Buy blank mini cards and envelopes and embellish with washi tape.
I bought these cheap paper doily die cuts from Hobby Lobby in three colors. Use them with stickers and wrap them in washi and holy cow, I love! I originally made a version of these for my baby shower in a box that I did for Shutterfly. At my craft party, my friend made the two bigger bag tags/gift boxes. The “Just For You” Stickers came from Hobby Lobby and were used in the baby shower box blog as well.
Wrap chip board letters in washi tape.
Bakers twine is a cute combo with any gift in a million ways and I’m loving using it with these tags like the one I made above for the Spice Tea gift bottles.
I’ll be posting a few more of these tags that I made on my Facebook page. Follow me there and on Pinterest. Pin and enjoy!
When a mom-to-be goes to register for her baby, they tend to get all the cutesy stuff and may forget the practical things. I gave this to a girl this weekend and I think it’s a GREAT gift. It’s very practical and really helpful when you need it the most. Baby medicines are pricey for what they are and the bottles are so tiny, you can burn through them easily. Just like diapers, you always need them and once your baby is sick, who the heck wants to go shopping for them?! You need them now! You don’t need them until you do and when you do, it’s sooo nice to have them there!
I piled in all the essential things you need for when a baby is uncomfortable or sick. What’s even better? I put them all in a cute plastic storage box that she can keep all of her baby meds in separately. It’s not just a “gift box”. Here’s what’s inside:
Gas drops
Infant Tylenol
Baby Vapor Rub
Saline Nose Drops/Sprays
Orajel
Pedialyte
Diaper Rash Cream
It’s a good idea (and cute) to put little kraft paper tags with tips on the backs of the boxes for the first time mom like: “You can’t use Ibuprofen until 6 months or older. Once they can, you can alternate between Tylenol and Ibuprofen every 4 hours to treat a fever.” Or, “An infant isn’t considered to be “having a fever” until 100.9.”
I like a gift that is helpful and helps them save money on things they HAVE to have. You don’t have to go out and buy 40 pairs of cute footed jammies, but you will need these things as you raise your babies. Works for me! Pin, share, and enjoy!
When I came up with this idea, I was as excited as a kid at Christmas who just got some ridiculous toy of the year that they won’t like in 10 days. But GOOD NEWS, I will like this theme forever! GROWING LIKE A WEED!!! I thought this was the cutest play on an old saying for a 1st birthday. Check out my details and enjoy, you rascal.
Holler at my girl DeeDubsDesigns for always making invitations for whatever party I come up with. She did all of this during a near tragedy within her own family so if she would have made a card with Times New Roman print that said only “Party”, I would have been like, “Wow, how did you have time?” The sprouts at the bottom were gradient in color and the sprout design was used throughout the shower. She made this just for me and the theme font at the top and clean design was great! Check her out on Etsy. She also did my gender reveal and Easter themed birthday party.
And yes, that is an invite attached to the FRONT of a frame I spray painted 5 minutes before the party. Desperate outta time measures call for tape and spray paint.
Oh. My. Goodness. I made three tiers of cupcakes that were weeds (dandelions) blooming in different stages. Somebody reach out and hug someone.
Glass bottles with garden floral paper straws and burlap ties with felt dandelion leaves attached to them. Someone play the tambourine two times.
Lemonade was served from this metal watering can marked “fertilizer” cause, that makes things grow crazy, y’all.
I LOVE this label for “big sprouts” aka big kids and adults. of course. You have GOT to make this drink, Brazilian lemonade, at your next party! Unlike the name, it’s not lemonade at all, but limes and a whole lotta good. Click here for the recipe.
One of my FAVORITE touches to this party was this dandelion and burlap garland I ordered on Etsy from Giddy4Paisley. She will definitely go in my favorite sources category specifically for these garlands! How cool and unique is it? It’s a definite break from traditional buntings and banners and went perfect with my theme.
The grease from the kettle corn inside of these bags didn’t care about how my party looked. Grease was being such a jerk that day. Still, kettle corn is one of my baby’s favorite things to chomp on so I put small servings in mini craft paper bags from Hobby Lobby. I used these sprout tags for each bag. I love how clean and simple they are. Props to deedubdesigns on the sleek, modern sprout images throughout what she made for me.
I made my birthday girl this little 6 inch cake which was a little girl who was in fact herself, growing like a weed in garden. And the cake stand? That is a pot turned upside down with a terra cotta plate, the ones that catch water under your pots, as the cake stand top.
A crate of “things that grow” for the kids to snag. Dollar aisle. Shazam. There are extra favors in there but the favors are the grand finale so buckle up buttercup.
I put WEEDS in the flower arrangements which I put in these seed containers from Target’s one spot! They lied though. They cost 3 spots.
Are you ready for this? Are you ready for the next thing? On the tables outside by the pool, I bought several sizes of terra cotta pots filled with brown “soil” and fake flowers. The soil was made from bags of that crinkly bag fill for gifts you can buy at Hobby Lobby. The fake flowers came from the dollar store mainly. Holler, if you hear me. BUT BUT BUT, there is more than what meets the eye….
One more thing before you leave, don’t forget to pull a weed anndddddd, when you pull the weed, you pull out a party favor! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Was it all you dreamed it would be?? Now look below at what it was.
And as always, I put my girls in these number shirts from Old Navy. They are simple, affordable, and you will never need to ask when looking at pictures, “Which birthday was this? How old were they?”
Boom. Party.
Slayed.
I borrowed items, went to the dollar store, and made many things myself. It didn’t take over my life and was yet still all the unique I had hoped. I hope you loved it, too! These are the kind of parties that I do: nothing over the top but creative touches to what elements I do use. That’s why my tagline is: affordable, realistic celebrations.
Pin me, follow me, and don’t forget to say that you saw it here. Thanks, players!
I made this recipe from Our Best Bites, for my original “Growing Like A Weed” party for my 1 year old. They children had lemonade and the adults had this Brazilian Lemonade which actually, has no lemons at all. YUMMY! You have got to make this! You won’t be disappointed!
Brazilian Lemonade
Ingredients:
6 cups cold water
1 cup sugar
4 limes
6 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
Directions:
Mix water and sugar together until sugar is dissolved. Put in the fridge to chill until ready to use. Use soap and water to thoroughly wash the limes. You want to scrub really well because you are going to be using the whole lime! After you’ve washed and scrubbed your limes, cut the ends off the limes (DO NOT MISS THIS STEP!) and then cut them into eighths. Place half of the limes and half of the sugar water in your blender and pulse 5 times. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into the pitcher that you are going to serve it in. Discard the pulp. Repeat with the second half of your limes and sugar water. Mix in the sweetened condensed milk. Serve over lots of ice.
5- Any party that can make a play on words related to cactus. Think that can’t be done? You better just dare me. Go ahead, say I dare you to make cactus word play.
6. You are creative.
Now that-that is out of the way, I can show you this round-up of cactus ideas I loved!
This wreath is one I designed uniquely for Miranda in Illinois. That’s why I’m naming this style The Miranda. Oooooo, so official!
She wanted a wreath that could be up all year which is always tricky because all color schemes lean towards seasons: light colors are spring-y, bright colors are summer-y, warm colors are fall, and so on.
Miranda told me she doesn’t like pinks but likes blues, greens, grays, yellows, etc. She told me she loved my fabric yo-yo wreaths but wanted hers to be one of a kind like the others wreaths I make so I knew I had to take it a little off path.
SO I used the color scheme she likes and a scheme that would compliment her funky colored green front door.
I used pops of white and some silver buttons to take away from the faller tones of the natural burlap and the wooden buttons. To make it one of kind, I took the yo-yo look she liked and added a few felt flowers to blend the two together which I hadn’t done before.
The colors have warmth but the clean white and bright blue can take it from spring, to summer, and the warm tones and burlap ground it in to fall. I used fabrics with subtle green to play off her fun colored door.
It has texture with metals and wood, fabric, felt, and burlap. It’s a funky mix of yo-yos which are a little of beat and mixed with my traditional felt flowers. It’s clean, interesting, colorful, and crisp! It’s even prettier in person!
I hope you like your one of a kind wreath! Thanks for your order and thanks for being a faithful reader!
Pin me and follow me on Pinterest by using the social media icons on my home page. Click on “crafts” in the bottom left word cloud to see more of my felt creations!
Drum rolllllllllllllll….tah dah! This year I made my 16 month old a stay-at-home mom! I used everything I had here at home, excluding a small amount of fabric I bought for another costume. That means free, y’all! And please, no one get their panties in a wad over this “interpretation”. I am, in fact, a stay-at-home mom. I also, in fact, look like a mess a lot. Pajamas just feel so fine…. However, I don’t hot glue pretzels to myself and then go out in public. I promise. Although if they could chew on my pants while I shopped…..
What you need:
a small baby doll (You can buy the one I used here from Target.)
sweats, mismatched clothes, or PJs you already have
food for splattering and real and/or fake food for gluing on to clothes
house shoes
hairspray to mess up their hair
hot glue gun, scissors, fine point sharpie, and black and white felt to make a baby bjorn
Optional but totally cute: I used a baby doll diaper bag with a diaper and bottle for her trick or treat bag and had an empty coffee cup for an accessory
Everyone laughed watching her walk around. Free, fast, unique and, is there anything cuter than a baby wearing a baby?????!!!! No.
(I was Rainbow Dash’s mom to a Rainbow Dash not pictured. You know, if you were wondering.)
Pin the mess outta this guy and follow me here and all of my social media accounts! You can see past year’s costumes here and here towards the end of this post.
This year I tackled all three of my daughter’s costumes. They are all no sew, handmade, and 10 dollars and under! Ever since I started making bouquets and wreaths with felt, that fabric has become my jam.
Eden loves pizza so I thought I would make her one. Pepperoni, cheese, sausage, olive pizza! Comfortable, lightweight and so cute!
Play-Doh is my second child’s favorite thing. Seeing my brother in a scary clown mask, is not. Thus, her impending devastation but moving on.
You can smooth out the colored lip of the can to stand out like a real lid. I didn’t for these pictures though because it was crazy when we showed up to trick-or-treat.
Introducing the toy claw machine, baby edition! There is a baby in there. I confused everyone because I told them she’d be dressed as a dog, yet she wasn’t a dog for Halloween. Oooooooo, the plot thickens.
Fresh hot glue strings still dangling form the claw from the last minute panic of getting it finished and getting to meet everyone to trick-or-treat.
If my love for creative gift ideas and my love for my friends had a baby, it would be this idea: Baby Shower In A Box. As you get older and your friends scatter, it’s hard to get to them for all of the big events in life. I recently had a friend who was adopting a baby girl and the problem was, she lived in a different city but I still wanted to do something special for her. My idea for a baby shower in a box was born when I thought, “How neat would it be to send to her what I can’t do in person? I’ll send her a party to her door! Her own baby shower!”
Thus, I present to you the idea of planning and creating a party for someone that you pack and ship right to your loved one’s door! You can make it any theme and in any price range. I promise that you will be the only one giving them this gift. It’s sort of a double gift: a party and the gifts for the party.
Special thanks to Joel Ham Photography for making my idea come to life in these beautiful photos. Check them out on Facebook and on their personal site.
Here’s a look at what I created:
This is a baby I borrowed, along with a box I bought and embellished. Using scrapbook paper, chalkboard stickers, and an oil-based Sharpie, I made this “Baby Shower In A Box” label. I will wrap the front in packing tape when it’s shipped so it will be delivered with this on the front!
When she opens the box, the first thing she will see is this handmade invitation I made to match the decor for the front of the box.
What’s in the box? Well, a whole shower so…
An invitation
Cake mix and icing to make the shower treat with her son
Paper goods: napkins and plates
A helium balloon that will pop-up when the box is opened
Gifts: a dress for later, a onesie for now, and a headband to grow with her
Party Game with a game prize AKA a treat just for the mom
Big Bro Bag because you can’t forget the older sibling(s) while showering the new little squirt
Something for the nursery. I ordered the print shown from Mandipity on Etsy.
What’s in the bag? For the sibling bag I just put in a bunch of cheap thrills: bath bombs, Ninja Turtle cup, Ninja Turtle bubble wand, M & M tube, and a party of pack of glow stick glasses and wands. If the bag is for a little girl you could include: nail polish, pink cookies, glitter pens, plastic tiara, or one of the many paperbooks about being a big sister. Lots of popular characters that both boys and girls love have cute books on becoming a big sister/brother.
If you want to go all Martha on the bags, check out my post on Big Sister Bags and Busy Bags for Toddlers for more specific bags that will really make a mom cry tears of jubilee. You can do these for yourself pre-baby to build in a little sanity for after the baby comes. Hey, if no one sends you a bag to busy your kids, by all means, be your own hero.
How did I make the box that holds the prize? I took a plain white gift card box from Hobby Lobby and embellished it to match my party theme. Using washi tape, a doily die cut and a chalkboard sticker, this little box became my favorite party detail. And just for all you curious cats, the prize was a gift card to Starbucks for the mom because EVERY mom needs a little Star-cation.
One small detail you might have overlooked is the doily banner strung on twine across the backdrop. That actually coordinates with the whole theme and will be sent in the box as more of the “party decorations”. A banner can be personalized and used in the nursery or can be pulled back out and used it at their first birthday party. It’s a sentimental touch and I’m a sucker for that.
If you want to add a few pieces that are personal to your special celebration, yet doesn’t require a crafty hand, the home decor space within Shutterfly has everything from custom art, plates, and pillows.I love the chalkboard pillow or woodgrain monogram pillow print for a nursery I also adore the personalized placemats for kids as a big sibling gift.
This gift is creative, personal, thoughtful, and has more possibilities than the Powerball. It’s for any person, for any party, for any celebration! Now that’s versatile! You don’t have to be close to a friend to be a part of the experience. Pin, share and enjoy!
