Throw a Gender Reveal with Balloons and Darts

Get your guests involved with this balloon gender reveal idea using a canvas and darts! This easy DIY is such a fun way to find out what gender baby is.

Oh my goodness! I cannot believe I am writing this post right now! I feel like it was just yesterday I was planning the huge gender reveal party bash for our first and making gender reveal scratch-its.

BUT, here we are! And so excited!!

Black balloons tied with streamers against a fence wall image.

I won’t leave you hanging. In case you missed the reveal video I shared on Facebook last week, here it is for you…

And in case you missed the details, I’ll give you a short & sweet recap:

  • Canvas with black balloons filled with pink or blue paint. None of us knew (except a friend who was in the corner taking pictures).
  • We all had darts.
  • We were excited.
  • Too excited, and we all missed on the first try.
  • Cue the embarrassing laughter!
  • My husband had an extra dart in his pocket and finally popped a balloon.
  • Cue the cheers!

And that’s how it all went down.

I love how the canvas turned out and will make gorgeous art for the new baby’s room! We did purple and gray everything for Clara so this will be a fun girly change.

Smiling Dad, toddler and Mom holding a paint splattered canvas image.

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All we did to make the canvas was use a funnel to pour shades of blue and shades of pink into 16 balloons, 8 of each color. Then we had them separated and I had my friend come over before the reveal party to peek into the envelope and tack the correct colored balloons on to the canvas.

One little trick we learned was, depending on your canvas, the weight of the paint in the balloons will cause the balloons to fall off the canvas if just pinned to the canvas fabric. We pinned all the edge balloons directly into the wood frame. The middle balloons stayed in with two tacks as long as we were careful and didn’t bump the canvas too much.

Smiling little girl in front of wall with white canvas splattered in pink paint image.

Side note: Check out how to make simple tissue paper tassels that made the perfect backdrop complete with a video tutorial.

Pink, white, gold, blue tassels tied to a fence wall image.

We are SO excited for another little girl! Well, maybe me more so than my husband. Boys scare me. I know girls. I can do girls. Plus, we have a girl name and no boy name. If you remember, we didn’t name Clara until my due date so not having a name again was a little terrifying.

Clara is SO excited for a little sister! She is going to be the best! She already is perfecting her mommy skills by patting every doll on the back, bouncing them, and rocking them. It’s the cutest!

Happy little girl playing on the ground image.

And in case you saw it on Instagram a few weeks ago, here’s another sneak peek at the gender reveal invitations we sent out to just a few close family and friends. I decided to tie in the paint splatters throughout this party and keep the rest of the party simple!

The first trimester was rough and I feel like I’m just finally getting back on my feet with little time to plan a huge bash. I love how it turned out and am excited to show you a few more details next week.

Gender reveal invitation splattered in pink and blue paint image.

So, did you guess right?

What do you think of our balloon gender reveal idea?

I love making each baby special and celebrating them — no matter if it was a boy or a girl. This gender reveal was fun, simple, and easy to throw together in under an hour!

Click here to get your free Party Planning Checklist!

Group of people in a back yard for a gender reveal game of darts image.

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16 thoughts on “Throw a Gender Reveal with Balloons and Darts

  1. This is a super cute way of doing a gender reveal! Love the idea of getting the whole family involved and using balloons! Congrats on another girl! So exciting!

  2. Love this!! Do you think it would be possible to leave some balloons empty with no paint in them? Or would you see the difference with the ones that have paint being weighed down? I ask because we aren’t planning on trying the same thing but only having one of the balloons have the paint.

    1. If you put all the balloons close together I don’t think it would be a problem. If they’re more separated you could probably tell the one that has the paint in it.

  3. Love this and need to do it this next weekend. How exactly did you get the balloons to stay up without drooping and popping from the weight of the paint? How much paint did you put in each balloon and did you water it down any?

    1. Hi Becki! Congrats on the baby! I did about 1 tbsp of paint and 1 tsp water in each balloon. I mixed the paint and water first in a small container and then used a funnel to get the liquid in each balloon. We put all the balloons close together enough that they didn’t fall off and since there wasn’t much paint in each balloon we didn’t risk them popping from the weight. Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

  4. Hi Amanda, I absolutely love this idea and am planning to do this for our upcoming gender reveal! I was wondering if the tacks or darts left holes in the canvas? And if they did were they noticeable?

    1. Hi Courtney! Congrats on your baby!! The tacks did leave holes in the canvas, but aren’t noticeable. I think because I did a mix of different shades of pink and blue in the balloons then they just blended in.

  5. Hi, looking to use this idea for my gender reveal, but was worried about the pain drying up. How far in advance did you put the paint in, and what kind of paint did you use? Thanks in advance!

  6. What kind of paint did you use. Will it dry out in the balloon? Can we fill the balloons the day before without having to worry about the paint drying inside?

  7. How far in advance did you put the paint in the balloons I’m scared that the paint will dry and is water a must to add ?

  8. Love this idea! I am in charge of the reveal for my best friends. Definitely doing this!!! Please tell me where you got the black balloons? Party City told me theirs are too sheer and the paint would be seen. I see them online but no clue which are best…. Thanks so much and thanks for sharing!!!!!

  9. hi!
    love this idea- planning to use this weekend!
    Did you then blow the balloons up? Paint first, then blow? going to do a test run today after work!

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