Outdoor Painting Activity

Our little W turned 2 last week! We decided to have a little end-of-summer birthday cookout for her and set up this outdoor painting activity as entertainment for the kids! And it was a huge hit! I was seriously so pleased with how well it held up and how long it entertained a whole slew of children.

Let me share all the (very simple) details with you so you can do this at your next party, too!

Materials Needed

The items used were pretty straightforward.

The paper is drop cloth paper (or contractor paper) from Lowes. It came in a roll, 3ft x 140ft, for about $13, and we have a ton left over! You could probably use any roll or paper, but I love this stuff because it’s super heavyweight. It held up great to wind and rowdy children.

I used finger paint from Hobby Lobby, which came in a big bottle for $2 each. I ended up buying 10 colors…. which is way over the top, I know, but I was actually excited to be able to give my girls every color they asked for for only $20.

I also got a pack of 12 brushes for $4 at Hobby Lobby— more than enough for each color to have its own brush.

A pack of cute (compostable) paper cups was about $5 at my local grocery store.

Lastly, we used a simple staple gun (we already owned) to attach the paper and the cups to the wooden fence.

Total expenses

In all, this cost us about $42, and we have more of everything left over!

Set up

The setup definitely requires two people. One to staple while the other holds the paper.

Staple the edge of the paper roll to one end of the fence and slowly unroll it along the fence, stapling as you go. Cut the paper from the roll when you get to the end of the fence. I feel like I made that sound complicated, but it’s really so quick and easy. My brother and I together got it up in just a few minutes.

After the paper is up, use the staple gun to hang the cups along the bottom of the paper. Put the cup against the fence and hold the stapler upside-down to staple throught the top edge of the cup.

I put up 10 cups, one for each color. If you have fewer colors, you could do 2 cups per color, or however you see fit.

Once the cups are up, all you have left is to add some paint and divy out the brushes. I only filled the cups about 1/4 of the way full and many of them needed refilling throughout the afternoon. I didn’t fill them very full to avoid getting the brush handles all painty. It worked out perfectly.

I also added glitter to a few of the colors, the kids loved that!

Final thoughts on Outood Painting

I really truly could not be happier with the results of this project. Party entertainment can be complex and expensive….. but for $42 I was able to keep a dozen kids happy for hours. They spent the entire afternoon painting. They would paint, play, snack, paint again. We did a brithday cake and gifts, they kids all went straight back to painting. it was fantastic! I wish I had taken more pictures of the kids painting, or of the final art piece, but we were all very preoccupied with party things and socializing (as it should be, honestly.)

The only thing I could see that might be a downside to some people, is that the kids were all pretty painty by the end of the day. Their clothes, their hair, their arms. That doesn’t bother me at all, and our guests didn’t mind, but I know some parents do have a harder time with mess. I will say, this finger paint (or tempura paint) washes out without even trying. It will not stain a thing.

Taking it down was easy as well. there are still tons of staple in my fence, but I don’t care. The paper was carefully rolled up and saved. I have already used some of it to make the party thank you cards and plan on wrapping christmas gift in it later on.