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| outfit made by Aunt Sarah and me. She dyed the eyelet lace each color and did the sewing. I made the crochet flowers on her shirt and headband. |
It was a bit of a booger, but still a lot of fun to plan!
My favorite stores to shop at for party supplies are (in this order) Dollar Tree, King Dollar, 99 Cents Store, Hobby Lobby, and Walmart. I used to shop a lot on Oriental Trading, but find that they are a little pricey now, plus you have to pay shipping if your order is small. I also frequently check Amazon, Michaels, and Joanns Fabrics because sometimes they have good deals. Dollar Tree has a good selection of table cloths, foam board, craft stuff, and plastic utensils. King Dollar has great serving trays and bowls.
Rainbow problems:
The biggest annoyance of this party was finding the correct colors of the rainbow.
PINK-In an effort to girly-fy rainbows, many toys, party items, and outfit manufacturers replace the red with pink. Or sometimes they replace the purple with pink. Or they add pink just somewhere in the middle. Ugh, PINK does not belong in a rainbow! Didn't they learn Roy G. Biv?!
Sometimes they do the same with blue and torquoise. Also one rainbow might have dark green and another has lime green. First world problem, I know. On the other hand, I personally think Indigo as a main color of the rainbow is debatable. It just doesn't make sense. I think it was just thrown in there to give Roy an easy last name. My Roy is Latin: Roy G. Bv. One last problem you might find is finding one of something in every color that you need. For example, did you know most stores don't sell orange tablecloths unless it's Halloween?
We had our party in a community room at a local park. I wasn't allowed to tape or hang anything from the walls. As a result this is my cake table setup. The balloons are anchored by soda pop bottles. I couldn't find blue and purple soda so I poured out the existing colors and replaced them with colored water.
Helium balloons: Most places charge $1 per balloon to blow up. I got mine from Kroger the morning of the party.
Tissue paper for the poms: Hobby Lobby value pack has all of the colors and then some. With the 40% coupon it was $3.60, cheaper than buying the individual colors from the dollar store.
Table cloths were purchased from the Dollar Store or Walmart for $1 each. Except the orange. I found it at Michaels.
Streamers: Party City has them the cheapest at $.89 each
Cake Stand: a large white dinner plate set on top of an upside down metal red tin. In the past I've glued a plate onto a candle holder with E6000, but glue wasn't necessary this time. The weight of the cake kept it steady. Don't take my word for it, though. If glue makes you more comfortable, then use it! I didn't want to ruin my plate this time, though.
Rainbow cupcakes. The rainbows are Rainbow Airheads. Each cupcake has half of an Airhead strip. I was able to decorate these six cupcakes and wrap the bottom of the main cake with one package of Airheads. See the mini rainbow swirl lollipop next to the cupcakes? Found those 6/$1 at the 99 cents store. And the lollipops had all six colors (you can't tell from this picture but it does)! Some lollipop brands don't. tip: Pipe the clouds before you stick in the Airhead.
Table Scatter: I saved the scrap tissue paper from the poms that I made and stored them in a sandwich baggie to be used later for a simple table scatter.
Paint pallet cupcakes I found this large wooden paint pallet at Hobby Lobby. Again with the 40% off coupon it was $3.60 (reg. $6). I made a lot of trips to Hobby Lobby. ;) It was an excuse to get out of the house. I found these Wilton silicone cupcake liners at Walmart. The one in front is actually pink. I tried to keep it from ruining my day. :) I just used my white icing and colored small amounts with food color to frost each cupcake.
The cake! I was told by several people that this was the best part. This was the moistest and tastiest cake ever. This cake took three boxed-cake mixes. I used Duncan Hines white cake mix. Each cake mix I added an extra egg, replaced the oil with butter (then doubled the amount!) and replaced the water with milk. Here is a tutorial for the cake. http://thelowlynest.blogspot.jp/2013/06/rainbow-cake-tutorial.html?m=1
I had to use more icing than the recipe called for in order to cover my cake and get it even, so double! Especially if you need extra for cupcakes. My icing was not a true white, rather an off-white, since I made a buttercream, but there are plenty of white icing recipes online. Here is the recipe I used http://therepressedpastrychef.com/2008/5/19/buttercream-icing/, more or less. I used regular vanilla, not the clear, and I used more butter and less Crisco.
tip: The more you beat the batter it seems like the less it rises. This worked well for this layered cake because it made the cake dense/sturdy, and I didn't have to trim the tops very much. I also suggest you buying an offset spatula to ice the cake with. I got mine off of Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Ateco-1-25-Inch-Medium-Offset-Spatula/dp/B000BRQXVW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1397218781&sr=8-4&keywords=offset+spatula
I decorated the cake with Skittles. An original Skittles package doesn't come with all the colors of the rainbow. You have to buy the Tropical Skittles as well to get the blue.
Rice crispy treat paintbrushes I used a value box of Rice Crispy treats, large popsicle sticks from Dollar General, broken in half, and Wilton candy melts in all six colors. I used very little from each bag. Joann's was running a special, each bag was $2.25. Other than that, Walmart has them for $2.50. I melted a few of the chips in a mug, dipped the rice crispy treat, and set them on foil to cool. Never add water to the candy melts or get impatient with melting them, otherwise it won't come out smooth. Microwave at 50% power for the best results. I set them on display on a square painting canvas.
I made the pinwheels/pomwheels with the same Holly Lobby tissue pack. Each wheel was one tissue paper folded in half. Found the garland at Walmart for $1.50, I think. The smalls signs were made with white foam board. You can find foamboard for cheap at the Dollar tree or King Dollar. I love it for parties! It way more expensive anywhere else. I glued clothespins to the back of the food signs to make them easel-ish and to stand up on their own. Easy peasy!
I was so happy when I found the rainbow colored paper plates! I was having a hard time finding something that worked. I didn't want it to clash with the effects of the cake layers once the cake was served, plus it needed to be large enough to hold six layers of cake! These were medium sized, heavy duty plates, and only have an outer rim of color that sort of resembles paint brush strokes... perfect! I found 20 for $1 at the 99 Cents store. They were large enough to put the snacks, pizza, and sandwiches on, also. A job for my 11 yr old was removing water bottle wrappers and re-wrapping them with rainbow duct tape.
Colored Ice Cubes my second most ingenious idea was colored ice cubes. I served the kids drinks in clear cups with clear drinks like 7 up. They got to customize their drink with colored ice cubes. They loved it!
This took pre-planning, but was easy. I made colored ice-cubes with water and food coloring. For about two weeks, once a day, I would make a few trays of colored ice. Unless you have purple food coloring, the purple ice cubes won't come out purple! I mixed blue and red to make my purple. It was purple going into the freezer, but not coming out. it was a funky bluish green once frozen. But..... once it starts to melt, it turns purple again. We didn't use them for the party. The purples are still in our freezer, making our drinks happy from time to time. I stored the ice in gallon bags over the course of the two weeks. Once at the party I displayed them in square clear food storage containers from King Dollar. I warned the kids that mixing certain colors would turn their drink brown, so to keep it simple.
Arden looooved her party. Since it was a painting party we had lots of painting activities. First the kids got their faces painted.
Then the kids painted on canvases. I found 8x10 canvases for cheap. 10 for $5 at Walmart! I made easels out of foam board, erasers, and bar-b-q skewers to prop the easels up. It was an ingenious creation if I do say so myself. Each guest got an apron, also, and a paint pallet (from Hobby lobby). We had about twenty different acrylic paints (50 cents each just about anywhere) to choose from and a ton of paint brushes. They painted whatever they wanted. Butterflies, turtles, rainbows, bunnies, lego stuff, and, ummm, "abstract art".
After canvas painting some kids went outside and played, but others wanted to continue painting. They rock painted. Rock painting is one of Arden's favorite activities at home. If you heat a stone up in the oven at 200 degrees then it makes a perfect pallet for painting with crayons. The crayon melts when it touches the rock, which the kids think is great. They love watching the crayon turn to liquid. Cheap craft. Rocks are free, lol.
Once the kids were done with their artwork they put them in the "Art gallery" to dry.
Since the party was at a park there was a playground for the kids to play on. We also played games with a parachute. Found it on Amazon. This was one of their favorite parts.
And some of the adults and kids played volleyball.
We then did cake and presents. Her BFF, Uncle Adam, built this custom activity desk for her! She was thrilled when she saw it. The tops hinge up to reveal a cubby for paper and markers. There's also a chalk board on the underside of the lid. And of course it was painted in her favorite color. :)
We didn't do favor bags because each guest got to take home their works of art, apron, and paint pallet.
Arden said this was the best day ever, so I guess the party was a hit!
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