Arrival Baby Shower

I am part of the hosting group for another baby shower this weekend. It's 3+ hours away and to welcome a new baby into my husband's family. I say part of the hosting group because I volunteered was told that I would be doing invitations and games. And even though I had been asking for a date for months (since September 2012!) it was decided on March 3rd, 2013, that the shower would be March 23rd. Seriously? Once I finally got them to agree on my invitation design, I mailed all the invites that I had addresses for, then had to wait a few more days for the rest of the guest list. I got the invites (and the Wishes for Baby) designed, printed, and to the guests exactly 2 weeks from the date of the shower. Not enough time in my opinion. I firmly believe in 4-6 weeks notice. I plan that far out. I have to. Any way... I printed 30 of all the games, etc. So that way we'd be guaranteed to have enough. I hope 15 people show up at this rate. So... I found some new games and of course I made all the paper stuff, got the prizes, even ended up bringing the Punch ingredients.

Since the Baby arrived before the shower (at Mom's request since gender was a surprise to all), this shower gave way to a different path. We know the baby's name and gender, and she will be at the shower, so the games are tailored more around baby than Mom. Here are the designs that I've done, the invites and the Wishes printed nicely - a few problems, but I am the only one who notices.  

the original invite - this is almost exactly how it printed,
on brilliant white card stock.

Wishes for Baby, also on card stock,
to match the invitations.
hole punched in top left for jump ring.

This is the only Pregnancy Reference.
I just thought this was too cute to miss.
Printed on regular white paper, cut by me.

Included with the invitations was a request for each guest to bring
a baby photo of themselves. I will number these and have them posted
for this match game.

Each guest will fill out their Bingo Card - and they should know their own
gifts, and maybe a few others, so there's a greater chance of winning.
Plus, since each person fills out their own cards, less chance of a double winner.
This also gives the guests something to do and focuses their attention
on the Mom opening gifts.

I found some new fonts on dafont.com that I really ended up liking. They also printed really well. (Always a bonus.) my current fave is the "Sketch Book" font that I used on the Photo Match-Up card. It's super cute, takes to color really well, and has an 80s vibe that I love. I actually loved it so much that I use it in the heading for my personal blog. I'm also having a crush on the "Curly Shirley" font from the Bingo cards. I want to use it all the time. The Bingo Cards were actually a .jpeg that a friend sent me. I have one in pink and one in blue, and I added the wording to this one. It's a little grainy in the printout, nothing too noticeable again. These are super cute.

 I have no idea about the decorations, cake, etc. I know that they are planning a luncheon with taverns (NW Iowa Sloppy Joes) and salads. I hope that they used the invitations for a color scheme. I like it when things coordinate. :)

It feels weird being so out of the loop on this one. But - I won't have to worry about any more personal baby showers for a while. That's kind of nice. It gives me a chance to work on some different things.

new projects

So... it's been a crazy couple of months. I was part of a baby shower planning committee in December for one of my best friends. It had a Book theme, and we actually were able to hold the shower in a public library. (Score for theme!!!) It was a beautiful shower, and the invitations were some of my best work yet. I actually did the invites, 2 memory book/game things, and labels for the Hot Cocoa Bar. (I had them printed at a professional printer, so it cost a small fortune, but they couldn't have looked better.) Here are a few pictures:

The front and back of the Little Golden Book invitation

the inside of the book invite... the right side was where I put the mother's registry information.

the dessert table - cupcakes and fudge covered Oreo pops! (I made the Oreo Pops - huge mess, but delicious!)

the labels on the Hot Cocoa Bar - this was a fun idea!

The invitation and the memory box pages filled out by the guests - one is a Mad Lib, the other a Wishes For Baby

Words of Wisdom Mad Lib - adorable.
I actually "bound" these like a book with multi-colored grommets that I found in the scrap booking section at Michael's.

This past Sunday, as in 2 days ago, I was tasked with the invitations and games for a baby shower (or Arrival shower since the baby was born 4 days ago) for our nephew's family. (Yes, I am a great aunt. That's what happens when you marry a man 10 yrs older who's in a family off crazy ages. My mother-in-law is 50 years my senior, and my only sister-in-law is just a year younger than my Dad.) So... this shower was planned, and the date is less than 2-1/2 weeks away. (I know!) So, I came up with an invite... it was too boring, I designed 2 more, and we all decided on the same one as our favorite. I am heading to Staples tonight to have the invites and one of the games printed. Hope to have things in the mail this week. (I'm still waiting on a guest list.) Here are the designs:

The flowers aren't supposed to be gridded to look like Tulle, but I am having problems finding a good PDF converting program. Other than that, I love this invite.

the matching Wishes for Baby - this turned out to be one of the sweetest (and funniest) parts of the last shower, so I am doing it again.

That's about it for now. I just have a few more games to prep for this shower, not much else since it's 3+ hours away. Thank goodness. I don't have any new babies in the future months, so I'm really just gearing up for W's 5th birthday.  Here's crossing our fingers that these print well!