DIY Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Party Ideas

Loving the fun, handmade not to mention super adorable details of this Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Party by my friend Cheryl from Sew Can Do!

Cheryl used our Strawberry Party Printable to embellish the desserts table for her little sweetie, Serena's 03rd birthday! Check out all the fab details as told by Cheryl below: 

DIY Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Party Ideas - Party Styling and Printables

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 and 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 and 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).

DIY Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Party Ideas - Party Food and Drinks

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.

DIY Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Party Ideas - Party Activities

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:

DIY Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Party Ideas - Strawberry Surprise Party Favors

I also created these strawberry surprise balls.  Besides being a cute decorative accent, they also are a great activity and favor for the guests.  Nestled within their many layers are little treats and toys.  As they are unwrapped, each surprise item is revealed.