Why and How to Host a Vision Board Party

Making a vision board sounds like a good idea. But it sounds like a lot of work, too. Am I right? Don’t put it off any longer! To draw more of what you want into your life and ensure your vision board gets made, host a vision board party.

As someone who has attended and hosted many vision board parties, and has even taught a vision board workshop, I am a big believer in gathering with others to create vision boards. These events are a great way to define your best life while helping others realize their dreams. They're a whole lot of fun, too! Whether you're making boards with friends, family or kids — follow these vision board party tips for an inspirational and entertaining event.

What Is a Vision Board

A vision board is a collage that uses the law of attraction to draw more of what you want into your life. Even if you don't believe in the law of attraction, making a vision board helps to define goals in a fun and creative way.

Vision boards can focus on something specific like career, love life, or the upcoming year. Or, you can make a board that encompasses your general life intentions.

To make a vision board that will help you achieve your aims, first cut pictures and phrases out of magazines that represent your desires. You can also print images from websites or include your own photos in the collage.

Next, glue the images and words onto a piece of poster board and place it somewhere you can see it on a regular basis. (Mine is hanging in my walk-in closet.) Then sit back and wait for the magic to happen!

Why Host a Vision Board Party

Throwing a vision board party provides motivation to set aside the time needed to create a vision board to draw positive things into your life. Plus, you will have more magazines from which to select your images and phrases. And it's a great excuse to get friends or family together!

How to Plan a Vision Board Party

When planning your vision board party, keep the number of attendees to a manageable number. I suggest inviting four to twelve friends, or however many can comfortably fit around your kitchen or dining room table.

Be sure not to invite any Debbie Downers to the shindig, either. You don’t need that kind of energy messing up everyone's vision boards!

My advice is to skip paper invitations and just send an email invite. The point is to de-stress your life, not add more unneeded tasks.

In your email invitations, you should request a few things. Ask each guest to bring a stack of old magazines and their own pair of scissors.

Vision Board Supplies to Buy

• A bunch of glue sticks.
• Lots of pairs of scissors and a pair of left-handed scissors for the lefties in your life.
• One poster board per person (and a few extras in case of mistakes).
• Snacks and drinks to share.
• Extra magazines.
• For extra flair, get some stick-on poster letters and inspirational phrases.

When to Host Your Party

The start of a new year is a wonderful time to throw a vision board party. Or, you could make boards to celebrate a birthday, graduation or other momentous life change.

You need not wait for a specific reason, though. Any time is a good time to get together with friends or family to focus on life goals and happiness during a vision board party!

Whereas food and drinks are often the focal point of a typical shindig, the main goal of a vision board party is to create a positive physical representation of what you and your guests want out of life. To keep the focus on the boards, steer clear of hosting your event during mealtimes. Instead, choose a late morning, mid-afternoon, or post-dinner start time.

Food and Drink Suggestions

Since hands will be busy flipping through magazines, cutting out images, and gluing things onto poster boards, stick with simple snacks that don't make a lot of mess. Suggestions include hard cheeses, crackers, grapes, sliced apples, olives, and cookies.

To simplify things further for you as the host, you might ask everyone to bring an appetizer, dessert, or drink to share instead.

For a festive party with adult attendees, you may want to serve mimosas for a morning party or wine and beer at a later party. No matter the age of attendees, it's always a good idea to have some fun non-alcoholic drinks on hand like sparkling water, juice and craft sodas. Put drinks in ice buckets so guests can serve themselves.

What to Do at a Vision Board Party

To kick off your party, start with introductions and intentions. Go around the table and have all attendees state their names and what they hope to achieve with their vision board.

For example, the primary purposes for my latest vision board were to find more: work-life balance, connection with my kids, time in nature, healthy living, and, of course, travel.

After setting intentions, get to work. Clip those magazines to pieces. Meanwhile, eat, drink and be merry with your fellow vision board makers!

How to Make a Vision Board

I suggest laying out a general design for your board before you start gluing. You might also want to put a strong image of your central intention in the middle of your board.

On one of my boards, the center image is of a woman with arms outstretched, across which I pasted the word, “inspiring.” For me, this represents inner peace, confidence, and creativity.

You should also leave some blank space. This gives room to add additional images as you find them. Plus the white space allows room for serenity on your board. If there is too much chaos, you might just draw chaos to your life!

Be sure to paste everything onto the poster boards AT THE PARTY! At my first vision board party, some of my friends had to leave early and took their clippings and boards home separately. Of course, they intended to glue the pictures to their poster boards. That was years ago and I know at least one friend who has never finished her board.

Tips for Hosting a Vision Board Party with Kids

Making vision boards with kids is a wonderful way to help children focus on being positive. This activity can also give kids a sense of empowerment over how they want to live their lives.

Without guidance, children may look at this as merely an opportunity to make a pretty collage. They might just cut out a lot of images of material things like toys and candy instead of focusing on what truly matters to them.

When hosting a vision board party with children, you may need to help kids define what types of things they want to paste to their boards and assist them in finding appropriate pictures.

Vision Board Questions to Ask Kids

• What do you like to do for fun with your friends and family?
• What are three goals you'd like to achieve (this year/in your life)?
• At what activity, sport, or school subject would you like to improve?
• What would a really happy day look like for you?
• If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
• Do you have a favorite animal, color, or food that you'd like to add to your board?
• Is there someone you really admire? Who and why?

Once kids have defined some goals and things that bring them joy, adult participants can help them find images that match these. Point out relevant pictures that you find, but leave it up to kids to decide if they belong on their boards. Kids should feel ownership and pride in their creations. Only they know what belongs in their vision.

Be Open to How Your Visions Are Realized

Once you create a vision board to help define what you want in your life, you should work toward your goals but understand that your desires might manifest in different ways than you imagined. I originally wrote this post in June 2010. Here are some updates on how my original vision board has turned into realities in my life.

After I had to cancel a long-anticipated family Disney Cruise for financial reasons, I added a photo of a Disney ship to my vision board. At bedtime some nights, I also asked my young daughter to picture our whole family on board a cruise ship, dancing with Mickey Mouse. It wasn't the itinerary I had originally wanted, and we still couldn't afford to book the cruise ourselves, but the cruise came to us anyway, and in grand fashion too. Read about how this dream came true for my family.

I also added a photo of Oprah Winfrey to my original board because this media queen starred in three of my bucket list wishes. Bucket lists are another great tool for defining and drawing what you want into your life. The three wishes were: 1) Be a part of Oprah's audience; 2) Meet Oprah: and 3) Be featured on Oprah's show. In a way, all three of my Oprah bucket list wishes came true. Again, these weren't realized exactly how I envisioned, but you don't necessarily get to choose the “how” portion of your visualizations. Read more about how my Oprah dreams came true.

Time for Another Party!

As time moves on, our goals and desires change. Even if you've made a vision board in the past, you may consider making another one. I have made several vision boards and each one is special in different ways.

You might consider making your vision party an annual event and taking turns hosting it. Be sure to take a photo of everyone's poster board so you can discuss what did or did not come to fruition for each person. What a fun way to inspire and support each other's wishes and goals!

For additional information, take a look at The Complete Vision Board Kit.

Learn More

Have you wanted to start your own company? Review these tips for turning a hobby into a business.

For a rainbow of inspiration, discover these songs about colors.

Do you dream of living in a foreign country someday? Read these tips for expats.

If you would like to learn a new language, then check out why and how to use Rosetta Stone to reach this goal.

Save These Tips

Be sure to save these vision board party tips for future reference. Simply pin the image above to Pinterest. I hope you’ll follow Travel Mamas on Pinterest while you’re at it!

Have you ever made a vision board? Do you have any questions or tips to share? Let us know in the comments below!