Baby Shower Projects

Hello friends! Two Saturdays ago I had a baby shower for my son and wonderful daughter-in-law.  Their son is due in about a month (that will be my third grandchild, second grandson for those who are keeping count), and we thought a month out was good shower timing.

Knowing they are having a boy, I went with a baby nautical theme.  I purchased some of our party decor and serving accessories, but I also used my trusty Cricut (with Design Space) and crafted several of the decorations, as well as the invitations.

The small sailboats above were the party favors.  They were made using a hexagon cut, sliced in half, and the sail section of a sailboat.  Add a bit of Design Space welding and a bit of Design Space slicing, and voila!  

I filled the boats with custom covered (yes, I made the chocolate wraps) Hershey nuggets which read, "Ahoy! It's a boy!"

I made two paper banners to use at the shower.  The first was this cute baby boy sailor banner.  It was Avaleigh's favorite because it had "babies."

The second was a sailboat and anchor banner that I placed over the drink station on our antique cabinet.  Crissie and Aaron took this banner to use in the baby's beach themed nursery.

I used disposable paper products for the party (though it pained me to do so as I am a "use real plates and glasses" kind of woman).  The main reason I went with disposable plates, napkins, and solo cups, was to match my color scheme.  I added a bit of decoration to the red solo cups by adding vinyl cut anchors to the tumblers.  My paper crafting friends who attended the shower did note the detail!

I used these mini popcorn boxes (via Amazon) to add a bit of pop to the serving plates.  I added the chips to the popcorn boxes, with dip on the side.  In the right rear is the nautical cupcake tower - also purchased.

I downloaded some free nautical printables and used them in several places.  All of the food and drink labels were personalized and printed.

Another of the printables is visible behind Crissie in the photo below. It was a simple printed banner.  In this photo, taken after ALL of the gifts had been opened, Crissie is opening her "diaper cake", which isn't a cake at all.

The diaper cake is actually a diaper ship!  Very in keeping with our nautical theme!

Because I forgot to take photos until the very end (duh), I missed a lot of the guests.  

But someone did snap a couple of photos of me with two of my girlfriends!  I love these women!

This a photo of the dining room BEFORE all of the food was placed.  We served sliders, chips, veggies, chocolates, cupcakes, drinks and at the end, banana split "boats" for an ice cream sundae bar.

I will be back on Monday morning with this week's Bitten by the Bug 2 challenge!

Fall Baby Shower for Baby Avaleigh

Hello friends. Today I am going to share with you some of the details from the baby shower my mom and I hosted for Bethany, John, and baby Avaleigh!  The baby is due in mid-January so we decided to host a baby shower before everyone becomes entangled in their holiday madness.  With that in mind, and the advent of beautiful warm, clear fall weather, we decided on a fall themed outdoor baby shower!

As much as I hoped to by-pass the craziness of everyone's Thanksgiving till New Year's schedules, I still selected a bad weekend for the baby shower.  So many people were out of town for one reason or another.  But our friends being the AMAZING women that they are, they dropped off or mailed gifts to arrive for the shower!  How wonderful is that?

We decorated with fall colors and served a variety of fall themed foods.  In addition to ham salad and egg salad finger sandwiches, we also had corn casserole muffins, a savory pumpkin shaped cheese ball with crackers, a sweet pumpkin cheese ball (which tasted like pumpkin cheesecake) severed with gingersnaps and graham crackers, a veggie tray and dip, chips and dip, and a create our own caramel apple station.  I put put honeycrisp apple wedges on skewers and had a small pot of war caramel with several toppings in which the caramel apple wedges could be dipped.

For beverages we severed an apple cider sangria as well as sodas and assorted bottled waters.

I must tell you, baby Avaleigh is going to be one well dressed baby when she arrives. Bethany and John received so many adorable outfits, baby gadgets, tools, diapers, and nursery decor, they were thrilled and overwhelmed!

John stayed for the entire shower, assisting as needed and opening several of the gifts.  He is so looking forward to their baby girl!

We passed around most of the gifts so that everyone could get an up-close look at all of of the darling baby girl clothes and gear. and oooh & ahhhh appropriately! Below MFK, my friend Kathy, admires one of the sweet outfits Avaleigh received.

After the shower we took a few minutes to snap a few family photos. Below are Bethany and I.

Avaleigh should be feeling the love in the photo below.

And of course, John and Bethany are thrilled about becoming parents!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I still have projects to share with you this week, so check back soon!