Bubbly & Brunch Bridal Shower

This past weekend, I, along with the four other bridesmaids, hosted a bridal shower in honor of my sister and her upcoming nuptials. The theme was Bubbly & Brunch and I chose to carry her wedding colors into the bridal shower. We used navy and white as the main colors with pops of red here and there. 

The invitation was inspired by a design on Pinterest and I re-created it using PicMonkey.

To add some color to the walls and additional decor, I made these paper flowers using a tutorial I found on Pinterest.

The mimosa bar was a huge success. We provided blue champagne flutes to match the colors of the shower and it was also used as the party favor. There was champagne with three different juice options and four different garnish choices. We also provided some sparkling juice for some of our younger guests and our guests who are expecting.

To determine who's glass was who's I used my Cricut to cut paper rings and then had guests write their name.

The food choices included mini quiches (some with meat and some vegetarian), french toast & smoked sausage kabobs, waffle bitty bites, mini hash brown casseroles, fruit pizzas, fruit kabobs, veggie pizza, and sliced honey ham. For dessert we offered two different donut cakes, a powdered donut cake and a variety of homemade donuts from a local donut shop.

We played Guess the Bride's Age. Guests had to look at the pictures and guess what age the bride was according to the photo. It was a ton of fun to find the pictures and play the game.

My sister, the bride (3rd in from left), and her bridesmaids. 

Flag Banner DIY

I love signs and banners at parties, they are very easy to make and add a pop to anything. When hosting my sister's bridal shower this past weekend, I created a simple "Miss to Mrs" flag banner to decorate one of the corners. To make my life simpler and to make the banner even in size, I used the We R Memory Keepers Banner Punch Board. I absolutely love this tool and wonder what I did prior to having it. It is so easy to use, with printed guides on the board itself. It comes with an easy to hold blade and it's own hole punch. The board also allows for you to create pennant, flag, or crest style. Below is how I created this awesome banner with links to the materials I used.

Materials needed:
Card stock (any size and color)
Paper Trimmer
Cricut (for letters)
We R Memory Keepers Banner Punch Board
Scissors
String
Adhesive

Directions:

First, Gather materials needed to begin and decide what size you would like your banner to be as well as how many you need. 

I chose to make my flags 7 inches long and 5 inches wide. 

Next I placed the paper one sheet at a time inside the punch board. I made a flag so I didn't need to use the printed guides on the board, but if making a pennant, you can follow the guides to help give you the exact size you want. Using the cutting tool provided with the board, slide the blade following the guides across the paper. Repeat on the other side. 

To punch a hole in the flag, I placed it in the nifty hole punch slot on the board and pushed down, repeating on the other side. Then, I used my Cricut to cut the letters I needed, adhered them to the flags. Last, I used red/white striped baker's twine to hang the sign.

New Career Path

In reality, no, I am not changing careers. However if I were to, I would go into a small business of making crafts and party planning. I love planning parties and organizing/running events. I recently had the privilege to help a close friend plan a baby shower for her sister-in-law. I had so much fun working with her and coming up with some really cute ideas. Thank God for Pinterest today, we looked for ideas as there are not many Toy Story themed baby showers, especially for little girls. We looked at many birthday parties with the same theme and I have to say, this party was a hit and everything was amazing. My friend would see or have the idea and I knew how to put it into fruition. It's an awesome thing that I love and I am thankful that we have many parties throughout the year that I can help my family plan. I am already onto my next party planning event which is my sister's bridal shower that is in a few weeks, but I wanted to share some (o.k. more like many) photos from the baby shower. We found adorable centerpiece cutouts on Etsy as well as the food tags. For the games we played Who Knows Mommy best and Guess the size of the belly. As a little gift to the baby we had guests decorate wooden blocks that were cut and painted by her grandparents. To decorate the DIY block station and to add to the Toy Story theme I found this awesome ABC block download. The backdrop behind the food table had cloud cut outs that matched the ones from the movie and were a perfect touch. 

Baby Shower Cake

For my cousin's baby shower, I decided to make the cake at home. We aren't sure what the baby is going to be so I decided to use both pink and blue colors. I got the idea for the cake from Charm City Cake's Cake Tattoos. You can purchase them at any Michael's and they are simply pieces of icing that have print on them. So I baked two cakes an 8in and 6in round cake. For the 8in I had to stack two cakes together so I placed a Nutella butter cream in the middle. Once Stacked I iced both cakes with homemade butter cream icing. Then I placed the cake tattoos on and added some more butter cream decorations. I think it turned out great! And it was delicious.

Bridal/Baby Shower Pro

I can now say that I am officially a baby shower and bridal shower pro. I along with my mom threw two (one bridal and one baby shower, not for the same person) within three weeks of each other, and they were successful. I helped make the decorations for each and think of the games as well. In the pictures you can see that I made the hanging pom poms out of tissue paper and I also helped make the cake. For the Bridal shower we played How well does the Bride know the Groom, and Bridal Scattegories. For the Baby shower we took the Mother and Father -to-be names and had guests come up with Baby names, we also have our guests eat baby food and guess what they were.