Event: "April Rain Showers" Baby Shower

I hosted an intimate baby shower for a friend with about 15 guests.  Another girlfriend helped assist me in hosting the party.  I came up with the "April Rain Showers" theme and incorporated rain clouds and umbrellas.  This set up was in the entry way of the clubhouse.  

Favors included candy packaged in paper bags.  I hand stamped the tags with a yellow umbrella and blue "thanks" sentiment and attached it to the bag with a staple.  

To extend the "April Rain Showers" theme, it was easy to incorporate flowers into the theme.  I wanted to use potted flowers instead of cut flowers to be more eco friendly. The potted flowers were used as centerpieces for the dining tables and to decorate other tables.  

I used wrapping paper that was cut into large squares to cover each of the dining tables.  I also used it to cover the long table with the food spread to add some color to it. 

We played, "Pin the Sperm on the Egg."  The girls really enjoyed this game!  

We also played the following games:

-Diaper Cake Guess: Guests had to guess how many diapers it took to make the diaper cake.
-Fertilized Egg:  One Easter egg had a "Positive" note in it and the rest of the eggs had "Negative" notes.  Each egg had a candy treat in it and were hidden throughout the clubhouse.  
-Flower Word Scramble: Guests had to unscramble 20 flowers.  To maximize the paper usage, I included a word search of the flowers just for fun.  

FREE Printables:
Word Scramble PDF
Word Search PDF

Tutorial: Diaper Cake

MATERIALS:

• 108 – Size 3 Diapers (LUVS)
• Wood board: 14" x 12" 
• Wrapping paper cardboard tube
• Curling ribbon
• Ribbon of various widths: 2″ and 2 1/2″
• Wrapping paper
• Safety pins

I had a wood board laying around in the garage.  It was the perfect size and sturdiness for a large diaper cake.  I used the wrapping paper that is incorporated with the baby shower theme to wrap the board.  

STEP 1:  I used the curling ribbon to create a circle with a 12" diameter.  I started to fill the circle with diapers in a circular pattern.  

I'm not fond of the rolled diaper cakes. It seems much more tedious to roll diapers individually.  I cannot even imagine what the new mother thinks when she has to undo each one.  

STEP 2:  Once I was almost done filling in the first layer, I placed the cardboard tube into the center of the diaper cake.  

STEP 3:  Repeat STEP 1 with a smaller circle of curling ribbon.  FILL! FILL! FILL!  

Repeat STEP 1 for each tier that you want to create.  I was happy with four tiers and I reached the top of my cardboard tube.  

STEP 4:  I wrapped each tier with 3" white ribbon and 2" and 2 1/2" colored ribbon.  I used a safety pin to keep the ribbons in place without pinning them to the diapers.  

STEP 5:  Decorate!  I had the yellow daffodils on hand and just created some bows. I created small clusters of daffodils and tucked them into the existing safety pins.  I pinned the bows to the ribbons to hide the existing safety pins.  I did not secure the diaper cake topper because I knew that it would not move around a lot.  

Upcycled Stamp Pad Storage

This is one of my favorite finds from a thrift store.  It is an all metal old cassette tape rack.  I thought it would be perfect to store my stamp pads.  

It is fairly wide, but not too deep. It goes on  the back of my shelf and leaves me plenty of workable space in front of it.  

I just won't know what to do when it gets filled up! 

Tutorial: Upcycled Cardboard Boxes

I found a metal wire rack a long time ago to organize the bathroom counter.  I searched far and wide for bins or baskets that fit each section perfectly.  I never found them. I finally decided to make my own.  

After I collect some cardboard boxes, I cut them open along their seams.  I measured and cut them to fit the sections of the metal rack.  

I taped of the edges with painter's tape and formed the box.  I made four of the exact same boxes. 

I covered each box with white scrap paper since the boxes had bright prints on them.  I brushed on a thick layer of my modge podge then added the paper.  Then I brushed on another layer on the white paper.  I let it dry over night.  

Most online bloggers create their modge podge solution with 50% water and 50% white liquid glue.  I bought my glue from the dollar store, so it had more water than glue to begin with.  I think that's why my boxes look warped.  I add more glue to my solution to about 65% glue to 35% water.  

I picked a light teal colored pattern paper that matched the decor in my bathroom. I covered the boxes with the improved glue solution, added the paper and then brushed on the final sealing coat of glue.  

The final outcome wasn't too bad.  The boxes fit the rack perfectly.  Once I filled the containers, the warped edges weren't as noticeable.  

 

Event: Cute as a Button Baby Shower

I have been crazy busy since I threw a baby shower for my sister in law in December 2012.  I created her invitations which can be found here... Cute as a Button Invitation.  It took me forever to sit down to edit the pics, so this will be a rather large post from me.  

I teamed up with another friend to throw the shower.  I took care of the stationary, decorations, food and favors.  My friend was in charge of the games and prizes that went along with them.  My contributions seemed easy, right? Not so much.  According to my husband I, "do too much" and I'm "over the top."  He won't let me throw parties for him.  Knowing myself, I started on the decorations in September.  

Since this was baby #3, we decided to have a small, ladies only event.  We had 13 ladies at the event and it was very nice and intimate.  Intimate enough where everyone knew each other and were comfortable enough to play the game, "Porno Face or Labor Face?".  

I apologize in advance for the crappy pictures.  A lot of running around finishing up things prevented me from taking really nice photos.  I am also the level before Beginner in Photoshop.  

BANNER


Bunting is very popular and I decided to create a banner incorporating this style.  Unfortunately, my picture doesn't do this banner justice.  The font that I use was a "stitched" style that went with the button/sewing theme that says, "welcome baby."

I printed out the letters individually and used my large circle cutter to cut them out.  I used a large hand punch for the yellow buttons on the ends.  Then I used a hole punch to do the button holes.  The orange circular flowers on the ends were made of tissue.  I hole punched the corners of each flag and threaded string through to hang.  

DESSERT BAR

I made paper accordion circles and tissue flowers way in advance.  I sketched out my idea before I made them so that I could figure out the spacing.  When I first started this project, I knew I didn't want to use pink or purple and I knew that my SIL would be ok with it.  I found cute coordinating polka dot and plaid wrapping paper.  I used it in the stationary and for all of the decorations.  Saved me tons of money and trips to the store to buy paper.  I still have a little bit of each roll left! 

My sister made red velvet cupcakes and I made chocolate covered Oreos.  I bought regular, peanut butter, mint,  and chocolate Oreos.  Each one had a different top color.  I used a polka dot and stripe mold for them.  I gave up on trying to individually color in the polka dots and stripes. I just filled the mold 1/3 full with the color I wanted, placed the cookie in and put regular chocolate afterwards.  This created a two-tone effect.  

FOOD

I decided on easy appetizer type foods.  This was probably the best event I planned with accurate food proportions where I didn't have food left over.  Below are some straightforward recipes and directions.  

Brussel Sprouts and Bacon:

-Cook bacon
-Slice brussel sprouts in half
-Thinly slice onions, garlic cloves, carrots
-Blanch brussel sprouts and carrots (~ 5 mins.)
-Saute onions in olive oil
-Toss in blanched veggies (~ 3 mins.)
-Slice bacon (easiest with kitchen shears)
-Add bacon and stir (~ 2 mins.) 
-Add salt and pepper to taste
                   

Shrimp Spinach Salad:
-Devein shrimp
-Saute shrimp in olive oil and add salt and pepper
-Thinly slice fuji apples
-Layer baby spinach in bowl
-Add shrimp and apple slices
-Add feta cheese
-Drizzle balsamic vinaigrette on top of salad                    

Babies in a Blanket:
-Cut puff pastry into ~ 2" squares
-Place little wieners at a diagonal to the corners
-Fold opposite flaps over and press to seal
-Bake at 350 degrees (~15-20 mins.)

*This time I placed the little wieners in the puff pastry without cooking it first.  Technically, they're already cooked.  But I noticed that the juices from the meat deflated my puff pastry.  Next time, I'll heat up the little wieners first to get rid of the excess liquid.                      

Cucumber Sandwiches:
-Thinly slice cucumbers and mint leaves
-Mix mint leaves with cream cheese
-Mash avocados
-Cut bread with circle cookie cutter
-Spread cream cheese mixture on slice of bread
-Spread avocado on another slice of bread
-Layer cucumber slices on one slice of bread
-Top with the other slice of bread

*I was unable to find a smaller circle cookie cutter.  These were a little bit bigger than the size of my palm.  I was hoping to find biscuit cutters or something similar to make sandwiches half the size.  Next time smaller for sure!

Pepperoni Pizza:

-Floured work area, hands and rolling pin
-Roll out dough into small discs
-Spread tomato paste onto dough
-Sprinkle on dried basil
-Sprinkle on mozzarella cheese
-Add two slices of pepperoni
-Bake at 350 degrees (~10 mins.)

*To save time, I par baked the dough with the tomato paste the night before.  No, I did not make the flour from scratch.  My friends at Trader Joe's made a good batch of herbed pizza dough for me to pick up.  

BBQ Meatballs:
-Heat BBQ sauce in pot (~2 mins.)
-Add meatballs and stir (~10 mins.)

*This must have been the hardest thing to make! HA!


BABY POOL BOARD

Since we had an intimate group of ladies, we had a baby pool.  My SIL was scheduled to have another C-Section, so we were unable to guess the date of the birth.  We had guesses for weight and length.  Each guess was $2.  Person with closest overall guesses is the winner and takes the pot.  Some generous ladies decided that if they won, to give the winnings to the mommy.  

I found a huge neutral colored picture frame with its glass still intact from the local thrift store for about $10.  I removed the backing and took out the picture.  I cut a sheet of velum to fit inside the frame and put the backing on again.  

I decorated the frame with bunting that said, "baby Gonzalez." Again I used the wrapping paper to decorate!  The picture frame became a large cute and new whiteboard.  I used a dry erase marker to write the categories, "Name, Weight, and Length."  Guests entered their info at their leisure.  


FAVOR BAGS

All of the guests left with a favor bag filled with each flavor of chocolate covered Oreos.  

I had small paper bags and used a decorative edge punch for the top.  I printed out the tag with, "thank you sew much for coming" and then I used a circle punch. I used a button embossing punch to layer on top.  Finally, I used a hole punch through all of the materials and threaded string through the package.  


After working on a wedding in November 2012 and this baby shower, I vowed no more working on events until it is one for me.  That didn't last very long.  Starting to plan a baby shower for another friend coming up at the end of April.  I'm working with a friend for this event and I won't take so much on my plate.  This time around I'll ask for help! 

Diaper Cake 002

This diaper cake was created for the mother of my goddaughter.  I was more than happy to work on my second diaper cake!

I didn’t make the cake as large as my first one.  I also didn’t want anyone from the first baby shower to easily guess the number of diapers used in this diaper cake.  

Second go around was much quicker.  Someone at the shower thought it was a real cake! 

MATERIALS:

• 98 – Size 2 Swaddlers Diapers
• Plastic party platter
• Wrapping paper cardboard tube
• Curling ribbon
• Ribbon of various widths: 1/2″, 2″, and 4″
• 1 - 1/4" dowel cut in half 
• Safety pins 

Dry Erase Picture Frame Board

I have recently become addicted to Pinterest!  I have seen fancier examples of this project.  I had my 10 year old niece every other week during the summer.  I also tutored a kid for 3 hours in the morning.  

I created this schedule board to keep my niece busy.  I was gone in the morning before she woke up, so I wrote in a chore and an activity for her to do on her own.  When I came back for lunch, we did activities together.  The first week we worked on a lot of paper crafts.  The following week we worked on projects in the kitchen.

I used Microsoft Word to create the schedule template.  I chose a 8″ x 10″ random frame I had laying around.  I printed out the template on 8.5″ x 11″ paper from my scrap bin and trimmed it to size. 

Diaper Cake 001

A good friend of mine was having a baby shower and I volunteered to make her a diaper cake. I spent about 15 minutes searching online for ideas.  There were two main styles, individually rolled diapers or continuously wrapped.  I liked the wrapped styles because it resembled a real cake better.  I saw many whimsical styles and designs, but I wanted to create a diaper cake that looked more like a real cake.  I stuck with her theme of elephants, grey and purple. 

MATERIALS:

• One case (168) – Size 2 Swaddlers Diapers
• Plastic party platter
• Wrapping paper cardboard tube
• Curling ribbon
• Ribbon of various widths: 1″, 2″, 3.5″ and 4″
• Safety pins 
• Silk flowers
• Various baby products