings and mount them on wood panels or frame them as finished artworks for an additional cost.
This process is always exciting because there are so many hidden gems inside the gorgeous chaos of each painting.
JoyJems Party
For parties where guests would like to leave with their creations the same day, we offer JoyJems art parties.
JoyJems are colorful translucent art pieces that create beautiful stained-glass-like decorations on windows and glass.
Guests design playful creations using vibrant shapes and colors, and everyone takes their artwork home at the end of the celebration.
JoyJems parties are especially popular for guests ages 4 and up and groups who love decorating wearable accessories or sun catchers.
Featured JoyJems Projects
Flower Accessory Project
Guests design their own stained-glass-style flower crown or wearable flower accessory, creating something magical they can wear during the party and beyond.
Stained Glass Butterfly Hair Clips
Participants design beautiful butterfly hair clips using colorful translucent pieces that catch the light like stained glass.
Create a 3D Butterfly Garden, Bird Sanctuary, or Aquarium Diorama!
Participants add color cells to birds, butterflies and a caterpillar, or fish and create a scene for their stained glass-like animal friends on a 3D clear box that you can display in or on your window!
Sun Catcher Creations
Guests create window sun catchers in fun shapes such as:
• Stars
• Butterflies
• Flowers
• Bees
We can also create custom shapes to match your party theme.
JoyJems Party 2 Go We also make event rolls with everything they need to create a stunning piece pf art for 15 or more kids that you can unroll at any party venue!
This is a great option for home parties, outdoor parties, or any other venue if our joyful space is booked during your ideal party time.
We sold our very first party roll at an event at the Franklin Museum to a family who had been looking for a mess free creative activity for a party and they brought their party roll and blank keychains with them for all the kids to decorate at insomnia cookies.
The JoyJems Design Bar
JoyJems parties also include access to our JoyJems Design Bar — a colorful station filled with objects ready to be transformed with vibrant translucent color cells.
Instead of everyone making the exact same project, guests can choose from a variety of items to decorate, making the experience playful and full of discovery.
Items available at the Design Bar may include:
• Small Glass vases (fairy bottles)
• Hair accessories
• Jewelry pieces
• Sun catchers
• Small keepsake boxes
• Decorative objects
We also offer translucent art canvases that can be hung in a window and beautifully illuminate when sunlight shines through them.
The Design Bar allows every guest to create something completely unique to them, making JoyJems parties especially fun for groups with different ages and interests.
Joy2Go Party Rolls
If you can’t make it to our space or we are booked on your special day, you can order a Joy2Go Party Roll!
JoyJems Vases are a great project for adult birthdays!
Fairy Bottle with fairy lights inside!
Puddle Painting Party Pricing
Option 1 - $650 for up to 15 participants
Additional participants: $45 per person
Option 2 - $650 + $150 for the group painting
Option 3 - $800 for an immersive puddle painting experience creating a 4' × 5' painting
Larger parties are welcome—contact us to plan your celebration.
*All costs Include studio storage and the Bonus Reveal Event.
What’s Included
• A 2 hour creative experience
• All art materials and supplies
• Use of the Project Joy Studio space
• A joyful, welcoming environment for creativity and celebration
You’re also welcome to bring:
• Birthday cake or treats
• Decorations
• Food and drinks
*We have a fridge and table space for food, drinks, presents, and goodie bags.
JoyJems Party Pricing
$650 for up to 15 participants
Additional participants: $45 per person
Joy2Go Event Rolls - $200 for one 6’ x 18” event roll plus project materials based on the project. This roll is good for 15 - 20 people.
Larger parties are welcome—contact us to plan your celebration.
What’s Included
• A 2 hour creative experience • All art materials and supplies
• Use of the Project Joy Studio space
• A joyful, welcoming environment for creativity and celebration
You’re also welcome to bring:
• Birthday cake or treats
• Decorations
• Food and drinks
*We have a fridge and table space for food, drinks, presents, and goodie bags.
Ready to Plan Your Party?
Let’s create a birthday celebration filled with creativity, color, and joy.
Contact us to check availability and start planning your party.
booking@projectjoyland.com
Step 1
To prepare for creating beautiful paintings, each person gets to pick their colors! Older kids and adults can mix up their colors and younger and larger groups can pick from premade colors!
Then we will start you off in a really fun and unexpected way to create your colorful puddles.
Step 2
The next step is what makes the magic happen! Once you've created a vibrant, colorful puddle, it’s time to add unique materials to make your painting truly special. Feel free to explore our materials bar or bring your own personal items for a meaningful touch. Past puddle painters have added keepsakes like keys from every home they've lived in, hospital bracelets from newborns, mini LOVE sculptures, and much more—making each artwork a one-of-a-kind treasure filled with memories.
Step 3
After you create both your individual paintings and your large painting it is time to let the paintings dry! This is when natural phenomena takes over and does all the hard work so you only have to worry about doing the fun parts! Paintings can take anywhere from 1 day to a week to dry, but don’t worry we can store your paintings until you can conveniently come back to discover all the magical details that formed! Families are often very excited to return to see the transformation that took place!
Step 4
Now you get to discover the magic that happened! Your painting is dry and you get to peel up all the materials and discover the beautiful details that formed! I call this the Joy of Discovery!
Watch this video of the Duarte family as they peel off their materials! This painting was made with grandma, grandpa, their two adult children and their son-in-law. They said this was the first time grandpa actually participated in a creative family activity!
Then check out a few fun examples of before and after images below!
Before
After
Step 5
Are you worried that you won’t like your paintings? Most families tell us they thought their kids were too wild and that their painting wasn’t going to turn out well. The truth is that some large paintings don’t work as large paintings, and I promise it won’t be because your kids don’t want the puddle painting to end, but that is what step 5 is all about!
After all your materials are peeled off I will help you use viewfinders to find the most beautiful details in your paintings! Then you have the choice to have me cut your beautiful paintings out with my laser cutter and mount them for you or you can take your painting and hang it as soon as you get home with the almost invisible magnetic thumb tack hanging system that I provide you with.