As winter turns to spring, what could be lovelier for a little girl than a flower fairy party?

Plan to have the party in the garden – you can always run inside if the great British weather lets you down at the last minute – and you’ll have the opportunity for some gorgeous photos, with all those pretty little fairies among the trees and flowers! Outside also means you can be free with the fairy favourites glitter and bubbles without having to worrying about too much mess.

Take care of your fairy party invitations first – PuttyPrint have a great selection that can be personalised with your little fairy’s name and party details (they’ll even be sent out the same day if you’ve left it to the last minute!) Almost every little girl has a fairy dressing up costume, so ask them all to wear theirs to the party.

Start with a treasure hunt. Small tiaras can be bought cheaply and make a nice little gift, so hide one for each fairy around the garden. Do make sure you know where you’ve hidden them though, you don’t want anyone to miss out! Once each fairy has her tiara, then they need a wand. Cut out a selection of shapes from card and buy some sticks – satay sticks work well, or lengths of dowel rod. Let them decorate the shapes and then attach them to the sticks, adding some streamers and plenty of glitter too.

For party games get them all into a circle and practice some magic – each fairly can say a spell and wave her wand and the others turn into whatever she decides – frogs and butterflies are always good choices. Musical statues is good for fairies too!

Time for a fairy party tea. Use cookie cutters to cut the sandwiches into hearts and stars - so much more magical than boring rectangles. Marshmallows and strawberries on little satay sticks make a tasty treat for afterwards. There are plenty of fairy themed cakes available in the supermarkets, but if you want to bake the birthday cake yourself, then this is a perfect party for the doll-in-the-cake technique, where you bake a cake in a pudding bowl shape and then push the doll in so the cake becomes her skirt.

Have fun with your little fairies flitting around!