Halloween Baby Shower!

Okay, I'm a day late...I'm so sorry! I knew I never should have made a promise to post three days in a row! haha

Anyways, last year on October 23, I had my baby shower, which was all Halloween themed. Halloween is my favorite holiday, so it was a no brainer as to what my theme was going to be. With the  help of my amazing friend Melissa, everything turned out great! It was held at a local bed and breakfast that I had driven past every day for 4 years on my way to work and always hoped to have an event there. I absolutely loved planning it and was pretty bummed not having something Halloween themed to plan this year (especially since I've discovered Pinterest and there are so many cute things on there!).

First up are the invitations: The bear is from SU's Teddy and Train stamp set, while everything else is from a clear stamp set I bought at Michael's or Joann's, so is the paper. The bear is popped up with dimentionals and I used the criss cross card technique. These were extremely time consuming, but I absolutely LOVED then end result and they were a huge hit!

 I loved the candy corn stamped on the envelope.

All 50 of them!

This was what the room looked like. Melissa and I made the centerpieces out of supplies we picked up from Pat Catan's. They were also prizes for the games.

Close up of the centerpieces. 

These are the favors I made. They were baby food jars filled with various Halloween candies. I used my Big Shot to cut Halloween fabric using the scalloped circle die. I glued that to the jar lid, tied it off with some raffia and used the scalloped circle, 1 1/2 and 1 3/8 punch for the tag. Each one also had a button attached to the bow. These buttons came from a jar of antique buttons I purchased a long time ago at Joe and I's favorite antique store. All of the buttons were either orange, gray, black or white...except one blue one. Whoever had the blue button also won a prize!

Here are some pictures of the dessert table. I made all of the cookies, Melissa made the popcorn mix and my friend Carrie made the pumpkin cupcakes!

Witch hat cookies, chocolate dipped pretzels, oreo bombs, pumpkin cupcakes!

 

Are these not the cutest things ever???

 Halloween popcorn mix with candy corn and M&M's.

 Pumpkin cupcakes made by my great friend, Carrie.

You can also see the picks in the fruit. I used the Batty for You stamp set as well as the same patterned paper from the invitations to create those.

There was one aspect of the shower Melissa didn't allow me to know about/make on my own...the drinks. Her and her mom took the time to cut out pumpkin faces out of duct tape and attach them to orange cups. They were so cute and I thought it was such a great idea!

Speaking of Melissa, here is a picture of her and I. (I'm obviously the one on the left! hehe) Now, one year later, she has a little one of her own who is almost 4 months old! She's actually pregnant in this picture, but didn't know it yet. How neat is that?!

Baby Shower Gift, Favors, and Cake!

As mentioned yesterday, here are some pictures from my cousin's baby shower. First up is the gift that I made her. I found the tutorial for the little "onsie flowers" on Lauren Meader's Blog. It was super easy to make and was a real wow at the shower! There are 5 pink, brown, and white onsies intermixed with artificial pink/white roses and greenery. When it was brought over to my cousin she said "Hmmm...let me guess who this is from!"

The little card/envelope was made from the Big Shot Petal Card die with a little 2x2 card inside (stamped with the bear from Teddy and Train to coordinate with the invitations). It was attached to a bamboo skewer with mini glue dots.

Next are the favors. Since her theme was bears and baby blocks, we stamped them with the bear from the Teddy and Train set and letters from the Big Deal Alphabet. We had originally planned on making our own boxes, but due to time constraint, my aunt picked up these already pre-scored and cut boxes. We did 50 Pretty in Pink bears and 50 Chocolate Chip bears. Half of them were stamped ABC and half were XYZ. Inside was a tool circle with some candy covered chocolates all tied off with an "It's a girl ribbon"...forgot to take a picture of that before I ate my candy! Oops!

Finally, thanks to my super talented aunt, is the cake! Isn't this thing incredible?! She made all of it, down to the bears in the middle and the little chocolate molded candy in the plastic blocks around it. I might have to take lessons from her on cake making!

Click here to see the invitations that I made for her shower.

Baby Shower Tri-Shutter Card

Tomorrow is my cousin's baby shower. You may remember these invitations that I made for her. My Mom, Grandma, Sister, and I all went in to get her something from her registry, but of course I was put on card duty! :) I wanted to make her a card that coordinated with her invitations and colors of the shower (pink and brown). I also had a lot of fun making this tri-shutter card (the tutorial can also be found on that post), so I decided to make her card similar. I was excited to incorporate the cute little train from the Teddy and Train since that wasn't used on the invitations. The alphabet set is the retired Big Deal Alphabet. Both of these sets were also used to create the favors that my aunt and I made for the shower (they are little boxes that were stamped to look like baby blocks). I will be posting those, as well as the little gift I made her tomorrow. I can't wait to show you how cute it is!!

Here is the card closed. The train on the front matches up to the inside train when the card is closed...that took a few times to get it right!

And laid out flat. The bear and rattle are popped up with dimentionals

Stamps: Teddy and Train, Big Deal Alphabet

Paper: Kraft, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White Chocolate Chip DSP, Bella Birds DSP

Ink: Basic Black

Accessories: Big Shot, Scalloped Circle Die, Coluzzle, 1 3/8 and 1 1/2 Circle Punches, Scalloped Edge Punch, SU Markers Ribbon, Dimentionals

Baby Shower Invitation Factory

I thought I'd take a minute to show you the progress I've made on my cousin's baby shower invites (and to apologize for not posting since Monday). I only have a week to make 50 invitations so that she has time to send them out and get responses in time. Luckily she and my aunt came over tonight to help me assemble some of the pieces! We got a lot done in two hours.

This is what I had done before they arrived (all pieces cut, scored and run through Big Shot with texture plates where necessary, corners rounded, bears stamped and watercolored with some cut and some of the faux stitching done):

Two hours later (all layers adhered, bears popped, and pockets folded):

Now all I have left to do is add the brad and ribbon to the actual invite and assemble the pockets with the layers you see! Thanks so much Aunt Cassie and Kristen! I meant to take a picture of you guys in action, but we were having too much fun :)

Just some fun facts about these invites:

• 85 pieces of cardstock were used to create the 500 pieces shown
• 1,000 corners were rounded
• 100 circles were cut using the Coluzle (50 in Chocolate Chip and 50 in Whisper White)
• 50 bears were watercolored and cut out (100 total bears were stamped)
• 100 dimentionals were used
• 14.5 feet of ribbon will be used

Baby Shower Invitation

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my cousin is having a baby and my aunt has asked me to do the invitations. She's coming over tomorrow to discuss details and this is what I have to show her. It actually matches the baby card I made a few days ago. As soon as I found out Kristen was having a girl I knew I wanted to turn that card into an invitation. I had never made a pocket invitation before, but it was super easy and you can get two per 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper! It is a 4 1/4 x 11 piece of card stock folded in half and then scored 1 1/2 inches from one end to form the little flap.

The "It's A Shower" and all the information were all computer generated. The bear was colored the same way as in the card and faux stitched all of the Pretty in Pink card stock. They were also run through the Big Shot with the polka dot texture plates (can you tell that's been my favorite plate recently!?) The white layer is the only layer that comes out and the brad holds the ribbon down.

Stamps: Teddy and Train

Paper: Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Watercolor Paper

Ink: Basic Black

Accessories: Big Shot, Texture Plates, Coluzzle, Corner Rounder, Chocolate Chip Ribbon, Pretty in Pink Brad, SU Markers, Blender Pens, Dimentionals

See other invitations I've made here!

Bundle of Joy

This picture does not do this card justice! (I know I say that alot). But I need to figure out a way to photograph so that you can see the texture added with the Big Shot. Anyway, I'm really pleased with this card because I always want to use buttons and library clips, but never can find a good way to use them. I think they really add something special to this card. I just recently got a big order for various cards spaced out over the next two months and this is the first one she needed. Usually when I have a baby card need, I immediately go to the onsie cards that I love to make, but this time I decided to do something different and use a brand new stamp set that I just got this week, Teddy and Train. What's funny is that the idea I had in my head involved a vertical card with a scalloped bottom, but couldn't find a layout that I liked. As I was sliding things around and pulling out various embellishments, the card base got turned horizontal and that was all it took! That's how it usually happens for me...by accident! My favorite part of this card is how the rattle is wrapped around the bear's hand.

Stamps: Teddy and Train

Paper: Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Watercolor Paper

Ink: Basic Black

Accessories: Big Shot, Texture Plates, Scalloped Edge Punch, Oval and Scalloped Oval Punch, SU Markers, Blender Pen, Chocolate Chip Ribbon, Button Latte Button, Library Clip, Twine, Dimentionals

1. Score a 4 1/4 x 11 piece of Chocolate Chip at 5 1/2 and fold on score line.

2. Scallop punch the short end of the cardstock (both the front and inside). Repeat on two pieces of 4 x 5 1/4 pieces of Pretty in Pink cardstock.

3. Set one piece of Pretty in Pink to the side. On the other, distress the scalloped end and run through Big Shot using polka dot texture plate. Add faux stitching with Chocolate Chip marker and adhere to card front.

4. Stamp bear image on 3x3 piece of Watercolor paper and watercolor using blender pens and SU Markers. Stamp another bear and a rattle on a scrap piece of Watercolor paper. Color and cut out both the bear and rattle.

5. Add faux stitching to 3x3 image.

6. Wrap Chocolate Chip ribbon around square and tie off with twine. String twine up through the button and tie once, clipping off the excess. Secure button with a mini glue dot.

7. Adhere image to a 3 1/4 square of Chocolate Chip cardstock. Adhere second bear on top of 3x3 image using dimentionals. Cut a slit in the bottom of the rattle and adhere around bear's hand. Stack two dimentionals on top of each other and place under the circular part of the rattle.

8. Stamp the sentiment on Watercolor paper scrap and punch out using Large Oval Punch. Add faux stitching. Adhere to punched scalloped oval in Chocolate Chip.

9. Dry fit image and sentiment and then adhere image with dimentionals and sentiment directly to the card base.

10. Finally, clip Chocolate Chip library clip onto the image.

11. For the inside, take the other scalloped edged Pretty in Pink piece and stamp rattle image in bottom right corner. Adhere to the inside.