Oink! the blog of Piggy Bank Parties: {inspiration party} sweet and girlie gingham

I'm so excited to take part in the Vendor Challenge over on Celebrations at Home. Click here to see the beautiful post featuring our Sweet and Girlie Gingham {Inspiration} Party over on the Celebrations at Home blog today.

When I read the theme was "Pink and Orange," I knew instantly what party I wanted to create. A few months ago I designed an invitation for a sweet little girl's 4th birthday celebration using one of my favortie patterns--gingham.

I was so inspired by the invitation that I designed party décor to match. I’m thrilled to share how I created this sweet and special {inspiration party} on a $60.00 budget using one printables collection and some basic supplies.

The star of this party is the gingham paper. I used it to create placemats, napkin rings, party hats, favor boxes, favor bags, glass jar lids, flower embellishments, lanterns and serving platter liners.

The templates used here--party hat, purse favor box, favor bag, napkin ring and lil' lanterns--are all {free downloads} available right here on Oink! Click on the Free Downloads button at the top of the blog. In the next few days, I will be featuring tutorials on how I created each of them.

As a little girl, I always wanted to be grown up so I set up the dining table just like I would for a “big” girl party. Cloth napkins were safety pinned to pillows and used as sophisticated booster seats for the little ladies. The dark dining chairs were softened by attaching cloth napkins with simple ribbon bows.

I love using clear dishes to showcase fun placemats and white serving pieces that can be customized to fit almost any color scheme.

At each placesetting cloth napkins were rolled and encircled with flower napkin rings, little purses were filled with candy rings and whimsical flowers adorned party hats.

An orange chiffon birthday cake with a “sweet” mini banner was the perfect centerpiece on a cake stand embellished with pink ruffled ribbon.

The window backdrops for the dining and sweets tables included twisted pink ruffled ribbon and embellished paper lanterns. The same effect that I achieved with the ruffled ribbon can be duplicated using paper streamers that have been stitched and gathered down the center.

I also added the ruffled ribbon to the sweets table curtain using double-stick tape. The backdrop was finished off with a "sweet" banner!

I wanted to create a sweets table that was the perfect height for 4 year olds to feel like big girls so I used a bench from our dining set. The sweets included flower shaped cookies from my favorite bakery, store-bought wafer cookies and homemade cake mix cookies.

I used square platters and dishes to continue the gingham square theme. I even drizzled the frosting on the cake mix cookies to mimic the gingham pattern.

At the conclusion of the party, each attendee receives a favor bag filled with candy jewelry and a pack of sugarless bubble gum.