Painting Themed Birthday Party Idea

For my daughter’s 8th birthday we decided to do a painting birthday party last minute. It was a huge success! If I had a bit more time to plan we might have done a few things differently. Overall we had pretty good lucky putting something together with just stuff we found at the dollar store.

Eight kids attended plus my older three (including the birthday girl). It was a little bit chaotic when the paints came out! We did learn a few things too that would have made things go a bit smoother if I had thought about them beforehand. So here’s some tips (and pictures) to help give you ideas for your next painting birthday party!

Tips for Hosting a Painting Themed Party for Kids

• If you’re eating cake or doing something else at the same table after you’ve been painting, buy a second disposable table cloth. It would have saved me wiping down a big mess between painting and cake to just throw it out and replace with a fresh one
• Put the paints into the trays beforehand. It took way too long to go around the room and add it to each kid’s palette individually. Then you can focus your attention giving extra paint or helping.
• Have extra activities. We ran out of things to do! The kids did really well on the painting but they wanted to be entertained the whole time. It would have been better to have some other small crafts on hand. Especially for those who finished their art early.
• Roll out paper everywhere. We used one of the paper rolls from IKEA and ran it down the hallway for kids to colour on.
• Plan a way to label your cups. The stickers on the drink bottles weren’t planned, the kids came up with that. Oops!

How We Hosting a Super Fun Painting Themed 8th Birthday Party

Since we live out of town with no house numbers we decided to add chalk to the driveway to make it easier to find us.

The Party Favor Bags

For the favor bags we had the kids decorate their own bag when they came in. Each one already had a package of markers in it for them to use, then they put them back after decorating to take home.

After the pinata they were able to put all their treats in their bags and while they were eating cake I stuffed a treat voucher from McDonalds into each one.

After we opened gifts I moved this table close to the door and put all the goodie bags and drink bottles out so the kids could take them home. In the background you can also see our giant roll of paper floor colouring.

Painting Birthday Party DIY Decor

For the Main Food Table

We hung plastic table cloths behind the main table. These served as a cute, inexpensive backdrop. Then I used a nicer polka dot one to tie it together. Since we have a small home everything had to be in one area, so this worked well. For a final touch, I also hung a “Happy Birthday” banner on the wall above the table too.

Drinking Glasses

I found these cute milk glasses at the dollar store! They were a great alterative to disposable or easy to spill plastic cups for the party.

The kids decorated them with stickers so they would know which was theirs and then got to bring them home. I also covered the drink bottles with coloured paper to match.

Gift Table

For the gift table I made a simple thank you sign with a dollar store easel and some paints. The flowers and vase were from the dollar store, stuffed with white tissue paper, and the purple 8 is just a candle. Gift tables are super handy for kids’ parties; I usually place them so kids can drop their present on the way inside and get right to the action.

Table and Centerpiece

More flowers held up by tissue paper – these ones we used as a centrepiece. The tops of the vases were just done with fancy dollar store tape and I think they turned out pretty good. Flowers and table clothes were also from the dollar store!

DIY Happy Birthday Sign

This was just a $3 canvas that I painted pink, added some shiny blue dollar store tape (it’s peeling – oops), and stuck on some sticker gems.

My painting skills are not great and I also do not recommend using dollar store brushes for fine projects. Honestly, I think paint markers would be a much better idea for this project!

This sign was added to our main food table as a focalpoint.

The Ceiling

Streamers were hung centred around the light fixture. This isn’t a great picture, it looked much cooler in person. I think this look would work really well in a small enclosed room but even like this it really upped the wow factor.

Food for a Paint Themed Party

We grabbed a fruit tray and threw some assorted munchie snacks (cheezies, chips, etc) on a tray for the kids, plus did some DIY treats (below).

Paint Brush Rice Krispie Squares

These were supposed to be those Pinterest-inspired paint brushes dipped in coloured white chocolate but I just didn’t have the time. Regardless, these store bought Rice Krispie Squares on a stick treats (I call them clean paint brushes) were a big hit.

Homemade Popcorn Cones

We made cones out of heavy cardstock and then filled them with popcorn – they actually did a great job of keeping spilling down to a minimum. We needed something extra in the vase so more popcorn lined the bottom.

Painting Birthday Party Activities

First they decorated their goodie bags. Next, each kid was given a set that included a wooden block for painting (my daughter chose this over canvas), a wooden letter of their first initial, a paint brush and sponge, a tray for their paint, a napkin, and their very own apron. A bunch of kids ended up voluntarily painting their own hands which was a good thing for the hand stamping art. We had them contribute to it around the same time.

Painting Activity Package for Each Kid

The little packages we handed out to each kid before painting. Would have been cute already sitting at the table but we wanted to do other things first.

Homemade Keepsake Canvas

Hand printing art instructions were done on a mini easel and just written in coloured Sharpie. Another of our flowers (mentioned above) made it on this table and we just use a plastic plate for the paint.

I wrote the title in first with multicoloured Sharpie beforehand then laid it out on the table for each kid to stamp their hand. It turned out really cute but I didn’t include a photo because each print also had their name written next to it. It will make a very nice keepsake!

Kids’ Painting Activity

Here’s the finished art projects drying and waiting to be taken home!

Final Touches

The kids had a lot of fun. I even heard one little girl say that this was the best birthday party ever. I was really impressed with how well they all handled painting. There was almost no mess except the disposable table cloth.

The Cake

Normally I bake my own cakes for parties but we are just too busy right now with the twins and work that there just wasn’t enough time – so Costco to the rescue! Unfortunately I squished it shoving it under the seat in the van to bring it home. Oh well, the kids were excited all the same and they all requested pieces of the rainbow.

The Party Space with Balloons

Here’s what our dining area looked like all decorated up – we made things work in our small-ish home.

I can’t believe that little girl is turning 12 this year. It feels like we threw this party yesterday. I don’t live in this house anymore but I thought I’d share this anyway – just for fun.