I am so excited to share one of our absolute favorite go to activities for birthday parties in the art studio.  And of course you can do this at home too.  Cardboard birthday cakes are amazing! This is a simple idea that works for all age groups.  It’s easy and fun and you can use the same one over and over again.

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It’s really simple to make a cardboard birthday cake. You just need three or four different size boxes and some duct tape.

Under each box you add a few loops of duct tape and press it together.  Then we spray painted ours white.  If you’re a long time reader of my blog and have read my Art Secrets Every Parent Should Know post, then you already know I am a huge fan of spray paint, especially white.  You can spray paint any art project and give it a whole new look that kids can paint, decorate and embellish.  It’s a simple trick that we use all the time.

This cake has been spray painted already 6 times.  We actually list all the birthday friends on the bottom of the cake.  It makes me so happy to record each happy birthday child on the bottom of the cake.  It’s like an art diary of joy and celebration. I love it!

After the painting you can add all kinds of details to make the cake beautiful and fun.  We dip pom poms in glue and the kids love it.  You could also use gems, paper cutouts, corks, toys, beads, you name it. You may be wondering how we spray paint it with all the pom poms.  Don’t tell the kids, but fter the party we quickly rush over to the cake and remove all the pom poms before the glue dries.  We’ve had a few strays make it and now they are hard little spray painted balls attached to the cake.  Oh well.  It gives it character.

One of the things I love about a cardboard birthday cake most is that it’s great for all ages.  Big kids love to paint the cake as well as the little ones.  Well, sometimes the little little ones do end up on the floor like this though…

When I read Art Bar’s new gorgeous book Art Workshop for Children, I couldn’t believe it when I saw she also had the idea for a cardboard birthday cake! Actually, Bar and I have overlapped like that many times over the years, so it wasn’t such a big surprise. If you don’t have her book already, I highly recommend it.  It will give you tons of great ideas to do with your students and children.  The pictures are absolutely beautiful and the whole book is like a candy shop of art activities for kids.  You’ll pretty much want to do them all, not just the cake, though Bar shows you how to make candles for the cake, which is really fun too.  Here’s Bars book.  Isn’t it gorgeous?! There are tons of great projects inside.

Art Workshop for Children

I hope I’ve convinced you to consider a cardboard birthday cake for your next celebration.  It will be a huge hit! Thanks for reading along everyone! xo, Meri

And thanks for all these great pics, Olivia Mandel