About to POP Shower Invitations

In all the pictures I showed in this post about the baby shower, I completely forgot to mention or show the invites.  I made them pretty simple, but I think they were super cute.

 

I cut the circles out with my Cricut of course and stitched them on with my sewing machine.  I did this for 2 reasons.  1- I didn't want to use any more of my glue dots since I was running low. 2-I thought it would add a cute detail.

 

 

Usually when I pick a theme for a party or shower I am overflowed with ideas for invites and just can't decide on one.  However this time every one I saw online was computer generated.  Don't get me wrong they were all cute but just not anything I could duplicate easily.  Hence the simplicity of these invites.

About to POP Baby Shower

This past weekend was the About to POP baby shower I threw for my cousin's fiance...finally!

I feel like I've been preparing for this shower, FOREVER, but I've had alot of fun in the process.  It never fails that any time I host a shower or party of any kind, the night before I end up asking my husband, "why I decided to do this?" 

To which he responds, "because you like them".  Which is true but man the night before and day of is filled with alot of scrambling and stress.

Anyway, enough rambling, on to the party. 

I used multiple colors with the main 2 being pink and purple.  Of course no "About to POP" shower is complete without a popcorn bar, I too had to have one.  I made 3 types of popcorn, butter, caramel, and white chocolate with M&M's.  I made individual popcorn boxes, that were too cute.  I bought the book Hop on POP and had everyone sigh it for the baby's first book.  I had 2 types of centerpieces, the lollipop bouquet pictured above, and 2 diaper cakes.

 

I used my cricut to cut 2 inch circles and used them as a ribbon around the diaper cakes.  I had the hardest time figuring out how to top them.  First I planned on doing flowers like I did with the last baby shower I planned.  Then I thought of doing a painted wood letter "C", which stood for the baby's name, but neither of them looked right.  My last resort was the cloth baby shoes.  My intention was to decorate them with cute little bows and flowers (the above cake had pink polka dot shoes, the other one had purple polka dot shoes), however because I made these the day before during a rather short naptime and had a million other things to finish, it didn't happen.  They are still cute but I wish I had the time to jazz em up a bit.

 

I made a table runner for the counter out of polka dot scrapbook paper.  I didn't even tape them together, I just laid them next to each other and placed everything else on top which kept them in place.

 

 

I made the cupcake stand out of 3 wood plaques from hobby lobby and 2 glass candle sticks from the Dollar Tree.  I glued them together with E6000 glue and spray painted the entire thing.  I was so excited with my Chocolate caramel cupcakes.  They were so very delish and came out perfectly.

 

 

I have a thing about 2 liters of pop..... I hate having them at parties.  I always end up buying 2 many and I'm left with multiple opened bottles which inevitably go flat and get dumped into the sink.  I made strawberry lemonade, sweet tea, and cherry limeade.  I wasn't crazy about the cherry limeade, but other's said it was very tasty.  I also had bottled water with my cute little labels.  Which almost all got taken, so I was super happy.

 

 

I found a onesie shaped cookie cutter while my mom and sister and I were in Amish country and knew I had to use it for the shower.  It was just too cute.  I didn't want to frost them like I do any other cookie because I wanted them to look a little less homemade, not that there is anything wrong with homemade.  I took some tips for flooding the frosting and outlining the cookie from the blog Bake at 350.  If you are a cookie baker you must go to this blog, it is Heaven.  The cookies took a long time to flood but the end result was worth it.  I LOVE how cute they are.  Maybe eventually I'll get a little fancy with the frosting but the simple pink was just the right touch.

 

I made Snap Crackle POP treats.  Which was just store bought chocolate rice krispy treats cut in half with lollipop sticks sticks added.  I decided they needed to have some pink added to them so I dipped  in more chocolate and rolled them in sugar I dyed with food coloring.  I attached a tag that read, "thanks for POPping by". 

 

Here is one thing I have learned about favors, at least with my family, no one ever takes them, or even realizes what they are.  Unless it's a kid's party with goodie bags, I always get some puzzled looks when I mention favors.  So note to self.....don't worry about them next time.

 

I also had 9 tissue paper poms, 3 hanging from each light fixture in my mom's kitchen, dining area, and living room.  These tied all the colors together.

 

For food (which I completely forgot to get any pics of) was all popped themed.  I made POPcorn chicken using boneless, skinless chicken breast and Kraft Fresh Takes in Rosemary and Garlic as well as Italian Parmasan (spelling?).  They were super tasty.  We also had sweet pepper POPpers (I used cream cheese and cheddar shredded cheese), taco dip (Mouth POPin Taco Dip), pasta salad, and broccoli and Carrots (POP something healthy).  It was delish.

 

 

I'm so glad I did the shower because the guest of honor was super happy with everything but man am I glad it's over.  I was exhausted for 2 days after and very thankful I don't have another party to plan and prepare for until Grant's birthday.

 

 

 

About to Pop Water Bottle Labels

I feel like I've been MIA from my little blog FOREVER, even though its only been a little while.  Some great things and some not so great things have been going on.  I don't like to bring negativity into my blog space because this is supposed to be my Happy Place, so instead I chose to take a time out and come back when with a new attitude.

So enough about that, on to better things.

After making numerous popcorn boxes I took a break from all things baby shower related.  I just lost some steam and was stuck on how to do the invites and therefore everything was put on hold. 

I blame this brain fart on those darn popcorn boxes.  While I think they are so cute there are time consuming and a bit of a pain in my rear.  Next time I think I'll just use paper bags or buy some already made. 

Anyways

I finally finished the water bottle labels and love love love how they turned out.  I have a little love affair with water bottle labels.  They are at every shower/birthday part I do, just because I think it's a sweet and inexpensive touch.  Normally I personalize them with the baby's name for a baby shower or the birthday/name of the birthday person on the labels but for these I decided I wanted to just stick with the theme,  and that darn brain fart was creeping in again and I couldn't figure out how to use the baby's name on them.  Either way I love them and I think the mom to be will appreciate them too.

I made them basically the same as I always do, using my cricut, some glue dots and clear contact paper.  You can see a tutorial here for the ones I made for the Grant's 1st birthday.  For these I used multiple colors of polka dot paper for the wrap then another color cardstock for the center.

After finishing these I'm full speed ahead on getting more baby shower projects marked off my to-do list.  I bought the supplies for a new cupcake stand, more on that later, and the invites are in the process of being finished.  More on that later too. 

Popcorn boxes for a Baby shower

As I've mentioned in a few posts there are people having babies all around me.  Right now I know of 3 mommies-to-be and one of them I'm hosting a shower for at the end of April.  I'm constantly saving different baby shower themes to my favorites folder in the hopes that one day I'll get to use them on someone. 

Finally my day has come.  The last shower I hosted was back in 2011 for my cousin's twin boys.  I did a Thing 1 and Thing 2 theme and I had so much fun planning a crafting for it.  Since then I've tried to talk a few family members and friends into having another baby just so I can do their shower, haha. 

I know, that's a little crazy but I can't help it. 

Anyways my cousin is having a baby girl (it's the season for girls, every mommy-to-be I know is having a girl), and I've decided on the theme "About to POP".  Many people have used this theme, it's not original on my part but it's so  much fun!

Ok so I confess I was sold on the theme when I saw the popcorn bar most people have.  I mean seriously who doesn't love a popcorn bar of gourmet flavored popcorn.

My mouth is watering...

As usual I've scoured the internet for ideas and inspiration and my favorites folder and picture folder on my computer are bursting.  If I could figure out Pinterest my computer would thank me but that's for another day.

The biggest issue I have when planning and crafting for a shower (after I choose a theme) is the invitation.  I try to remind myself to keep things simple and classic but always end up with a million ideas floating around and can't decide on the perfect one.  With this theme I had the exact opposite happen.  I couldn't figure out how to make them at all.  It seems most people order their from Etsy or make a printable one with their computer.  Of course my mom said I could just go to Walmart or Target and pick up a package of invites and write the info on them.

"What?"   was my response.  The crafter in me just can't do that.  Just like I can't go to the party store and pick up all my decorations.  I HAVE to make them.  After all that's part of the fun....

and the stress...

 

and the frustration....

 

But mainly the fun of having a shower for someone.

 

Of course if you're going to have an "About to POP" theme with a popcorn bar, popcorn boxes are a must.  I could have found some online to purchase I'm sure, but what's the fun in that.  I did a google search and found a template, printed it out, traced the template on cardstock, cut it out, and glued the pieces together.

 



 

I used my cricut to cut out some circles out of scrapbook paper to decorate the boxes.  I decided I didn't want to use glue to attach them for fear of the paper wrinkling, or glue dots because I was afraid they might fall off or tear. 

 

So what's a girl to do?

 

Sew them on.  Before I glued the pieces of the popcorn boxes together I took one side and stitched the circles on each of them.

 

 

I made the boxes in a variety of colors.  Pretty much I went through my cardstock stack and grabbed any color I liked and that was bright.

 

I think they are super cute and can't wait to fill them up with some gourmet popcorn!!!

 

 

Baby Shower Banner

I'm so excited to be planning another baby shower.  About a year and a half ago I did a Thing 1 and Thing 2 for my cousin who was having twin boys.  I can't believe they are over a year old now.  When I found out my cousin Trevor and his fiance were expecting I immediately volunteered to do their baby shower.  I chose the theme "About to POP", mainly because I really really wanted to do a Popcorn bar but also because I knew I could use a rainbow of colors and I want this shower to be bright and cheery, full of lots of color.

I bought a scapbook paper stack from Hobby Lobby.  180 sheets of polka dot, stripes, plaid, etc in a variety of colors and I'm going to do all the decorations and invitations using them.  The first project I tackled was a banner.  After all every good party needs a banner right?  I saw this one and knew I needed to make one of my own.  I hand traced and cut each onesie out and used my cricut to cut the circles and letters to spell baby Channing's name.  I have to say after cutting all those onesies out by hand I have a new found appreciation for my beloved Cricut.

 

I used some ribbon I already had along with clothespins I already had.  Then I dug through my boxes of fabric to find some scraps I could cut up to tie in between each onsie.  I wasn't trying to make colors match or anything, I just wanted some bright colors in the mix.

 

This is not where the banner will hang during the shower but it was the only wall space that I could get a picture without toys, pictures, tables, windows, or Grant's hands in the photo.

 

 

I absolutely love this banner.  It just screams "baby", and I like that it couldn't be used for a birthday or any other kind of celebration.

 

I have many more "About to POP" projects coming up, as I'm slowly completing them marking them off my list one by one, so stay tuned!