We went to a rock-star birthday party yesterday for a little boy turning one. I thought it was kind of a weird theme for a little guy but it turned out to be totally cool. Plus, his parents are into metal and wearing black so it was perfect for them. After all isn’t the first birthday party more for the parents anyway? They had silver balloons and black plates, a star-covered birthday cake and pizza. The kids got little guitar-shaped bubble dispensers and temporary tattoos. Hard-rock music played in the background turned low. It was all good.

I love the theme now and can think of a ton of things to embellish it. Record-shaped cookies! Karaoke? A guitar-shaped cake! Decorate with old vinyl records and blank cd’s! The possibilities are endless. I tried to influence the party-throwing mother but she wisely kept me out of it. We’re old friends so she knows I tend to get a little over-excited about theme parties. She wanted to keep it mellow for her little guy and that’s always smart. I could learn a lesson or two from her.

So anyway, I had fun wrapping my present. I got the little guy a rock-star t-shirt and a book. I was going to just wrap them in a box with white paper and draw flames on the side but markers and crayons just didn’t seem rock-star-ish enough for me. I don’t own an airbrush yet, so that was out. I decided to make my present look like a record.

Drawing concentric circles can slowly drive you mad. I didn’t mind it though because a long time ago I took an art class in college and the professor made us draw a circle. You’d think that would be the easiest lesson on earth but it was actually very hard. I think it took us a week. Then we had to draw tiny lines back and forth across the circle. I wish I had that old circle art. In the end it turned out to be pretty amazing. I just remember how humbling it was to take your time and draw a line back and forth across the page. We weren’t allowed to erase or start over. It was a lesson in patience. I’ll never forget it. It’s the imperfections that make art interesting.

Bug made a pizza with the other disc that I used for the bottom of the package. Which just goes to show you that this kind of wrapping is very versatile. All you need are two round cardboard circles and some sharpies and you can decorate them however you want. A pizza, a swimming pool (with a rubber ducky as an accent maybe?) a record, a giant chocolate chip cookie…endless options! I think I’ll be wrapping presents like this again. I didn’t do the best job on the center art but it’s still a cool idea, I think. Who knows, sharing it here it might help somebody else get outside the (present-wrapping) box.