Baby Shower projects!

I've been MIA because I've been so busy working on baby shower projects!!  My sister is having her first baby and we are all very happy for her and very excited to meet the new member of the family.

My Cricut really makes party planning so much fun.  I won't say it's any less work, because many times, it's more work than just going to the store to buy pre-made stuff...but it is so gratifying and so very much more personal (and usually much cuter!!).

We (my mom and I) decided that her theme was going to be Onesies...so we used our Gypsies to weld some onesies together from the Wrap It Up Cricut Cartridge to create a Onesie invitation and coordinating thank you card.  I also used the onesie for the front cover of her guest book and my mom made the baby a beautiful banner to hang in her room (which we hung over the gift table).

 

My mom and I made the little shoes from the CTMH Cricut Artiste Collection as the favors...filled with trail mix and M&M's.  They came out so cute, even if I do say so myself!  One thing we learned...do not store them too long because the raisins in the trail mix can bleed through the paper. Thankfully that only happened to a few of the shoes we made.  My sister in law also made a Onesie cake as well.

I've attended a few showers where some version of a book poem was included with the invitation, requesting a book instead of a card.  So we decided to do that and also tie it into the theme by adding books as part of our centerpieces, which were of course, mini diaper cakes.  I also made cupcake wrappers, from the Cricut Lite Cupcake Wrappers and Cricut Life is a Party cartridge and cut some food plaques from the Cricut Wall Decor and More cartridge.  I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

Party Planning

I've planned plenty of parties...all with some kind of little girl theme.  So when my mother-in-law was turning 60, I thought, I can help out with invitations and decorations.  Thankfully, my own mother is great friends with my mother-in-law and offered to help me with all those crafty decorations.  My poor Cricut had quite a workout! The balloon and "shhh" was cut from Smiley Cards and the bow was from Everyday Paper Dolls!

Here's the invitation...a gate-fold card!

This is a "one sheet bag" with some Hershey kisses as a favor.

We stamped and paper pieced the balloon on the favor bags, over 70 of them!  The curly ribbon on the favor bag was cut from Ribbon and Rosettes and the lid for the explosion box and blue mat were cut with Elegant Edges.  It was so great to find that that those two cartridges coordinated exactly with each other...of course we had to add glitter to those loops!

Our centerpieces were explosion boxes.

Each box contained pictures of my MIL throughout her life.

My mother-in-law got to keep all 70 plus pictures from her explosion boxes to put into the matching memory book I made for her (sorry no pic).  We had everyone at the party write her a note with either a "remember when" or birthday wish, which she was able to add to her book.  I used "remember" from Gypsy Wanderings for the front of the book I made her.  I also tried to take a picture of everyone there and sent her those pictures digitally, so she could print those out to, if she wished.  The "60" actually lifts right out of the explosion boxes, so folks could "re-gift" them by adding their own pictures or even gift cards for their recipient.  Hiding under the flaps are a birthday cake cut from Disney Princess Dreams Come True and the same balloon as the invite from Smiley Cards.

This banner was made using my Cricut!  It reach all the way across the room!

Other than the rosettes, I used Birthday Bash for the banner.  The banner was a lot of work. Each rosette had multiple sections glued together.  The pennants were almost 12 inches long...that was a lot of loading mats into the Cricut!  However, you could see it from across the room.  It was beautiful, even if I do say so myself! 

 

I even made little food placard signs...it was a brunch, so we had several different quiches and other yummy food to let folks know about so they could decide what to dig into.  I used Wall Decor and More for those.  Overall, it was a lot of work, but my MIL was surprised and seemed to have a good time, so it was worth it!