Berry Festive Decorations

The theme of my daughter's 5th Birthday was Strawberry Shortcake. I set the party up like a mini carnival with games, activities & prizes. Each station was named & decorated after a character from Strawberry Shortcake.

The front door was decorated with a Strawberry Shortcake poster (Dollar Tree), homemade strawberry plants and cut-outs. The strawberry plants were so easy to make: I just spray painted paint stir sticks green, attached 2 balloons with green pipe cleaners & clear tape & dotted the balloons with a black sharpie to look like seeds.

The strawberry cut-outs (seen in the door side windows) were cut out of cardstock, dotted with a Bingo game stamper and glued green tissue paper leaves. I also taped these to the floor in the house to create a path from the backyard where the party was held to the bathroom.

The "Welcome to Strawberry Land" is one of 10 signs we made for the party. The candy striped poles were a free find, the foam board was purchased at Dollar Tree & cut in half for each sign and the letters were made with my Cricut die-cut machine and scrapbook paper from my collection. We printed the character images from the Internet & my daughter colored them.
The cost of each sign was 53¢!

As the kids arrived, they were given a name tag with a Strawberry Shortcake sticker & a handle bag to collect their goodies. To save money, I used red lunch sacks from Target and stapled on cardstock handles. Big mistake! The humidity of the day and weight of the contents caused most of the bags to break! Luckily, I had plenty of extra bags. Next time I will splurge and purchase the sturdier handle bags.
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We held the party in our backyard and screened lanai. All of the games were in the yard and the cake & ice cream was served under the screen. My mother made the beautiful birthday banner from scrapbook paper, her Cricut, glitter & ribbon. The Strawberry Shortcake beach balls were purchased at Dollar Tree.

My mom & I made the topiaries last year for Lulu's Alice In Wonderland Tea Party. Michelle from Sweet Mady's Paper asked how they were made & I promise to post instructions soon!

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The Cake Table: The kids ate homemade decorated cupcakes and I served the large strawberry cake to the parents. The strawberry cake was made from 2 heart shaped cake pans. The night before the party I scooped ice cream into cupcake liners, placed them on a cookie tray, covered with plastic wrap & placed them into the freezer. This made serving ice cream a breeze at the party and the cost was way less than buying individual ice cream cups from the store. The table centerpiece was made with more strawberry plants stuck into a decorated coffee can and the posters came from Dollar Tree. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Snack Table: I set out a vege tray and chips & salsa for the adults to snack on during the party. I made the Strawberry Shortcake hat for Emma from a hat leftover from her Alice party last year, ribbon purchased for a $1.00 at Michael's and plastic strawberries. The plastic strawberries were found a local dollar store and are actually clips. They were packaged 10/$1.00 and by simply pulling the spring mechanism from the center of the clip, I was left with 2 darling strawberry embellishments! For $3.21, I had enough of these strawberries to decorate the invitations, berry baskets, crayon boxes & hat - and I still have some leftover! -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some pictures of the backyard. My husband strung fishing line from the lanai to the trees in the center of the yard to form a V shape. We hung paper lanterns & homemade hard candy from the string to give the yard a whimsical look. The hard candies are made from plastic plant pot saucers glued together, covered in colored cellophane & tied with curling ribbon on the sides. If you click on the pictures, they will show up larger and you can see the hard candy decorations better.



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Raspberry Torte Tattoos: Kids got to chose a Strawberry Shortcake tattoo or a bug tattoo (I didn't think the boys would want Strawberry Shortcake!).

The cost for this station was $7.63 ($5.50 tattoos + S&H from Ebay, $1.06 for tablecloth & $1.07 for sponges used to apply tattoos).

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Angel Cake Art: Each child painted Strawberry Shortcake themed suncathcers. I was upset when I opened the tablecloth because I thought I had purchased the round tablecloth, not the rectangle. It was too late to run out and buy a new one, plus I don't think the kids even noticed! I decorated empty baby food jars with scrapbook paper & yellow ribbon and filled them with water for the kids to clean off their paint brushes. I had Wet Ones wipes for quick clean up and name stickers to put on the back of the sun catchers. The kids left their masterpieces on the table to dry and collected them at the end of the party.

The cost of this station was $7.23 ($5.35 for sun catchers at Dollar Tree, 54¢ for paint brushes on clearance at Target, $1.34 for tablecloth). ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Purple Pie Man Mix Up: The Purple Pie Man is the bad guy in Strawberry Land & I told the kids he mixed up all of the puzzle pieces and I needed their help to put them back together. Before the party, I colored pictures of 6 characters (torn from Strawberry Shortcake coloring books purchased at Dollar Tree), laminated them and cut the pictures into 5-6 puzzle pieces. The kids had to put together 1 puzzle character to win a prize. The prize was a homemade coloring book & box of crayons (see details here).

The cost of this station was $11.07 ($1.06 tablecloth, $3.53 crayons, $1.93 folders, $4.28 coloring books & 27¢ ribbon) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Strawberry Patch Picnic: Kids ate a picnic snack of frosted animal crackers, strawberry Whoppers, strawberry Jell-O popcorn & strawberry fruit snacks (Target brand) & berry juice boxes. The snack was served in decorated pint-size strawberry baskets.

I staked a tarp with plastic picnic tablecloths into the ground and decorated the area with more strawberry plants. The cost was minimal (not including food) - $4.29 ($3.75 tarp & 54¢ for picnic clothes purchased on clearance at Big Lots). --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Orange Blossom's Rotten Orange: A game of "Hot Potato" played with a plastic orange and a Strawberry Shortcake music cd. Each child received a jar of homemade Orange Kool-Aid play dough as a prize.

The cost of this station was less than $1.00 (57¢ for the plastic orange & 43¢ for ribbon & scrapbook paper).----------------------------------------------------------------------
Blueberry Muffin Disk Toss: Strung a hula hoop between tree branches & the kids threw mini Strawberry Shortcake frisbees threw the hoop. Each child received a Strawberry Shortcake cello bag of bubbles and bubble blowers.

The cost of this station was $4.28 ($2.14 Strawberry Shortcake cello bags purchased on clearance at Party City & $2.14 for Strawberry Shortcake mini discs purchased at Dollar Tree). I already had the hula hoop & the bubble kits were purchased on clearance at CVS using a gift card, so nothing out of pocket!
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Huckleberry Pie Fishing: Kiddie blow-up pool filled with water & foam fish. The fish were cut out of craft foam and hardware washers were glued as the fish eyes. The fishing poles were made from brand new Scotch Brite handles, white string & a paper clip with a magnet hot glued to the clip. The kids had so much fun with this game! They each caught 5 fish and were able to take their fish & poles with them so that they could play the game at home. Everyone received a Happy Birthday Jingle Buddy for playing (mini bells with a resin clown topper).

Total cost of game: $17.25 ($3.21 pool on clearance at WalMart, $3.84 magnet circles, $4.23 craft foam, $5.97 washers). The Jingle Buddies were given to me by my mother from retail business that she no longer owns. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rainbow Sherbet Bowling: Simple bowling game with empty 2 liter soda bottles and whiffle balls. I had originally filled the bottles part-way with colored water, but this made the bottles too heavy to be knocked over by the plastic balls. The alley is a piece of scrap plywood covered with a plastic tablecloth. Each child received a candy necklace as a prize.

The cost of this game was $2.13 ($1.07 for wiffle balls at Dollar Tree & $1.06 for the plastic tablecloth). My husband had the plywood in the garage, the soda bottles were collected by family & friends & the candy necklaces were purchased on clearance at CVS with Extra Care Bucks.

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Honey Pie Pony Race: The kids raced stick ponies around candy striped poles. Everyone won a marshmallow ice cream cone candy.

The cost of this game was $2.14 (stick ponies purchased at Dollar Tree). The ice cream candies were purchased at CVS with Extra Care Bucks. I'll post more party pictures tomorrow.