When I was little, rainbows and unicorns were a couple of my favorite things, especially with the huge popularity of Lisa Frank (remember that?!). Well… the talented Jessica Kirkland of Pen N’ Paperflowers, Inc. brought these two fun elements together with an adorable Magical Rainbow Unicorn Birthday Party for her daughter, who happens to love them too! And I’m guessing she’s not alone in that. ;) One of the party activities, “Paint by Party” cookies, looks SO fun, and the really great news is that Jessica is also sharing a step-by-step tutorial on those with us today! Click here to check it out.

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Lovely rainbow confetti birthday cake with pastel rainbow layers and a blue unicorn topper!
• Rainbow confetti cookies + pink frosted cupcakes topped with shimmery rainbow pearls
• “Paint by Party” Rainbow cookies, a rainbow castle bounce house, and rainbow gumball bracelet making activities
• Darling unicorn party favors + candy cups filled with “Rainbow Shimmer Unicorn Hearts”

PARTY DETAILS as told by Jessica…

When my daughter asked for a Rainbow Unicorn Party, I shouldn’t have been surprised. She loves Princess Celestia from My Little Pony® and she’s obsessed with drawing rainbows and coloring everything using rainbow colors. I do have to be honest and say I wasn’t looking forward to the whole theme because it’s not my typical party style. But then I reminded myself that this would be Ella’s party, not mine. This was my daughter’s request and it was magical that it was up to me to get creative by tying her birthday dream wishes and my talents together. It was then that my own love for rainbows and unicorns was rekindled because as a child I remember being smitten with them myself. That’s when I let go of any apprehensions I had and when the fun really began.

Determined to keep it sweet and simple, I went with a small dessert table with the cake taking center stage. I let my daughter, Ella, be a large part of the planning process and one of the biggest decisions was about the cake. She requested a pink frosted cake and although her favorite cake flavor is chocolate I knew a surprise rainbow layer cake was in order for this party theme. I also knew the inside would wow her and her party guests. So, to compromise,  I instead made sure I had beautiful chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting to match the cake and I also had rainbow sprinkled chocolate cookies to make sure she had her fill of chocolate.

Invitation

Ella was a big part of the design of the birthday invitation with her specific request for the unicorn to be blue. She also chose the rainbow colored unicorn horn over the plain blue one I originally designed.

Party Decor

The pastel Shimmer Gumballs, Sixlets and Pearls from Sweetworks played a large part in the overall party decor. The soft colors matched the invitation and tied everything together beautifully. Glass vessels were filled with Shimmer Sixlets, trays were filled with the Shimmer Pearls, cupcakes were sprinkled with the Shimmer pearls and favor bags included Shimmer Sixlets.

Party Food & Cake

The rainbow layer cake was absolutely gorgeous. Sherri from The Pastry Studio did a beautiful job creating pastel cake layers to surprise the kids when we cut into it. The buttercream frosting was perfectly pink and smooth and I just loved the confetti detailing as well as how they tied in the heart from the invitation onto the cake. I used a paper cut-out of the unicorn from the invitation to create a cake topper and it was just the right touch since it didn’t distract from the pretty cake at all but still tied into the party theme. The other party food included a rainbow goldfish mix, rainbow colored fruit kebabs, chocolate rainbow sprinkles cookies, chocolate cupcakes, rainbow sprinkles popcorn, and bottled waters wrapped in coordinating party wraps.

Party Dress

Ella and I scoured Etsy for days looking for just the right party dress! We finally found it from a pretty little dress shop called KK Children Designs. The polka dots matched the party theme perfectly and we ended up tying a pink ribbon around her waist since it ended up being a little big on my petite little girl. You can see more photos of the dress here.

Party Activities

For party activities, the girl made rainbow bracelets using Shimmer Gumballs and played in a rainbow castle bounce house. One of the other party activities was inspired by the specific request/idea my daughter had to allow everyone to color/make rainbows at her party. My first thought was just to create a coloring sheet but then I completely nixed that idea when Lisa from Flourish Sweet Shop shared with me a brilliant new “Paint-by-Party” cookie concept she came up with. I whipped up a rainbow design for Lisa to use on the cookies and she created black and white cookies with a separate “heart cookie” paint palette containing coordinating rainbow color paint wells filled with dried food coloring. The kids used a paintbrush to add a little water to the food coloring and loved painting their cookies. Lisa also make mini glittered heart cookies for the kids to attach to the cookies with icing. It was birthday magic.

Party Favors

The “Paint-by-Party” cookies and gumball bracelets doubled as party favors. Each girl was also given a stuffed animal unicorn to take home along with some Sixlets and Rainbow Stickers.

Ella had a blast at her party and I was so happy with how everything turned out!