A Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Party, Thrifty-Style

Having just returned from my sister's wedding, I've got parties on the brain again.  And I realized I still hadn't shared the Strawberry Shortcake Party from my daughter's last birthday (almost a year ago).  Yes, I am super slow getting this out, but I promise it's worth the wait! So, come on in and get the full tour:

As I've mentioned before, I've got major love for the old school Strawberry Shortcake of my youth.   The Strawberry Shortcake party I had when I turned 5 was one of my favorites. Now that my Little Miss has fallen in love with the now-vintage berry girl too, it seemed a natural choice for her party.  

Gorgeous, styled parties are something I really love, but I've got a real world budget to work with, so keeping costs minimal is a must.  I started with basic solid color paper products, glass mason jars & plates and some old baskets.  Thanks to my lovely friend Bird, of Bird's Party, I also had some fabulous custom printables with a strawberry theme to spruce things up.  It really helped tie everything together and she made me the cutest matching invitations:

I printed & cut out the personalized bunting, signage and shaped decorations.  There were printables in the set to wrap my water bottles, use as candy envelopes and tag our favor bags too: 

To make a nice platform centerpiece I simply wrapped a few cardboard boxes in red wrapping paper and then taped a strip of strawberry print grosgrain ribbon around each one. This gave me the perfect stand for cupcakes, as well as a place to display the Strawberry Shortcake hat I made (my tutorial for making it can be found here):

My old standby $20 glass drink dispenser, that I've used for every one of Little Miss's birthdays, held some berry lemonade and was easily decorated with some more berry ribbon and a printable berry cutout.  I even used a leftover strip of some berry print laminate fabric as my drip guard:

  
I got some mini gumball machines to give as favors and stuck some of the extra printables on them to tie-them into the party theme:

 To eat we had some little cream cheese and homemade strawberry jam sandwiches:

Yummy homemade cupcakes accented with a few printables on toothpicks:



Some red candies and, of course, some fresh berries:

For a few berry-themed activities, I used our Ikea art easel and freehanded a Strawberry Shortcake hat on paper and used some strawberry shaped sticky notes (from the $1 section at Target) to do a little "Pin the Berry On The Hat":



Finding a strawberry shaped piñata for a cheap price was nearly impossible (I mean who wants to pay $20 for something you plan to destroy?), so I created my own.  I'll be sharing my ultra thrifty how-to for it later this week:



It was a total hit with the kids - check out my party girl giving it her all:

I also created these strawberry surprise balls.  Besides being a cute decorative accent, they also are a great activity & favor for the guests.  Nestled within their many layers are little treats and toys.  As they are unwrapped, each surprise item is revealed.  These were as fun for the adults as they were for the kids.  I'll also be sharing how I did these later this week too:)

The birthday girl was also kitted out in all her Strawberry Shortcake glory:

It was a lot of fun and felt so good to share a bit of my childhood with my daughter and make a new memory too.  Now I just need to think about the next birthday that's nearly here!  

For tutorials on making my strawberry piñata & surprise ball favors, just click HERE:)

I'm also sharing this project with my FAVE LINK PARTIES.

Click HERE to check them out!