Baby Shower Adventure

I know you are not going to believe it, but I’m going to be a great-grandma. Although I was invited to the baby shower, my daughter and granddaughter never expected I would travel from Texas to Minnesota just to come for the shower. But I did it anyway! When they found out I was coming, they were so excited. Who wouldn’t be, right?  The problem with being crafty is the fact that your family can put you to work. Right away, they gave me a list of things they wanted to know if I could help with, hoping I had some crafty way to make quick work of what they wanted done. Of course I said I would help! They wanted special corsages for the grandmothers and aunties, and I even figured out a way to make those and bring them. In the end, my carry-on bag for the plane was basically a shower-in-a-suitcase.

shower in a suitcase

Shower-in-a-suitcase.

One of the requests was to make a diaper cake – but not the usual cake. It was to be a tricycle “cake.”  Thank goodness for YouTube and all the wonderful people who share how-to videos!  I put this item together to make sure it was right, and then I partially disassembled it so it would fit in the suitcase. With minimal effort I put it back together on arrival.

Diaper tricycle, complete with baby elephant to complete the theme

Diaper tricycle, complete with baby elephant to complete the theme.

artful adventure baby shower kristie sloan diaper tricycle back

Back view of diaper tricycle.

 

I was asked to make some signage for various things going on at the party. Thanks to a great brush font I found online, I was able to pull off a hand lettered look. And thanks to my Cricut die cut machine, I was able to find all kinds of things to for the elephant theme.

The elephant on the tricycle was set on the gift table with this sign.

Gift table sign

Gift table sign

 

Advice for the mommy-to-be is always a good thing. These cards also included guest’s predictions on the actual birth day, the babies weight and length.

Advice to the mommy-to-be, including some fun guessing on birth day, time and baby's weight

Advice to the mommy-to-be, including some fun guessing on birth day, time and baby’s weight.

This was a fun game — trying to guess the size of the mommy-to-be’s waist.  Believe it or not, there were two people who were so close, and one was almost exactly right!  Most guesses were off by about 8 inches or more!

Guess mommy's waist size

Guess mommy’s waist size!

 

Shhh, don’t tell anyone, this is probably not proper etiquette, but sure will be a time saver!

self address thank you

Self addressing the envelopes for thank you notes can be a big help.

 

Baby info to answer the questions that are asked over and over.

basic info

The basic info

Mommy-to-be got a special large corsage in the form of a maternity belly sash. When I started researching this, I found that many of these are made and used for pregnancy photo shoots, and then the flowery sash is used for a newborn photo shoot! Great multi-use item.  By the way, I watched 30 minutes of a video in Spanish to figure out how to structure the support on the back of one of these large corsages!

Maternity belly sash

Maternity Belly Sash, as asked for!

 

What party would be complete without some type of photo booth fun? I was such a proud crafty mom/grandma to see they had made this.

Photo booth decor

Photo booth decor.

 

They were also proud of this Pinterest win, and who wouldn’t be? Isn’t this the cutest thing ever — a baby buggy watermelon fruit bowl!

Baby buggy watermelon fruit salad

Baby buggy watermelon fruit salad.

 

For a little party favor, the elephant theme was continued.

Thanks for coming party animals!

Thanks for coming, party animals!

 

Party treats for elephant themed baby shower

Party treats for elephant themed baby shower.

 

We had a lot of fun, and I was glad I got to attend! Nothing is better than family. Love them!

family

Nothing is better than family!

Hope you enjoyed a recap of an Artful Adventure baby shower!

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures,

KS

Scrapbooking with Your Elephant

Do you struggle finding time to create pages?  Perhaps you don’t really have a space where you can leave out all your supplies, and you know that by the time you drag everything out and get ready, there would be no time to get anything else done and  you would have to put it all away!  When it seems you never have time to create a page, that’s when you know you have an elephant.  Yes, an elephant!  There’s an age old question, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is, “One bite at a a time!”  Your elephant is scrapbooking, and even though you aren’t going to eat it, you still need to know how to delve in; and that’s one step at a time!

Step 8:  Break your scrapbooking into segments. 

There is no rule that says you have complete a page all at once!    Whether you use an archival quality project sleeve or a 2 gallon ziplock bag, you can grab what you need and have it ready for the final step.  Keep the essential adhesives, scissors, paper trimmer, etc. together and you’ll be ready to grab your things and finish your page.  If you are a digital scrapper, this will still work for you!

  • Select your photos.
  • Decide on a layout.
  • Select your paper and embellishments.
  • Create your page!
In essence, you are creating your own kit, complete with photos!  It is amazing how much you can accomplish when you are prepared!
 
photo credit: Flickr.com Creative Commons, rollontravel