Friday, October 22, 2010

It's All About Daisy...

Baby Daisy that is! My niece who will be here in December! The shower that I co-hosted for my sister-in-law Jessica back on October 2nd was also hosted by Jessica's other sister-in-law Betsy. I was in charge of all the decor and games and Betsy and Wendy (Jessica's mom) handled all the food and beverages. Since I was handling all the decor and games I had to get creative with my projects in order not to spend a fortune but still make cute things.


What baby shower is complete without a Diaper Cake? I knew I had to make one. It would double as decor and a huge part of my sister-in-law and brother's gift from me and Charles. I saw several different tutorials on how to make them but decided to do it my own way. I used 1" strips of paper taped in place to roll the diapers because I was afraid rubber bands would ruin them. For the base, I cut a piece of heavy cardboard to size and wrapped it in wrapping paper. I had some Glue Dots on hand that were left over from various wedding projects so I used those to help hold the various items onto the base. Jessica had registered for receiving blankets and I purchased those and used them to wrap around the bottom and middle layer of the cake to hide the paper around the diapers. On the top layer, I used ribbon I had on hand. The only ribbon I bought was the large purple polka dot ribbon used to hold the cake in place and for the bow on top. All of the other ribbon was on hand and left over from wedding projects. It was perfect that Jessica and Daniel decided to use purple in Daisy's nursery and I had all that purple ribbon on hand!



(Source: Yours Truly)
(Source: Yours Truly)
I absolutely LOVE how it turned out and had so much fun shopping for all the items and making the cake! Items used on the diaper cake: 90 newborn diapers, 4pk receiving blankets, desitin, washcloth lollipops, 6pk terry cloth socks, 3pk pacifiers, bottle brush, 2 small bottles, baby lotion, baby shampoo, baby powder, custom made "Daisy Gail" cross-stitch piece made by me.
(Source:Yours Truly)

This banner was a last minute project that I decided to make two days before the shower. It was so simple and fun to make. I used power point to create it and then just punched wholes in the letter pieces and used ribbon to string them together.

(Source: Yours Truly)

I decorated the flower pot using rub on letters I had on hand and some acrylic paint I also had on hand. I used the pot to hold the daisy flower favor pens I made for the shower guests! I just love flower pens, they make me smile and they are so cute and easy to make! :)

(Source: Yours Truly)

For the games I wanted something fun and unique. When I stumbled upon the candy game, I knew I had to do it for the shower! It was a little on the expensive side because even shopping at dollar stores, candy gets expensive but it was worth it! Jessica actually ended up winning it but since she was getting all kinds of gifts already I selected the guests with the next highest amount of correct answers. To make things easier on the guests, I created the card below using power point.

(Source: Yours Truly)

The Candy Game Instructions: Buy the following candy bars (or at least 10 of them)and tape them to a large piece of poster board. (I used a big piece of cardboard and covered it with wrapping paper white side out. Poster board isn't strong enough to hold the weight of the candy.) Hand out paper and a pen to each guest. Begin reading off each clue and have guests write down which candy bar goes with each clue. The guest with the most correct wins a prize, or a candy bar! If more than one person wins, have them each pick their favorite candy bar.

  1. Contractions: Whoppers
  2. AND/OR: 11 pound baby: Whoppers
  3. Grandparents: Lifesavers
  4. AND/OR: Epidural: Lifesavers
  5. Boys' Names: Mike & Ike
  6. Umbilical Cord: Twizzlers
  7. Father: Sugar Daddy
  8. Baby Fat: Chunky
  9. Girl's Name: Baby Ruth
  10. Cover Baby's Face with These: Hershey's Kisses
  11. College Fund: 100 Grand
  12. Time Alone: Zero
  13. Lull-a-Byes: Symphony
  14. Hospital Bills: Payday
  15. First Year of Parenthood: Rocky Road
  16. Dirty Laundry: Mounds
  17. Night of Conception: Skor
  18. Sweet Infant: Sugar Babies
  19. Breast Feeding: Milky Way
  20. Poopie Diaper: Tootsie Roll
  21. Contractions: Now & Later
  22. Triplets: 3 Muskateers
  23. Teething: Crunch
  24. Cool Mom: Peppermint Patty

  25. (Source: Yours Truly)

For the other game I really thought "Don't Say Baby" sounded fun! We played for the entire length of the shower and I think the guests had fun with it. I liked the idea of the diaper pins/safety pins for each guest that would be taken away when they were caught saying "baby" but I wanted to put a little creative spin on it. So while at Dollar General, I found some cute pink plastic pacifiers meant to be used as favors. I bought one box which had enough pieces for the number of people attending and placed one on each safety pin. So instead of the safety pins getting taken, the pacifier was taken. My mom ended up winning this game! I bought some balloons at Dollar Tree (gotta love that place...Mylar balloons with helium for $1 each!) I placed these outside to greet the guests and then had two more that I put on the back of the chair Jessica sat in. (Source: Yours Truly)

The favors in action the day of the shower. (Source: Yours Truly)

The banner hung on the mantel at the shower location. I love how it turned out! (Source: Yours Truly)

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the paper flowers before the shower so these are the only pictures I have of them. I had all the supplies on hand so it didn't cost a thing to make them...gotta love that! And they were so cute, I loved how they turned out! Jessica did to so I let her keep them all...they are in Daisy's nursery in the hand painted flower pot I made for the favor pens! (Source: Yours Truly)

More of the paper flowers I made. They were a lot of fun to make and are too cute! (Source: Yours Truly)

The food table missing the mini quiches Betsy and Wendy did a great job with the food and the cupcakes Betsy made were a huge hit! (Source: Yours Truly)

All of the gifts waiting to be opened! You can see the "clothes line" in the background. LOVED this idea! I used some ribbon from the dollar store and clothes pins from the dollar store as well. I decorated the clothes pins by adding little purple bows to them! (Source: Yours Truly)

Jessica opening her gifts. (Source: Yours Truly)Jessica and all her goodies! (Source: Yours Truly)

Me, Jessica and my mom.

I had a blast planning the shower and got sooo many compliments from the guests! I was a little nervous going into it since it was my first shower to plan but it came off great and I had several people tell me they thought I was a pro. :) So what do you think?

Thursday, October 21, 2010

From Drab to Fab!

So we still don't have our image CD yet and still no idea when we will be able to afford it. :( So in the mean time, I have decided to share some of the crafty projects I've been working on lately with you. To start things off, I'll share my fall wreath project.

I found this wreath at Big Lots for $20. I like the flowers, leaves and pine cones included on it however it was missing something and wasn't full enough. So I went on an acorn hunt at my moms house and found a ton of acorns that I could add to the wreath. I also found some silk sunflowers and a beautiful bow and a few more pine cones in my moms craft stash to add to the wreath. It only took me about two hours to complete and I took everything that came on the wreath off and completely re-did the whole thing!

Here is the before and after, I just LOVE how it came out!! What do you think?
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Up next, the details of the baby shower I planned for my sister-in-law!