It's Raining Babies!

Yay for Baby Showers! The big event was this past weekend (ok, 2 weekends ago...I'm a slow blogger!), and was a total blast...About 35 people gathering to celebrate a new little one arriving sometime in May. I was excited to finally hang my pennant bunting (I showed a few peeks of it back in early February), and then give it to the Mama-to-be to hang in the baby's nursery.

  

The shower's theme was "turquoise and yellow polka dots with elephants"--kinda random, but I got the idea from talking to Leah about her ideas for the nursery early on, and just ran with it. Once the invites were finalized, I had so much fun pulling together all the other little elements for the party.

The cardstock and envelopes were purchased from Paper Source (color: Pool), along with the handmade paper and template I used to line the envelopes. Digital elements for the invite came from Jessica Sprague, and I designed the invite using Photoshop Elements.

 This wreath greeted guests at the front door. After I hung it, I added a couple canvas flowers dyed to match the clothing, but I didn't remember to take a picture.

I used stickers to mask off the polka dots and the letter before I sprayed the pieces with glimmer mist. Then I added the bits of (adorable Maya Road) trim and ribbon using Beacon's fabri-tac.

Doncha love that 'A' for Annabelle!?! 

Mantel decorations...I made a giant paper-accordian flower out of wrapping paper, but it was too floppy when I put the halves together, so I used half here and half in the window. The ruffled swag and polka-dotted tables clothes were all sewn from a twin set of sheets. I couldn't find anything at the fabric store I liked, so when I spotted this at Target, I grabbed it hoping I'd have enough fabric for everything.

I made a kajillion of these little accordion flowers, they came out so cute, I couldn't stop! Here's a trick I discovered. Scoring the cheap-o cardstock often left me with rips in the flowers at the folds, so before I folded them, I backed them with masking tape. That way they were nice and sturdy, and you couldn't even tell from the front!

The buckets were from the dollar spot at Target, and I added the polka dots using a white paint pen. The little felt elephant guys were from a package of MS stickers I found on clearance at Michael's, there were birds and whales in the package too. I used white vintage (oo-lala) buttons in the buckets to hold the flowers up.

 This was one of my favorite parts of the shower--for a guest book, I used this book of advice written from a mother to her baby daughter (the author's blog, Prudent Baby, is one of my favorite stops on the interweb).

The instructions ask guests to choose a piece of advice from the book to highlight for Leah and her baby. I think everyone really enjoyed leafing through the pages, finding something that resonated with them, and leaving a little note for Leah and later Annabelle to discover.

These were the favors. Leah and I made a brown sugar scrub (recipe found here), and packaged it up in baby food jars topped with fabric scraps from the bunting. The tags read "From Leah's Shower to Yours" I know I'm the biggest dork for getting such a kick out of this, but I am secure in my dorkitude, really. The adorable mini-clothespins (also on the wreath) I found at iparty.

This was an activity I found here, and had to copy! It couldn't be more perfect for the Mama-to-be, who is an artist and all-around creative soul, to have this momento of drawings for her babe. I wasn't sure what people's responses would be, but it was a hit!

I didn't take pictures of the finished product, but everyone's page looked super cute, and I found the perfect 8x8 mini-scrapbook to slip all the pages into.

This is my last thing to share (congrats for making it this far, if you're still here)! I used my scallop pinch on these to make really simple napkin rings--it was the easiest thing to do, and I got so many compliments for it! So if you're having an elephant-themed baby shower, and want to print these out, they're all yours! Just click on the image to make it bigger before you save it to your desktop and print it out!

Don't forget to check out my bff's blog for more pics of the shower, and check out her awesome challenges!