On the Map

Date: July 19, 2016 | Story: Rosemary Hallmark | Photography: Rett Peek |

Shindig Paperie owner Trisha Logan throws a crafty back-to-school bash using simple techniques that require minimal clean-up

As the mother of two boys and two stationery stores, Trisha Logan certainly has her hands full. When she isn’t shuttling her sons Crane, 11, and Finn, 8, to and from school and sports practices, she’s curating paper goods and gifts for her shop, Shindig Paperie, with locations on the historic downtown squares in Fayetteville and Bentonville. But even as a busy mom and business owner, she loves to throw the occasional shindig of her own. “We like to do a small celebration the night before school starts, or after the first day of school,” Logan says. “The kids come home and I’ve set up a fun dinner for them.”

To celebrate the new school year, Logan’s sons invited their friends to Shindig for craft night to make cards, newspaper hats, and envelope liners before heading over to the food truck court at Fayetteville’s Greenhouse Grille for a casual, al fresco dinner.

Newspaper Hats
Crane and his friends loved making newspaper hats, created from kits available at Shindig Paperie and decorated with washi tape.

Envelope Liners
Next, the kids made envelope liners from vintage map paper by tracing an envelope template (both available at Shindig Paperie), cutting it out, and using double stick tape or a glue stick to affix it to the inside of a blank envelope.

Washi Tape Cards
Using washi tapes in a variety of colors and patterns (all available at Shindig Paperie), the kids created their own designs on blank notecards or envelopes, and trimmed the tape at the edges. “The kids can write notes to give their new teachers on the first day of school, or write a letter to their pen pals from summer camp,” Logan says.

Assigned Seats
No back-to-school party is complete without names spelled out on chalkboard. Logan created place settings for each child by writing their names in chalk on black cards, then affixing a pencil to the card with washi tape.

Get the recipe for Greenhouse Grille’s coleslaw on the blog at athomearkansas.com/blog.

Al Fresco Feast
After the crafts were made, the crew gathered for dinner at the food truck court at Greenhouse Grille for a casual, summer meal of barbecue, coleslaw, and potato salad. Logan continued the map theme by covering the picnic tables in a red-and-white striped paper table cover and sheets of the vintage map paper. She add simple back-to-school centerpieces she created from bouquets of yellow pencils, vintage globes, and bowls of apples.