Host A Paint and Pour

Or I think some people call them Sip an Paints? Either way, what’s not to love about a little wine mixed with a little painting?! I had heard of these before and seen the photos of even my non artistic friends coming home with these really great canvases they painted, while drinking with friends, given a little instruction. I have always wanted to try one, but for some reason the opportunity never really presented itself. So I decided to host one myself! Why not, right?

Note: A quick 2 min video detailing this entire post can be found at the bottom, if you’re like me and long blog posts intimidate you🤣. I tried to keep this as short as I could, but I didn’t want to leave out important details!

This was such a fun time, what you should do is just commit to hosting one, then refer to this post when you need it! Sometimes when you read through all the steps someone perceives as necessary, it might seem intimidating… and brevity is not my strong suit… there’s no right or wrong way to do this. Folks will have fun and it will be a blast! Ok, now for the rest…

Initially, hosting a Paint and Sip, seemed super fun, but also pretty daunting. I had never been to an actual Paint and Sip (or Pour and Paint etc.) and I am not an Artist. Naturally the logical choice in light of these things was to host one of course! LOL. Talk about facing fears. 

Honestly I felt like it would be a pretty fool proof party. The women I had over were good people, open to new experience and novelty, and I knew they wouldn’t be overly critical. I’m a lucky gal to have such people in my life, I know. And anyhow if you offer wine, paint, food, good company etc… even if it was a total flop (which btw it wasn’t), a good time would be had by all.

Ok. So on to the prep work. If you prep ahead of time and break down the steps, the party becomes very manageable and shockingly cost effective!

The first thing I did was youTube paintings that looked easy enough for me to direct a crowd to paint successfully. I narrowed it down and ended up choosing these three based on the fact that I could direct my 8 and 5 year old to do them 🙂

  1. Northern Lights (easiest and most forgiving)
  2. Sunflower
  3. Cherry Blossom

** Side note, if I were to do this over, I think I would offer ONE painting and instruct that one slowly throughout the evening. This way worked great, but I might choose ONE next time.

The second thing I did was make a painting supplies list.

Here were the paint supplies I bought:

  1. 24 8X10 Canvases, which I bought off Amazon (linked)
  2. 6 sets of 10 assorted brush packs (also linked here)
  3. An extra bag of assorted large brushes which I bought for about $12 at Hobby Lobby.
  4. Acrylic Paint, also bought at Hobby Lobby. this depends on the paintings you choose for them to do. I chose a Sunflower, Northern Lights and a Cherry Blossom. I am not an artist, and those seemed like the most doable pieces. I really wanted the ladies to go home having had a good time (wine, duh), but also proud of what they had painted.Sunflower- brown, yellow, orange and red (green is optional if you want to paint a stem, but we did not choose a painting with a stem)
    1. Cherry Blossom- brown, turquoise, pink, light pink
    2. Northern Lights- aqua or turquoise, navy or dark blue, lavender pink or a darker pink color and black
  5. A couple sets of small easels (in retrospect not really necessary, but I thought they were cute and added to the experience.
  6. Paint trays (again, not necessary as you could use paper plates, but they were cute and inexpensive so I opted for them)

Food Supplies: I kept this super simple, and honestly just bought more of what I already use at home. Basic things like berries, carrots, crackers, charceuterie meats, cheese, nuts, dried fruits etc. Much of it I already had on hand, so figuring out a cost is a little difficult, but if I had to make a guess, I would budget maybe $75-$100 for food AND wine. Additionally, the nice thing about serving food like this at an event you are hosting is that everyone wants to bring something, to contribute and chip in. So, instead of asking everyone to bring a dish, I asked them to bring an extra bottle of wine, or a box of crackers or a punnet of berries, or a bag of veggies etc. Even if you asked last minute, I bet most folks would have these items laying around their pantry. This way, you only have to be responsible for the first round of food, and could even involve guests by having the re-fill or remind you to refill the boards as they empty (and they will…). It’s a great way to have guests move around, mingle and switch conversations as well!

  1. Hummus
  2. Mixed Veggies
  3. Assorted Chocolate
  4. Assorted Berries
  5. Assorted Charceuterie meats like salami, prosciutto etc.
  6. Assorted cheeses (of differing kinds and shapes, i.e. a gouda circle, a block of cheddar, some crumbled parmesan etc.)
  7. Assorted Crackers
  8. Dessert hummus (totally optional, but I love it)
  9. Assorted Nuts (I did almonds and walnuts- they’re always in my freezer)
  10. Assorted dried fruit (I think I got figs, raisins, and apricots that I forgot to use)
  11. About 10 bottles of wine (you can go with a less expensive bottle if you decant it or use one of those aerators! You could actually even buy less wine than this, most of the ladies brought a bottle of wine as a thank you, so I had plenty left over, lol)

Total, I think thinks I spent about $100 here, because I really like to get creative with different stuff! If you stay pretty basic, it could even be less than this.

Day of set up doesn’t take too terribly long. I set up 3 large(ish) tables for 18 women and tried to divide them according to painting. Make sure you cover your tables with a cheap, plastic table cloth! You can get these at the dollar store, Target, Amazon, H-E-B… anywhere really. You just don’t want to ruin your tables!

I then set up each spot with an easel, a canvas and a paint pallet. In the center of the table, I put the design/painting, an assortment of brushes and a couple glasses of water (these you will need to change out as the guests paint).  

This I did mid day so I could see what it looked like and tweak as I wanted.

I set up the wine, charceuterie and other food boards about an hour prior to the party so that it wouldn’t spoil!

Below is the video of the entire process if you are a visual person (like me!)

I’m working on splitting this up by segment and adding throughout the post, it for now, this is what I have! I hope you enjoy and if you do end up throwing one, I’d LOVE to hear about it ❤️

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