As I’m sure you are aware, birthday parties for kids have become a big deal. Pinterest makes it so easy to find amazing ideas for birthday parties for pretty much any theme. At the same time, it seems that cost and stress has skyrocketed along with the extravagant decorations and party favors. This post is not that. I’m going to share with you my daughters’s simple DIY birthday paint party.
Simple DIY Birthday Paint Party
My daughter turned 4 and this was her first year for a friend birthday party. We have celebrated with family for the past 3 years of course, but now that she is old enough to understand that friend parties are a thing, I wanted her to have one.
I really needed it to be simple though. We had been traveling a lot leading up to her birthday, so I knew I wouldn’t have a lot of prep time. Besides, stress, anxiety, too much work, or too much money did not sound like a good way to celebrate a birthday.
I chose an art party because my daughter loves art projects so much. She colors, draws or paints on a daily basis. I was able to incorporate a few of her other favorites as well: balloons, flowers, and pink cake.
Decorations
I didn’t go to Pinterest to get ideas on how to put this party together. I knew it would stress me out trying to make everything perfect on limited time. I wanted the decorations to be what my daughter would love (within reason). Here is what I used:
- Pink & black ribbon streamer (Target)
- white balloons
- Jute String
- White plastic tablecloth
- Polka dot wrapping paper (Target Christmas section last year)
- Pink flowers
We have a railing in our dining room that is just perfect for special occasion garlands. My daughter loves anything pink, but I really tried to keep it classy. The ribbon garland was the right amount of festive. I added white balloons (because pink felt like too much) and used jute string to attach them to our banister. If you don’t have a railing, tying the string in bows and attaching them to the wall would be really cute too!
A plastic tablecloth was an absolute must for a bunch of 4 year olds painting in my dining room. It needed a little glam though, so I cut some polka dot wrapping paper to act as a runner that could just go in the trash when we were finished. I added pink carnations (flowers were a special request by the birthday girl!) for a center piece.
Painting
I will admit that the actual painting time was a tad stressful. But as I mentioned earlier, my daughter loves to paint and we’ve done it many times together. I’ve learned that acrylic paint does come off of wood floors and granite counter tops. I’m just glad the granite is black and it doesn’t stain. These are the supplies I used for the painting activity:
- 11×14 canvas
- acrylic paint
- large brushes
- cups for water
- paint trays
- paper towels
- baby wipes
I had leftover 11×14 canvases and that size worked out well for us. You may want to use a different size depending on what the children are painting.
I thought the kids would have more fun if I just let them paint whatever they wanted instead of giving them something to paint. Because the canvases were big, I got large paint brushes for them to use. They had no problems filling their canvases!
Food
There are some really cute paint themed snack ideas on Pinterest for paint themed parties, but I opted for what my daughter requested: pink cupcakes.
- Strawberry cake mix
- mini muffin pan
- Buttercream frosting (I used this recipe)
- Sugar flowers (Michaels)
- Capri Sun
- Beverage Tub (Target)
- Fun drinks for the moms
While browsing in Michael’s I found these adorable sugar flowers that I knew my daughter would love. They were really small though, so I decided to go with mini cupcakes! I am no pro at frosting cupcakes (the frosting recipe is amazing!), so the flowers conveniently covered any missteps in the frosting.
Fun drinks for the kids and the moms rounded out the party food!
Favors
Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of the favors, which turned out pretty cute. I got a new lens for my camera which I love but was still learning to use that day, and the photo was blurry. The favors were a fruit snack and a sparkly acrylic paint bottle in a clear favor bag, with large paintbrushes attached with jute string. The kids got to choose the color of paint.
All in all, I think the party was a success. And if you’re brave enough to have a child’s birthday party in your own home, and add paint to the mix, good luck and have fun!
