rainbow birthday party diy theme ideas cake

Rainbow Birthday Party

This Rainbow Birthday Party was so much fun to create – and a huge hit with Little Miss Pickle, who was turning 2!

rainbow birthday party little girl diy
A cute rainbow dress is always a bonus for the birthday girl!

I LOVE having a theme for a birthday party, and I enjoy the challenge of picking one that isn’t an off-the-shelf character motif. As the kids get older, those themes will creep in more and more, so I tried to get my top choices in while they were young. I’m pretty sure my dream of a rainbow birthday didn’t miss the mark with our little girl, though!

rainbow birthday party ideas
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple Balloons are an easy way to decorate for a Rainbow Birthday Party!

One of the keys to making a party theme work, without making it too much work for you, is to pick something with a lot of flexibility. Rainbows is a perfect example! Once I had that decided, I daydreamed and Pinterested for a week or two, coming up with all kinds of potential ideas. Then, the important part: paring it down to a manageable list!

I have a loose strategy to party planning that I use to make a theme come to life without getting buried in too many projects:

  • have at least one great on-theme DIY decor element (preferably one that can be assembled up to a month in advance)
  • have two snacks, preferably healthy, that work with the theme and are easy to prepare the night before
  • have a colour scheme and pick up napkins, plates, & cups
  • have an activity that matches the theme
  • have a kick-ass cake plan!

rainbow birthday party tissue poms

My DIY focus for this party were the tissue paper poms. I love how simple these are to make and how much space they take up; it makes decorating easy when you can fill space quickly! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a great photo of them at this party. I made a set of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple poms, as well as a few with all the colours mixed together. That plus a bunch of balloons and some streamers in rainbow colours and a ‘Happy Birthday’ banner we were gifted by friends completed the look.

This was our daugther’s second birthday, so I wasn’t going to over think the activity. I picked up some rainbow coloured party favours, like skipping frogs, and had them out to play with. We were also lucky that is was a beautiful summer day, so we played in the backyard.

rainbow birthday party treats snacks food

This was likely my second-favourite part of this party – rainbow snacks!

Totally honesty: I went a bit overboard here. I bought napkins and plates in rainbow colours. That’s probably about 300 napkins and 150 plates. We used maybe 20. But, I kept the extras and incorporated them into future parties, so I’m okay with the investment. But be warned: if you do want red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple plates and napkins, you will have many, many leftovers.

I also went overboard with the rainbow-coloured gummies from the Bulk Barn. You can avoid this by simply paying more attention to how few you really need (like, maybe 20 of each candy) if you use small bowls like this to display them. I bought two or three times this; they didn’t go to waste, but they certainly went to my waist. 😛

I also had a rainbow fruit tray – not the cheapest party favour, but a huge hit and great when you’re dealing with young kids. (These gummies above were very much an adult treat!) There were strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, green grapes, blueberries, and red grapes arranged in a rainbow on a large tray.

The cake was pretty much my focus for this party. I drooled and drooled over rainbow cake photos on Pinterest! I decided a six-layer cake was a bit much for us, so I alternated the colours between the cake and the icing. I used Wilton Gel food colouring and it was perfect!

rainbow birthday party cake

For the top, I used a cookie cutter in the shape of the number two to make a light outline, then sprinkled that section. I love the way it turned out and think it looks simple and sweet (even if the candles make me think of Shrek and I want to redo the whole party just to take better photos)!

rainbow birthday party cake

I could do this party again and again! If only the kids would stay so little!

rainbow birthday party cake little girl

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