Golden Book Baby Shower Copycat

After all the talk lately of the baby shower (which some of you may be getting sick of hearing about), here is the final Golden Book Baby Shower! I was so happy with how it all came together. It simple and small- which for me is the perfect shower!

My sister-in-law is a teacher so I was thinking that it would be fun to have a shower where everyone brought a copy of their favorite book to include with the gift so she can have a great start to her own collection. After looking around for some ideas I came across this blog which I now love- Aesthetic Nest! She had done an entire shower with a Golden Book theme. It was perfect and I just LOVED the classicness of those books that many of us grew up on!

If you haven't seen it yet, you can take a look at the invitation HERE.

I have my mother to thank for at least half of the decorations on the mantle. She kept all of these vintage Fisher Price toys from when my brothers and I were little. Let's just say that I had quite the selection to choose from. She even has the original record player- remember those? For those of you who are wondering, yes, the clown head on the color stacker is original (it was the most commented on at the shower so I asked my mom.)

The final look of the mantle included a pennant banner, original Fisher Price toys, paper flowers, Little Golden Books and fabric bookends!

These book ends were another "saw it on Pinterest" item. I needed some sort of bookends and couldn't find anything remotely as cute as the ones that Anneliese found for her shower so I made these quick and stole some rice from my kids' rice bin for filling.

The center of the table was set very simple just to connect it in with the shower. I made this simple quilted yellow centerpiece and set it with a few blue paper flowers (original idea also taken from Aesthetic Nest)! I wish I had gotten a nice picture without the harsh sunlight coming in but I guess when you're setting up for a shower, there isn't time for a long photo shoot.

This was my favorite Golden Book from when I was little (and this IS my book.) "Where Did the Baby Go?" is about a little girl who finds a picture of a baby and asks her mother who it is. Her mother keeps giving her clues to help her find the baby and you guessed it- she figures out in the end that SHE is the baby in the picture! After we already decided to do a game where guests had to guess baby pictures, I remembered this book and thought it would be a perfect name for the game!

This is where I used the ribbon board. I forgot to take a picture of it during the shower with all the pictures on it but we asked every guest to bring a baby picture of themselves and I arranged all the pictures on this board and attached a number next to each one.

I know that you have the picture by now but everyone then filled out this card with their guesses. I was surprised that my husband's aunt actually got every single name right!

So, if you have looked at Aesthetic Nest where I found all the printables and are wondering how I made this card from her pages, I'll tell you (I did ask her permission first.) I copy and pasted her page with the book labels (with four on a page) onto a Word document and used a text box to cover her words with the body of this card. I know this is common sense but if you do this, PLEASE give Anneliese credit for all her hard work creating these printables in the first place!

The other game we played was super simple- Guess how many Jelly Bellys are in the jar! I have never been one to enjoy lengthy, mind challenging shower games. I believe showers should be a fun time to get together to "shower" the recipient with love, support and gifts to help them start their new life, either as a wife or mother!

So, take a guess, how many Jelly Bellys in this jar? The answer- 1617! I was asked many times and you are probably thinking this yourself- yes, I counted all of them!

Here is the gift set that I created for my sister-in-law!

These cupcakes are a 100% copycat item- they are so cute AND Anneliese basically hands them to you on a platter with THESE printouts so one would be silly to not just copy hers! She adds some really adorable paper cupcake holders to hers but after cutting out about three of them I decided that the yellow with polka dots were just fine for me!

In addition to the cupcakes, I saw these Cheesecakes in a Jar on Pinterest (originally from The Italian Dish) and just HAD to make these! I mean, come on, have you ever seen anything so cute (and delicious)?! They were a hit too! Only one left at the end (oh, and there were 12 cheesecakes and 10 people- you do the math.)

My Mother-in-law made the food-doesn't it look great?! Mini chicken salad croissants, fruit tray, pasta salad, cucumber sandwiches. It was simple and perfect (and delicious!)

One final last touch as the guests left was to hand out small "Thank You's" filled with Jelly Bellys. I thought who on earth needs four pounds of Jelly Bellys at their house? That is a sure way to end up WITH a jelly belly!

I would just like to thank Anneliese at Aesthetic Nest one more time for all the time she put into all the printouts that she provides AND for being so generous as to share them! She has a number of cute printouts for all sorts of parties at her etsy site too!

Baby Shower Gift Set

So- for those of you who may have been watching my obsessive baby gift sewing recently, here it is!

 I don't know if I'm the only one who does this but with larger projects on a deadline I keep going back and forth between "I'm right on schedule" and "I'm never going to get this finished in time!" My fear of the second becoming reality gave me the incentive to keep diligently working on these gifts! I do have to admit, however, that I didn't get two receiving blankets done before the shower but she'll get them before the baby's born (which actually reminds me that I should do those today!)

Here's a final look at the collection I created:

A stack of adorable burp cloths is an essential for any baby! The phrase "you can lay the baby in the dresser drawer if you need to" may possibly be true (and maybe disturbing) if you don't yet have a crib but you NEED  burp clothes if you don't want your shirt to become one! OK- a little bit of exaggeration but who would WANT to have a baby without these?

Next on the list is the gift that I'm the most thrilled with the outcome- the stroller bag! Man, do I wish I had one of these when my kids were still in a stroller instead of have to dig for five minutes any time I wanted anything from the bag shoved underneath!

Here are the pacifier clips and the tag blankie! Hopefully both with help to keep my new niece happy as a lark! No fallen or lost pacifiers and a super cuddle blankie with tons of ribbons to keep her busy!

And last but not least the quilted changing pad and nursing cover! I saw a mom at the zoo yesterday nursing her baby with a mildly nervous look on her face. I felt bad for her and wished I could just pull a cover out of my bag and give it to her.  For those of us women who aren't comfortable with the thought of flashing the crowd, the nursing cover is probably the best non-essential gift ever! Actually, after having two kids, I WOULD put it in the essential category.

On to finish posting the rest of the shower!

Quilted Centerpiece

Since I just shared with you the paper flowers, I thought it was a good time to show how to make the quilted centerpiece that they are sitting on in this picture. When I was planning the decorations for the Golden Book Shower (I'll show you the finished shower soon), I wanted to have a simple but cute centerpiece that really felt like it belonged with the shower. Since the invitations were blue and yellow (thank you Anneliese from Aesthetic Nest) and more of the shower was yellow than anything else, it seemed only logical to make the centerpiece yellow based.  

I was seriously surprised when I ended up whipping this out in about a half an hour! It was definitely easy enough that I would make more in the future if I ever just need a little something extra in my house or a party for decoration.

First off, I have to tell you that when I decided to whip this up, I didn't have super high expectations because although it seemed easy in theory, I hadn't done anything quilted before (I know that the fabric is not quilted together but the top stitching is quilted.)

 I started by deciding on the size of the centerpiece and then cutting two pieces of fabric and one piece of Warm & Natural batting. Then layer the pieces with the batting down first and then laying the two pieces of fabric (right sides facing each other) on top of it.

I found a large bowl that would serve as a tracing tool for the ends and traced a curve on with a fadeout marker. Pin the fabrics together and sew around the edge with a 1/4 inch seam, leaving 3 inches open on one of the flat sides for turning.

Next, I trimmed the two edges with pinking shears (or you can just clip around the curve but I find the pinking shears a lot faster.) Turn right side out, iron flat and sew around the entire edge of the centerpiece making sure to sew the opening closed.

 Personally, I have fallen IN LOVE with my walking foot and use it with anything that has ANY bulk to it to keep the fabrics from shifting. My sister-in-law would just tell me to pin it more but I have already confessed before that I can be a lazy sewer and find this much faster!

This next part was really fun! With my walking foot still on, I started against the side and just started sewing in a crazy pattern. I thought that I would end up trapping myself somewhere in the pattern but it was easier than I thought to keep going and covering the entire piece in one long crazy line.

To finish, just wash and dry the centerpiece and it comes out with that really neat quilted look!

Happy Sewing!

Ribbon Board

OK- by now some of you may be getting tired of me posting about things that I made for the baby shower. This WAS made for the shower BUT with the plan behind it to put it in my daughter's room after that. I have seen ribbon boards all over and especially in places like Pottery Barn Kids where they usually sell them with frames, which I personally prefer.

This is a fairly inexpensive and definitely easy project to put together. For those of you who swear you can't sew (which I don't believe:), this is a no sew fabric project!

First, I ran over to the thrift store in our town and grabbed a frame that I liked. I didn't take a picture of it with the embroidery still inside it before I disassembled it but I ended up using the old base for the fabric (which you will see when you continue on to pictures  of the back.)

My husband sanded down the frame for me before I painted it. I know that it is always wise to prime wood before painting but I didn't have any and wanted this to be a cheap project, so I proceeded without it. My advice- DON'T SKIP THE PRIMER! It turned out alright in the end but if you see it in person, I wish that it was a little more even and smooth but that might just be the perfectionist in me.

Next, it's time to make the push pins. There are soooo many places that show you how to make these, and they're soooo easy that I'm not going to go through how to make them. Honestly, if you buy the kit for fabric covered buttons, the instructions are so easy that you don't really need a tutorial on how to do them. So in the end, I'll just tell you to look HERE to find out how to make them if you want to see some pictures.

I apologize that I was going so crazy when making everything before the shower that I got lazy about taking pictures for every step.

I cut a piece of Warm & Natural cotton batting to the exact size of the board (you can use foam board but I just used the board and cardboard that were already in the frame.) It is the exact size of the frame because you don't want the bulkiness of the batting to wrap around to the backside of the board. A thin batting of any sort would work but I personally just use Warm & Natural for almost everything.

For the next step, a staple gun would be ideal but seeing that I didn't have one and again, wanted to keep this cheap, I used thumbtacks instead and they worked just fine! Simply cut your fabric to be a few inches larger than your board on all sides. First lay down the fabric (right side down) on a table, lay the batting in the center, place the board on top, being careful to line up the board with the batting.

Start on one side and wrap the fabric tightly around to the back of the board. Every couple inches, put a tack firmly into board to secure fabric. Next, do the side exact opposite from the one where you started to make sure the fabric stays even. Then finish the last two sides. Check over whole backside (and look at the front) to make sure the fabric is even everywhere and add any tacks as necessary.

OK- not being computer savvy, I couldn't figure out how to put arrows on the picture to point at the areas so I will have to explain this. Take one strip of ribbon and secure it in on the backside of one corner. Pulling the ribbon tight, secure in the opposite corner. Repeat with the other two corners. Next, measure each side and make a small mark in the very middle of each side. Connect the middle of one side with the middle of the very next side, creating a triangle in the corner. Continue this on all corners until you have created a diamond shape on the board.

At each point where the ribbon intersects, firmly push a fabric covered push pins. Put  your fabric board in the frame and you're done! I am planning to cover the back of mine somehow- just so that the pins and old frame aren't exposed but I'll get to that another day!

Here it is! The ribbon board finished and used at the shower for a fun game of "Where Did the Baby Go?" which I will share more in a future post!

Happy pinning! (No pun intended for my fellow Pinterest lovers!)

Paper Flowers

Maybe it's just me but I think that these paper flowers are an awesome addition to any party! Since I was already taking so much from Aesthetic Nest for this shower, I thought why not steal the idea for those neat flowers too! You can find the original tutorial for them at MADE. I am telling you that you need only the teeniest, tiniest pinch of craftiness to make these. To top it all off, not only are these babies cute and easy but they are made from paper napkins so they are inexpensive (the best part of any project!)

I just loved the extra color and height that they added to the different areas at the shower! On the post for the pennant banner I was saying that I would probably make those for every party from here on out. Well the same goes for these flowers. They can be made in any color, any combination, any shape and they just fill in everywhere so nice!

These are such a fun, easy craft that I can just picture a small group of friends sitting around having a blast hanging out, talking, maybe a bottle of wine and having tons of fun making these for a party! They could even be a great "job" for younger crafters to be able to join in preparing for the festivities!

Happy flower making!

Pennant Banners

This is the first event that I have made a pennant banner for and I am hooked! I remember seeing pennant banners on various blogs and wanted to make one for a baby shower so I looked around a bit and based mine off of the one on Your Homebased Mom. She had made these for all different occasions and I loved how she makes more than one for an event. I think that having one in each area really ties the look of the party together!

Here's a few of my tips for making the banners. I would love to create a whole collection of banners that can be whipped out for different occasions (how much fun for birthday mornings at home or welcome home from camp)! I wanted these banners to really hold up for a long time so I sandwiched a 9x21 inch piece of Wonder Under between the fabric so that it won't fray with repeated use.

I found it super easy to measure out right on a cutting mat- just place ruler in one corner and the other end on the 3-1/2 inch mark and cut.

Then count across seven inches on top and line up the other end on the spot where you cut the last line to create a point.

Just keep counting the seven inches across the top until you have five pennants. Here is where this project could be super ridiculously easy- if you want, these can be no sew pennants since the fabric is already fused together! You of course would still need to attach it to the bias tape but that is easy peasy!

I personally love the look of the pennants being sewn so I continued on to the rest of the regular tutorial.

You can trust that you will be seeing more of these at parties in the future! I think my next one will be for my son's birthday party in late summer- we haven't nailed down a theme yet but I'm sure that I will find cute fabric for whatever it ends up to be!

Happy Sewing!