Strawberry Shortcake party + Giveaway!

Penny Power of Little Housewife throws a party to beat all parties for her gorgeous 4-year-old daughter. Here, she shows us how she did it. PLUS, see the giveaway at the bottom of this article.

It all started with a vintage Strawberry Shortcake DVD. There was talk at one point of a mermaid or Lalaloopsy party (both excellent ideas!) but once she watched the original Strawberry Shortcake cartoon (declaring it much better than the modern one) her mind was made up – the theme was to be vintage Strawberry Shortcake for Madeline’s 4th birthday. Her vintage loving Mumma was thrilled!

The first thing I always do is choose the invitations and then build the party around its design. These gorgeous invitations were designed by Itsy Bitsy Invitations on Etsy. I had them printed by printing.com and popped each invite into a polka dot paper bag from our local $2 Store. I made and printed the name labels myself.

We hosted the party at home this year. I was a little nervous at the thought of 12 (it was supposed to be 6 but Madeline kept inviting people!) kindergarteners in our house but I can honestly say that they were all absolutely lovely and it was the least stressful party I’ve ever hosted.

So, on to the party details. Starting with the main table…

For the table backdrop I went to printing.com and asked them to scan and print a picture of vintage Strawberry Shortcake and Custard from an old Strawberry Shortcake book that was my sister’s when we were little. I got them to matt laminate it as well so we could use it afterwards. It’s now hanging on our playroom wall 🙂

I made the birthday cake which was based on vintage Strawberry Shortcake’s house. It’s my favourite cake I’ve made yet. The whitewash wooden crates, which I used as table risers, are from Miss Mouse Boutique.

The cake was a vanilla polka dot cake. I made a madeira cake and added red, pink and green cake pops inside which looked like polka dots when we cut open the cake.

I covered the cake with Satin Ice Rolled Fondant which comes in a great range of colours and is lovely and soft and elastic to work with. It’s amazing what you can do with a few simple cookie cutters and some everyday kitchen utensils to shape and mould your fondant. I made the leaves using a surfboard cookie cutter and snipping out some triangles for detail, and I used an egg carton to gently bend the petals of the flowers while they dried.

For afternoon tea we served… cake pops. The polka dot paper straws are from Look Sharp Store. The flower cupcake cases were from New World at Easter. The doilies are from our local $2 Store. My mum made all of the tiny icing flowers which you’ll see pop up throughout the table. I got the pink cake stands on special from The Warehouse for $4.98. Bargain!

Cupcakes – The cupcake cups are from Pop Roc Parties. I think these are my new favourite thing to bake in! I made the fondant strawberry toppers by following a simple tutorial from Juniper Cakery.

Chocolate Kisses.

Marshmallow Kebobs.

Lolly Log.

Lamingtons (which are a bit wonky).

And Iced Cookies. I used the Best Sugar Cookie Recipe from In Katrina’s Kitchen which is really quick and easy. The dough doesn’t require chilling before rolling out or baking and the cookies hold their shape perfectly. I had wanted to ice strawberry shaped cookies but completely ran out of time so pink circles with sprinkles it was.

We also had apothecary jars filled with red, pink and white jellybeans which I got from Hey Hay Candy. All of the ribbons were from Ikes Emporium.

I found these fabulous bowls at our local $2 Store which I filled with chippies plus we also served mini hot dogs. The stripe tablecloth was a length of fabric from the quilting section at Spotlight.

I bought these sweet Meri Meri Toot Sweet paper plates from Pop Roc Parties for the kids to eat their afternoon tea. I just love the stripes and scalloped edging. The polka dot napkins were from Look Sharp Store.

Each child had their own personalised water bottles too. I purchased the mini water bottles in bulk boxes from Countdown and designed and printed bottle labels myself.

I made each of the kids a party hat to wear on arrival. They had four designs to choose from…

Plus, there was a special hat for the birthday girl. She loved it!

For decoration (and not to waste any precious fabric) I made a rag banner out of the scraps I had left over from making the party hats.

For party favours, as well as the party hats, each little girl was given a pink polka dot paper bag which I got from the $2 Store and picked out a Strawberry Shortcake charm bracelet (not vintage unfortunately) from NZ Party Themes, a pink candy stick from Hey Hay Candy and a handful of jellybeans from the apothecary jars on the main table. Our one boy party guest got a blue paper bag with some Disney Cars treats in it.

We had a few vintage decorations dotted around the table too. I made this yarn wreath.

And printed this image from the internet. The mini bunting was from Valentine’s Day.

Maddie wore the sweetest vintage print Strawberry Shortcake dress from The Princess in Pigtails Designs. We already had the strawberry necklace which was made by Daizy Bugz.

We kept the party games really simple and to a minimum. We played pass the parcel and had a piñata. The kids all had heaps of fun playing outside in our wendy house or in the playroom with our girls toys. It was lovely to see 12 kindergarteners entertain themselves so well.

Finally, we have just sent out all the thank you cards to everyone who came and made Madeline’s day so “berry” special. I was lucky to find these original cards on Etsy. So cute!

Vintage-Strawberry-Shortcake-Thank-You-Cards

Most importantly, this gorgeous girl said she had the best day ever! She loved her party.

Me and my best 4-year-old girl. Happy birthday to our beautiful Madda-Moo! xxx

GIVEAWAY

Penny Power is a keen party planner, baker, crafter and decorator. She blogs over at Little Housewife, where she crafts and bakes and generally has lots of fun. Check out her Cinderella party here too.

She also custom makes and sells party hats (as seen above). These hats are professionally finished, both inside and out, using high quality materials (see below). To order a set, email Penny here.

WIN!!

Penny is kindly offering Sweet Living readers the chance to win a custom made party hat pack for your little one’s party.

To enter the draw, simply post a comment below. Tell us what you like best about Penny’s gorgeous Strawberry Shortcake party.

OPEN TO NEW ZEALANDERS ONLY.

COMPETITION CLOSES ON 27 JULY, 2014 at midnight.

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Comments

Camilla says

July 21, 2014 at 8:29 pm

I love you used vintage strawberry! (Also a fan of the rag banner – a definite reason to keep scraps!)

Einge Rodriguez says

July 21, 2014 at 9:17 pm

Definitely the cake! So cute strawberry shortcake cake!

Imelda Doogan says

July 21, 2014 at 9:22 pm

I love everything about the party, so much time, effort and creativity! But the hats are my favourite!

Susan Agnew says

July 21, 2014 at 9:25 pm

Everything! The attention to detail, everything is covered (from the food to the birthday girl’s outfit)- it is very inspiring (as is Penny’s whole blog) 🙂

Jessica says

July 21, 2014 at 10:43 pm

I love everything. You are so crafty and there is so many different brilliant ideas. I loved how you personalised each water bottle. l 🙂

jody young says

July 22, 2014 at 10:57 am

love everything! its really good to see how creative you can be, its just getting the ideas-which you have now provided me with!
kids parties are so expensive but with a little imagination you have showen you can just about diy anything! thanks heaps, you have made planning my little girls bday party a lot easier! x

Liz van Berkel says

July 23, 2014 at 2:02 pm

Wow what an awesome party and a very lucky 4 year old. If I have to say what I liked best it would have to be the cake, wish I was that clever.

Gretta says

July 24, 2014 at 11:59 am

My daughter would love this! This whole decorations, but especially the cake, is amazing! So clever.