Little Girl's DIY Rainbow Art Party with Rainbow Games & Food

Adeline wants to be an artist when she grows up, so a rainbow art party for her sixth birthday was pretty much PERFECT.

I have wanted to do a rainbow party and an art party for years, so combining the two ideas was so fun. Below are all the details on Adeline’s rainbow art party. Some links are affiliate links.

Rainbow Art Party Invitation

I used Minted to design a lovely, modern rainbow art party invitation. I loved the design. For the photo, Adeline came up with the idea of holding paintbrushes and it was perfect for the invitation. I emailed the guests ahead of time and got their addresses.

Using Minted’s addressing service, I then uploaded the addresses and had them printed on the envelopes, which made mailing a snap. (Minted’s addressing service is my favorite feature about their site. Totally worth the extra cost of their products.)

Rainbow Photo Spot

I hung this rainbow tablecloth up, which was the perfect spot to get a lot of rainbow art party pictures. I always take photos of the birthday child before the party starts (usually with balloons) to ensure I get nice photos. I find that the Balloon Time helium tank is always a worthwhile investment to have on hand for parties (I’ve bought them at both Michaels and Target).

Adeline looked adorable in her rainbow twirl skirt (from Amazon) and It’s My Birthday t-shirt (from Target, similar here).

She definitely hammed it up for the camera.

We also always get a few family photos before the festivities get started — and everyone gets sweaty.

I also always put a bench in front of the photo spot for the end of the party because it makes the perfect backdrop for present opening.

Rainbow Art Party Activities

The party was built around two big activities – painting and playing outside.

When the girls arrived, they were given an apron and a happy birthday crown. I found these super affordable primary color aprons on Amazon and used white acrylic paint and stencils from Dollar Tree to paint the girls’ monograms onto them. I then outlined them and added rainbow dots with puffy paint. The crowns were from Target.

We also snapped a few photos at the rainbow photo spot, which was the perfect way to get lots of pictures while we waited for everyone to arrive.

Art Project

We then gathered the girls in “Adeline’s Art Studio” to paint their canvases.

I transformed the dining room into a rainbow art studio by stringing tablecloths together and hanging it across the focal wall.

(I found primary color tablecloths at The Dollar Tree). The kids and I splatter painted foam core to make the Adeline’s Art Studio sign. I cut the letters using my Cricut Explore Air (which I am obsessed with, by the way) and glued them to the board.

DecoArt provided us with all the art supplies to make the canvases. Their Social Artworking line has a huge assortment of DIY canvas paint kits, which made putting together this art party a snap. Each girl has a 12×12 canvas, easel, paint brushes and piece of paper towel.

Surprisingly, the paint went very far and we only needed one bottle of each color. The girls’ paint project was a flamingo design that Adeline selected on the Social Artworking site. (We chose a kids’ design that said it could be completed in 60 minutes, which was totally accurate and perfect for the party.)

Before the party, I used transfer paper (provided in the kits from Social Artworking) to put the design on the canvas. You could literally do ANY design by purchasing your own transfer paper and some blank canvases.

To make the painting process go smoothly, we followed the Social Artworking instructions and had the girls paint in steps together. We poured and mixed paint on paper plates, and passed the paint out for each step. This ensured everyone had enough paint and made clean up easy.

For the flamingo pattern that Adeline selected, the girls started with the background, then painted the flamingo body, then the wings and then the flower. They did the eyes last using a black paint pen. Following the step by step instructions resulted in everyone finishing at about the same time and nine happy artists!

I definitely recommend putting paint drop cloths down. I did not think we would need to open them all the way and sure enough, several girls dropped paintbrushes beyond the drop cloth.

At the end of the party, everyone smiled proudly with their paintings.

Rainbow Relay Games

After painting, we went outside for Rainbow Relay Games.

I had created a giant Rainbow Relay sign to hang on our fence and hung fun lanterns and giant rainbow sixes (cut with my cricut) on the bushes. It was an easy and affordable way to add color to the yard. (I got the lanterns 90% off from Target and used cardstock from my paper stash.)

The games included:

Rainbow noodle obstacle course

We put the girls in teams of two and they took turns racing a beach ball through a rainbow pool noodle course.

The noodles were set up by putting dowels in the ground and then slipping the noodle on the dowels. It was super easy to set up and added so much fun and rainbow color to the lawn. I found the colors I needed at a local toy store and the Dollar Store.

Rainbow ring toss

This game was assembled with lots of duct tape! We then put two tall dowels in the ground to stand it in the lawn.

The girls had a blast tossing pool noodles (cut in half) into the different circles.

Rainbow candy relay

We divided the girls into two groups. They had to race back and forth with skittles on a spoon. First team to fill cup wins.

Rainbow cupcake pinata

The girls also had fun breaking open a pinata.

It took a BUNCH of swats (and I ended up tearing it a bit for them), but it was worth it to see their glee when the candy fell.

Rainbow Lunch

I kept lunch VERY simple – pizza and a rainbow tray of fruit.

If you have an Aldi, I highly recommend getting their fresh pizza. It’s huge, tasty and perfect for parties.

I also had an array of juices, offering a rainbow of colors. I found the juice bottles at The Dollar Tree.

Rainbow Dessert

A six-layer rainbow cake was the star of the meal. This cake was a labor of love by Matthew, who baked all the layers and made the frosting.

I handled the cake assembly, frosting and sprinkles. The cake was very heavy and we inserted some skewers to keep it from tilting.

Adeline couldn’t have been more delighted when we cut into it.

Every piece was so big we split them in half for the kids!

It truly was the rainbow art party of Adeline’s and my dreams and might be one of my favorites ever. I definitely recommend this theme for every child. It was SO fun!

Thank you to Social Artworking for providing the art supplies for this party.