My sweet baby girl turned 7 and we celebrated with an American Girl Doll slumber party. She has been begging for a slumber party so I thought this was the perfect occasion for her first. I wanted to keep it pretty small so she invited 3 of her friends over to celebrate. They are all really into American Girl Dolls right now so that was the theme. We had so much fun and did tons of crafts. If you follow me on Instagram stories you saw a sneak peek, but I will be sharing all the details below! I apologize in advance for all the pictures! There is a video at the end of the post that shows all the behind the scenes, food details, how to videos, craft ideas, tutorials, etc!
AMERICAN GIRL DOLL BIRTHDAY PARTY
INVITATIONS
I had so much fun working on this party. The girls are at such a fun age where everything is so girly, sparkly and exciting! First off we started with cute invitations for the girls and a separate one for their dolls. Gabby is Avery’s doll so she invited the other dolls in the smaller invitation. I made the invitations on my computer, but there are lots of cute options on ETSY.
DECOR/FOOD
I love setting up our kitchen island whenever we have a party. It is a great area for all the food and decor. Being an American Girl theme I was focused on mostly pink and red food. The backdrop was the office scene from the American Girl store. They sell many different options and they are only $15! Avery uses it when she plays with her dolls. In the middle I used a cake stand with a mini gift bag from the store. Then I used fun scrapbook paper for touches of pattern and glitter. The chalkboard stand is from Ikea and the star balloons are from The Dollar Tree. I used a felt board with letters and a lightbox sign as well as a printed picture I found online of an American Girl Doll in a birthday outfit and framed it in a cheap frame. I made outfits for each doll (more details on these below) and hung them across the top with clothes pins.
The food was easy. We ordered pizza for dinner, but had snacks of pink goldfish, strawberry yogurt pretzels, pink & red Hershey kisses, pink and red Starbursts, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, star watermelon and strawberries.
Here is a close up on the sandwiches. I just made PB&J and cut a star out of the top bread with a cookie cutter (same one I used for the watermelon so they looked like stars) and then put sparkly sugar sprinkles in the middle so they were pretty! (tutorial in the video at the bottom of the post)
I got the cake at our local grocery store. They do such a great job!
This was the table we did all the crafts on. I moved my upholstered chairs out and brought my favorite metal chairs in and tied a tulle bow on the back to pretty them up.
I used a piece of glitter scrapbook paper at each place setting with glitter party hats, flowers and cupcake water bottles I found at Hobby Lobby for $0.32!!!! Avery drew a piece of art she wanted for the centerpiece.
I got these red bags at Hobby Lobby and printed out the American Girl logo and glued it to each bag. This was to hold all the party favors after we made them.
CRAFTS| ACTIVITIES
When the girls arrived we started the party with 4 crafts that they could bring home as their party favors.
SLEEPING BAGS
We started by making the dolls sleeping bags. I had all the fleece cut and prepared for the girls. All they had to do was tie knots around the edges of the fringe. Then I ironed glitter letters on the sleeping bag that coordinated with the dolls names. Here is the sleeping bag tutorial I used.
Here are the girls and their dolls in their sleeping bags!
BRACELETS
Another craft we did was make bracelets for the girls and the dolls. This was super easy. I got all the supplies at Hobby Lobby and the girls could make anything they wanted. Lots of girls made bracelets with the dolls name on them.
ICE CREAM SUNDAES
I think the girls had the most fun with this craft. I just got little cups, spoons and various pom poms and beads at Hobby Lobby and the girls got creative. We started by gluing the big pom poms at the bottom and then spraying the entire thing with spray glue. It was super quick and made everything sticky so the other pom pom/beads would stay.
Here are the girls working on their sundaes.
So many fun treats!
DOLL BIRTHDAY CAKES
The last craft was really fun and quick. I bought tea light candles for each girl and they had paint and stickers they could use to decorate them. Then when you turn on the candle it looks like a mini birthday cake!
PARTY FAVORS
I made shirts, tutus, and party hats for all the dolls before the girls arrived so all the dolls would have a fun party outfit. I got the mini party hats at Target and glued a pom pom to the top. I got pink shirts and ironed on pink glitter letters I got at Hobby Lobby. Then I got tulle rolls (6″ x 20″) at Hobby Lobby, cut them into 12″ strips. I used about 30 strips per tutu. I tied them around hair rubber bands. They were the perfect size for the dolls waist. I got the tutu idea from this cute blog. If you watch the video below I share exactly how I made the shirts and the tutus.
So each girl left with a custom doll outfit (tutu, personalized shirt, party hat), a doll sleeping bag, bracelets for them and their doll, a doll birthday cake and doll ice cream sundaes. I made red party favor bags to look like American Girl bags that they could bring everything home in.
INSTASTORY VIDEO
The video below is a collection of all the Instagram story videos I shared. Behind the scenes, tutorials, decor ideas, food prep, etc.
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This party was so much fun. Avery said it was her favorite ever and her friends asked when we could do it again! That sounds like a success to me! Thanks so much for all your kind words as I was sharing sneaks on Instagram Stories. If I missed anything and you have any questions just let me know.
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Winni says
What a sweet party! Abery’s Smile says it all!
houseofhargrove@gmail.com says
Thank you so much!!
cheryl wood says
cute cute idea!!! so many of the children are having grown parties
houseofhargrove@gmail.com says
Thanks so much