Baby Girls Rock!

New baby's nursery inspired the theme for this baby shower. Or lack of a theme. We just incorporated coral  (which looks red on my screen for some reason) and grey into all of the decorations.

Monogram cakes are popular these days and I love them. This layer cake made by Danita had a wooden "G" on top that was simply painted grey.

Aunt Mandy made this cute framed wooden monogram with a chevron fabric background which now hangs above the crib.

The gift table was decorated with a custom banner, of course, and my birdcage with a mini chalkboard inside. We layered a paper polka dot table cloth with a lace runner on the table for a vintage look.

We used the birdcage to hold all of the cards.

Even baby girl gift baskets were coral and gray. 

I come from a long line of crafty people and it seems like EVERYONE helped prepare for this baby shower. My Aunt Sandy made this banner with her Cricut machine. I love the 3D look and the way it looks like lace doilies.

Aunt Sandy also made the baby shoe "goodie bags." We put tiny bags of Haribo gummy bears inside because that is expecting mom's favorite candy. 

The extras are available to purchase in my etsy store. Just click the link in the sidebar.

I made these simple centerpieces using paper table cloths because I couldn't find napkins that I liked to make tissue pom-poms. I stuck them in antique blue Ball jars stuffed with crinkle paper so that you couldn't see the wires and picks. In the top of the arrangement, I stuck a chevron monogram which was cut on the Sizzix machine. Baker's twine was tied around the top and pink pearls were draped around them.

Olivia made a very girlie diaper cake complete with frames and a tiara.

Even the food was color-coordinated. Icing and sprinkle covered marshmallows were too cute to eat. But we did. Cousins Dodi and Kori made these.

Cousin Lea made the coral cookies with hugs on top. I'm still not sure how she got them that color.

I painted this little picket fence box that I already had from a pinwheel party and used it for the fruit skewers. Little washi tape flags were stuck on top of each one.

Aunt Sandy made cones with doilies for popcorn in the "old" bucket.

Guests were asked to write advice for the new mom on these little dress cards made by Dodi and Kori.

These clothespins decorated by Dodi and Kori were used to play a game where guests lost their clothespin when they said "baby." Whoever had the most clothespins by catching people say the word, won a prize. 

I didn't win.

My mom, Andi, made the prize bags using scrapbook paper, old dictionary paper, doilies, baker's twine, and paper flowers. With a "G", of course.

Even the gifts were coral and gray. My mom used some of the leftover tablecloth to stuff into the gift basket. 

What kind of games do you play at baby showers?

ABC Birthday Party

This one loves letters, so we threw an ABC party.

Which means you need a custom door hanger instead of a wreath.

And a handmade ABC mobile with letters cut out with the Cricut machine hung with baker's twine. 

And of course, goodie bags decorated with patterned paper.

And a huge M. What is it about monograms?

Especially really big ones. Look closely (even though it is fuzzy because my $300 flash wasn't working.) It is decoupaged with tiny letter squares cut out of the scrapbooking paper.

And a DIY Birthday banner!

And a cake with letter confetti strewn on the table. I love table scatter.

And fruit kebobs. I love the word kabob. Or kebab. Jury's out on how to spell it.

This custom birthday party was so fun to create!!!

To make the door decoration, I used this scoring board, which I purchased myself. In my honest opinion, it is not necessary, but it is helpful in keeping the folds evenly spaced. I don't always use it, but when I make something for other people, I do.

Gender Reveal Party

New babies are cause for celebration!

The baby quilts in this antique dresser drawer were special because one was Mom's baby quilt and one was Dad's. How sweet is that?? Perfect for the vintage theme of this gender reveal party.

Every party needs a banner.

Rolled tissue flowers on foam core were used for this question mark on the old reclaimed barn wood wall.

I love this old door with the shelf added to make it functional. One basket held tie pins. One held tutus. These were cut out with the Cricut machine. Each guest guessed (ha!) boy or girl by choosing a pin and wearing it.

I don't know why I don't have a picture, but we revealed the gender with tubes of confetti thrown at the couple. 

Art Party

This year, the girl birthday party was at Arts on Fire, a pottery painting place. Each guest gets to paint a piece of pottery of their choice and keep it. Love that!

These handmade art party invitations were pretty easy to make, but a little time consuming.  I cut out artist palettes on tan cardstock and let the birthday girl paint the splotches on the invitations. (This party is not about me and my perfectionist tendencies after all!) The paintbrushes were cut with a Cricut electronic cutting machine cartridge that was actually an old fashioned ink pen and we just added the brush tip over the pen nib and drew lines for bristles. My little girl actually thought of that one. Printed labels were added on top with party info. Oh and that perfect circle for the artist's thumb? Used a circle punch. These fit in the card envelopes from Office Depot. Love those too!

The birthday girl painted her own cake stand. Again, OCD was not allowed to creep in. Another pretty cool cake by Andi (my mom.) Inside was rainbow and I can't believe it, but I don't think I got pics of the inside. 

Would you believe the purple icing faded from the sun through the windshield on the twenty minute drive to the party locale?? It was MUCH brighter! Wear sunscreen folks. UV rays are harsh!

Art Party goodie bags had colorful gumballs inside. Remember, they also get to take home pottery.

My newly nine year old wrote "Thank You" on the teeny tiny paint sets from Party City that we tied to the bags with cute ribbon. We used Souffle pens from Michael's to write on the plastic. Those pens are pretty cool. They write on almost anything but you have to be patient and let the ink pool. I think I may have to decorate my cell phone cover...

Gift Bucket

Why is it so fun to get or give a gift basket?  Or in this case gift bucket?

I made this for a friend in the hospital after delivering her baby girl.  Someone told me about a recipe for chicken soup using 6 canned goods.  I tried it and liked it.  So, I thought maybe it would make a good gift.  Especially if it is wrapped in a super cute green bucket from the dollar bins at Target.  (It was actually $2.50, but still a great deal.)  You'll never guess what I made the monogram with.  Shelf liner!!  Shhhhh! don't tell my secrets!  It was on clearance at Michael's so I bought several different patterns because I just knew it would work like vinyl cut with my Slice machine or Cricut.  

I added a bag of Fritos and a cute recipe card to the basket.  You could even add shredded cheese to the gift basket if you are delivering to the recipient's home. Everything for a complete meal without having to try too hard.  Everything goes in one pot. No need to remember to thaw something or dirty lots of dishes if you seriously don't feel like cooking OR going out.  Or having pizza delivered.  Am I the only girl in America that doesn't care for pizza much?

6 Can Taco Soup:
Rotel
Whole Kernel Corn
Black Beans
Chicken Broth
Can of Chicken
Cream of Chicken soup
+ Taco Seasoning packet

Mix all ingredients in a pot and simmer.
(Most of the time, I actually cook chicken in the pot first and then add all ingredients except canned chicken. In a pinch, it works with canned chicken.)

Vintage Circus Shower

                        The vintage circus shower for my sister was inspired by an Anthropologie catalog.

This was one of my favorite parties ever.  I love this theme.

Jordan and my dad made the sandwich board sign.  She and I both painted the letters.  (That was a lot of painting, but I love how it turned out.)

An easy decoration for any party is to display the invitation. Especially if the invitation is handmade and really, really cute. I found this frame at Goodwill with the intention of painting the dark bronzish colored frame and purple flower "painting."  I forgot a before pic, but you can imagine.  I spraypainted it red and covered a piece of cardboard with fabric to frame the invitation.  The invitations were a collaboration by all the sisters and my mom.  The tiny banner said "It's a Boy!" (It better be.)

Aunt Mandy made the cake.  Awesome!  (And it tasted good, too.  It really did.  Like I ate four pieces good.  And they were three layers each.)

Jordan found these buckets at the dollar store.  Wish I had a before pic.  She painted them to look like the thingy the seal stands on at the circus.  So cute!

Jordan cut the circus tent shape with the good ole Cricut machine.  (That thing came in handy for this party, especially, because we found a circus-themed cartridge.)  We made scratch-off tickets according to a recipe using paint and liquid dish soap that we found on Pinterest.  We made one mistake, though.  If you try it, make sure you write on the ticket BEFORE you laminate it.  Then paint.  I laminated first and the permanent marker scratched right off with the paint.  Which meant we did not know who won the prize.  Not good.

We did manage to give away some prizes with the Bebe bingo game.  All the gifts were given a number sticker.  As the expectant mom opened gifts, the number was called out for guests to mark on their cards.

Aunt Sandy made these cards for guests to record wishes for the baby.  These are made with thick cardstock scrapbook paper which can be made into a mini album later.

Can't have a circus without candied apples, right?  Jordan cut the leaves out with the Cricut and stamped "Thank You" on them.  How cute is that?  These would be precious teacher gifts.  My mom and sis-in-law said they were not hard to make using the box of mix from the grocery store.  You will need a candy thermometer, though.  The apples tasted really good, too.  They were a huge hit. (I didn't even get one cause they were all gone.Still mad about that.)

Jena made the diaper "cake".  Yep, there's diapers in there.  Jordan made the "Congrats" banner with the Cricut and she made the tissue balls.

My sister's friend, Heather, made the cake pops.  German Chocolate and Red Velvet.  Can you believe this was her first time ever to make cake pops??  She got the idea from www.bakerella.com. I love how they were displayed in the porcelain popcorn bucket.

I made the tiny banner and added it to this thing I thought looked like a popcorn cart.  I think maybe it is made to hold potted plants.  My mom found these tiny popcorn cartons that we filled with caramel popcorn for guests to take.

OK, so maybe we shouldn't have called attention to the ugly ceiling of the building where we hosted the shower, but the pennant banner sure was festive.  Everyone had their hands on this one, because there was so darn much of it. We all helped make it.

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!