Growing up, I loved all things Lisa Frank, so this Rainbow Unicorn Painting Birthday Party is right up six year-old-me’s alley (and present day me too if I’m being honest) ;). Helena Paschal of Helena’s Planners combined her daughter’s first request (painting) with her second request months later (unicorns) seamlessly — I know you can all relate to making that work! All of the kids were definitely entertained the whole time, playing with stickers, getting their faces painted, and of course creating their own art!

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Layered rainbow frosted cupcakes, a rainbow of fruit filled paint cans & fondant rainbow topped cupcakes
• Ruffled rainbow cake with unicorn & paint palette toppers + rainbow cake layers inside
• ‘Starving Artist’ lunch boxes, ‘Creative Juice’ cups & ‘Artists’ Tools’ utensils
• Felt unicorn horns & magic wand paint brushes + a unicorn coloring activity & canvases for painting
• A ruffled rainbow birthday dress + rainbow necklaces & art supply tub party favors

PARTY DETAILS as told by Helena…

My daughter, Christina told me immediately after her 4th birthday party that she wanted a paint party for her 5th birthday. When school supplies were on sale, I bought watercolors, paint buckets, crayons, markers and anything crafty and put it aside for the party. Later my daughter said that she would rather have a unicorn party and she wanted it to have rainbows and be magical. Since I already purchased paint supplies, I decided to tie in the unicorn theme with the paint and call it a Unicorn Paint Party. My daughter was a big part of the planning process because I really had no clue how this party would
unfold.

Party Decor

Determined to keep the paint and unicorn concept magical, I created a dessert table filled with ceramic paint buckets which I bought from Michael’s and Hobby Lobby. The buckets came in white with dripping paint in pastel colors so I painted the drippings with acrylic paint using the primary rainbow colors. Colorful aprons were hanging all over the walls for décor and parents were encouraged to grab one for their child to wear before they started painting.

Food & Cake

My daughter’s favorite part of planning her party was picking the cake. We found a beautiful design on the internet and since I teach Event Planning, I asked one of my students, Monica from Trendy Fun Party, to design the Rainbow Unicorn Ruffle Cake with 7 layers of rainbow colors on the inside. The cake was breathtaking, moist, and delicious. Additional treats my daughter requested were mini rainbow sprinkle cupcakes created by S’more Minis and special treats such as sugar cookies, cake pops, and rainbow cupcakes created by Melinda Roberson. Although the table was covered in sweets and fruit, after singing Happy Birthday to my daughter, everything was completely devoured in a matter of minutes.

Party Dress

Christina and I searched for days looking for a party dress on Etsy. I ordered a tutu and unicorn shirt for her to wear but she said she did not want to wear it. I swear I’m not fully prepared for a 5 year old yet. But we managed to find a gorgeous rainbow ruffle skirt created by Atelier Spatz on Etsy and she wore a purple t-shirt with it. We also had Rebekah Crisco on Etsy create a custom apron by adding the unicorn logo on it.

ACTIVITIES

For months, I grabbed anything related to rainbows, unicorns, magic and paint for my daughter’s party. To make it unique, we called the paint ‘magic potion’ and I decided to have a magic show for the party, too. I came up with a bunch of activities, but in order to keep the party within a 2 hour time frame, I created activity stations that consisted of face painting, picture painting, easel painting, chalkboard drawing, creating crafts, etc. I wanted to ensure the guests tried to do everything so I created sticker books. For every activity a child completed, they would receive a rainbow sticker in their sticker book. I created a Magical Sticker Station filled with fun prizes so the children could magically turn their stickers into prizes at the end of the event.

Party Favors

As guests arrived, the girls received unicorn horn head bands to wear and the boys received magic hats. The girls also received a rainbow unicorn necklace as a surprise gift. Children also picked out their ‘magic wands’ which were their paint brushes to go with one of their first activities which involved painting a picture on a canvas.

The take home party favors were age appropriate. Younger children received a paint bucket filled with colorful bath tabs, bath finger paint, a unicorn rubber toy, and a rainbow lollipop or coloring books and crayons. Older children received a paint bucket filled with watercolors, crayons, colored pencils, a tube of ‘magic potion’ paint, and a rainbow lollipop. Everyone had a great time and I am more than happy with how it turned out.