Weekend Pajama Party: Sugar & Spice Baby Shower!

I was honored to throw a baby shower for one of my favorite people in the world last weekend!  Katie is having a baby girl in September and wanted a soft and delicate feeling to the decorations and theme.  She decided on "Sugar and Spice" with an emphasis on sugar!  You can't go wrong with that. 

This cotton candy inpspired wreath was hung on the front door.  The rosettes were made from tulle (lots and lots of tulle) and held in place on a styrofoam wreath with corsage pins.  There was zero gluing involved, which I loved.  Click HERE! for a tutorial on my new favorite wreath.  :)

Next I made this matching topiary, using the same technique on the roses. 

I added strips of green tulle in the back of the rosettes for the look of leaves, and it added a delicate contrast. I'm not gonna lie, this little creation was hard to say goodbye to. 

Since the new little bundle of joy will be as "Cute as a Button", the guests each glued a button onto a "M" for baby Megan. 

The shower was open house style so we didn't play any of the traditional shower games, but this gave the guests something to work on for baby Megan's room.

Another little activity the guests were asked to do was with this Blessing Tree. They were asked to write some words of love, wisdom, or advice to Katie or baby Megan to hang on the tree. 

I made these puffy tulle pom poms as a simple garland to add detail to the gift table. 

They were SO easy, so keep your eyes open for an upcoming tutorial.

I LOVED the idea Katie came up with.  Like I mentioned before, it was open house style, but we wanted people to stay and chit chat, so Katie put together this onesie station. 

She bought a variety of onesie sizes, paint, and stencils and let everyone show off their creativity with personalized onesies from baby Megan's newest and greatest fans. 

It was such a cute idea to have the "artists" sign their names as a reminder of this fun day!

I also loved the holiday themed ones! I was a huge fan of this in lieu of games.

WARNING: Just looking at the rest of this blog post may cause cavities! 

Proceed at your own risk!  :)

"Sweets for the Sweet" was the theme of this candy bar.  Guests munched on candy and took a handmade paper box to go as a "thank you" for coming.

The boxes were made using the Cricut cartridge "Boxes, Bags, and Tags" (the first edition, not the "Boxes, Bags, Tags & More").  They are a really easy and custom DIY box for a variety of party favors.  I made the paper rosettes out of vellum which gave them a softer look.  Click HERE for a rosette tutorial.

The apothecary jars and smaller glass jars gave the candy bar an old time feel.

All of the candy was purchased at Gygi's, a super classy party supply store that has more than your average candy and baking selections.

One of my favorites were the giant pearlized gumballs.  ElleBee was sweet enough to let me use her gumball machines.  Click HERE for the tutorial she used to make them.

I got ahead of myself with the party favor, candy bar.  If you thought that was a sugar rush, get ready for the food, treats pure yumminess the guests indulged themselves on.

Katie's amazing neighbor, Rachel, baked all of these deliciously crazy treats!  A picture is worth a thousand words, so enjoy!

I know, right!?! 

 There was an insane amount of to-die-for food!
 These mini champagne styled glasses were one my favorites.  They came from our local Partyland.  The edges were dipped in Karo syrup and then dipped again in pink baking sugar from Gygi's.  The striped straws also came from Gygi's.  I told you, I'm kind of a fan!

Here I am with my gorgeous friend, Katie! (she's on the left)

It was so much fun planning this shower with her!  She will be an amazing mom, and I'm thrilled for her! 

I hope the next baby shower you throw is just as fun as this one!  Hopefully you got some good ideas you can use at any type of party to

make the world a cuter place! 

Have fun!

Cindy Jane
P.S. Click HERE to see some of Katie's baby announcement photos!

Easter Wreath with Embellished Eggs

 Here's my last little craft for my corsage pin embellished eggs. I added them to a cute little ribbon wrapped wreath.  Here's how I did it!

Materials:

10 inch Styrofoam wreath

3 yards ribbon (1 & 1/2 inch width)

pussy willow silk flowers

heather silk flowers

hot glue gun

3 small Styrofoam eggs

corsage pins

glitter paper

Cricut 

Step 1:First I wrapped the wreath base with ribbon and then I pinned a loop of ribbon on the back for it to hang.

Step 2: I layed out the willows and heather around the wreath until I liked it.  Then I hot glued them in place.

Step 3: I made the eggs using Styrofoam eggs, corsage pins, and flowers from my A Walk in My Garden Cricut cartridge.  I used the "blossom" cut at 3/4 inches.  After the eggs were done, I hot glued them to a floral pick and stuck them into the wreath.

Step 4: A third egg wouldn't fit so I cut the top of one off, bedazzled it with flowers and pins, and attached it to the wreath.



Step 5: I added a lot of heather in and around the eggs to give it a nest look and it was finished!

And there you go! A spring wreath with a sparkly Easter touch!

(See, I told you Herbie's modeling days weren't over quite yet!)  :)

Have fun!
~Cindy Jane

P.S. Don't forget to enter our GIVEAWAY!!!!! See all the details HERE

Rhinestone & Tulle Wreath

Love is in the air!  Valentine's Day is almost here and this is the perfect wreath to glitz up your home, especially if red and white aren't in your color scheme.  I was inspired by a wreath I saw here and you can easily make your own too!

What you will need:

10 inch green Styrofoam wreath

10-12 yards of ivory tulle

white or cream fabric to cover the wreath

hot glue gun and glue

2 yards of rhinestones....you might want to get a little extra just in case

The rhinestones I used were regularly priced at $17 per yard but you can get them cheaper online

Step 1: Cover your green Styrofoam wreath in a white or cream material so the green doesn't show through. When I did this wreath, the best thing I could find at 2 a.m. was Aluminum foil tape and it did the trick.

Step 2: Cut the tulle into 2 1/2 x 26 inch strips.

Step 3: Tie the tulle strips in double knots around the wreath.  I doubled up the strips and tied two at a time to give it extra fullness and make it go faster.

Keep tying...and tying...and tying!

Repeat until it is full and fluffy! 

Step 4: Add your glitz! Using hot glue, glue the rhinestones to cover the knots. 

Add the second layer of rhinestones, or a third!  :)

Step 5: Tie a knot in one of the strips of tulle to hang it and now the world is a cuter place all because of you!

Have fun!

~ Cindy Jane

Red Burlap Rose Wreath Tutorial

I love using burlap and wanted to try something different for a Valentine's Day wreath.  My sister gave me the great idea to do this one.  I've attempted to make similar wreaths using crepe paper but I didn't have the patience for them.  This wreath was time consuming, but burlap is SO much easier to use and I really like how it turned out so it was worth it.

What I used:  10 inch Styrofoam wreath

                        8ish yards of red burlap
                        Glue gun and lots of glue sticks
                        A vacuum cleaner many times during this project...burlap is MESSY!
                        Take my advice and cut the burlap strips outside. 

Step One:  Cut out a lot of burlap!  I made small and large roses.  For the smaller roses I cut out strips of burlap that were 13 inches long and 1 & 1/2 inches wide (the width doesn't have to be exact, but it's better to make the strips wider than thinner).  The larger roses were made out of strips that were 26 inches long and 1 & 1/2 inches wide.

How to Cut Burlap in a Straight Line

 Measure the width you want to cut out and use a safety pin to pull out a bit of string at that width.

Pull the string out slowly so it doesn't break.  If it does, no worries, just find the string and keep going.

 Now you've got a nice straight line to cut.  :)

Step Two:  Make lots and lots of burlap roses. I stopped counting at about 120.  This is definitely a project to do in front of a TV or with friends.

How to Make Burlap Roses

Roll the burlap three or four times to make the center of the rose.

Glue at the bottom of the petal that is beginning to form.  Make sure you glue low so the dried glue isn't seen.  Nobody likes looking at a sloppy rose....or 100 sloppy roses for that matter.

As you hold the base with your left hand (if you're right-handed), continue to wrap the burlap around the center of the rose with your right hand while twisting it towards you.  This will give it a full look and keep it together. 

Continue to glue the burlap after every few wraps and twists of your wrist.

At the end of the strip, put a generous amount of glue on the remaining flap and press it down with scissor sheers until it is dry.

Now repeat 100+ times.  :)  The smaller ones took me about 2 minutes each and the large ones about 5 minutes.  It's time consuming, but a great de-stresser.   

Step Three:  Glue the roses onto your Styrofoam wreath.  I used hot glue and it was pretty fast.  There will be a "stem" at the end of the roses that you can trim down to help the roses fit into place better on the wreath. 

I placed the large roses in and then placed the smaller ones to fill in holes.  There were still some white spots showing through so I cut dime sized pieces of burlap and glued them in the gaps so it looked really clean. 

There's the finished product.  I think it definitely helps make the world a cuter place.  :)

One More Wreath

I had some extra roses left over and an extra burlap wreath from my last post.  I added them together and this is what I came up with.