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!

Baby Announcement Pictures!

I was so excited when one of my good friends asked me to take baby announcement pictures for her first baby...a girl!  She wanted the photos to be simple and make a statement, and I was really happy with how they turned out.  Here's a little peek into some of my favorites! Enjoy!

First of all, don't you love her shoes?! This gal is know for her good fashion sense, and I loved her sassy high heels. 

I used PicMonkey to edit the photos.  It is so super easy to use and has fun bells and whistles that are a sinch to figure out. 

Here's the same black & white picture, but I used a focal softening technique so the baby shoes stood out (when I say "technique", I mean I pressed the button that said "focal soften".  I promise it's simple.)

The Mom and Dad signs were easy to make...black construction paper and chalk. 

And by the way...these two are going to be the best parents! :)

I liked this picture, but the stairs in the background spoiled it.  I lightened it and used the "clone" button to add the rock over the stairs.

Now it looks much better!

I used the "clone" button on the shoes too.  They had a brand name on the inside of both shoes that spoiled the shot.  :(  Luckily it was another easy fix!

Here's another version in black & white.

 These pictures were tons of fun to take and edit.  I can't wait to meet this cute little girl when she makes her debut in a few months!

Have fun!

~Cindy Jane

Ruffled Minky Blanket Tutorial

 Minky is such a soft comfy fabric- It makes the best blankets! It is not, however, the easiest material to work with. If you follow a few simple rules, you can do it with great results!!! After lots of trial and error- here are my methods:

Supplies:

1 yard of cotton fabric for the body of the blanket

1 yard (or more, if you want it more ruffly) for the ruffle

1 yard of minky fabric for the back

Sewing machine

Iron

1. Wash and dry your cotton fabric. It will shrink up a bit, and the minky doesn't shrink. It is important to pre-wash the cotton to avoid a wrinkly underside  when you finish!

Cut your ruffle fabric into 5" strips. to get these strips nice and straight- I cut a 1 or 2 inch slit and rip the fabric. It will rip straight.

 2. Sew the strips together end to end to make one giant strip. Fold the strip (length-wise) and iron a crease all the way down the center of your ruffle.

 The minky fabric can be expensive. Hobby Lobby sells a pretty good selection of colors for $12.99/yard- so if you use their 40% coupon (located on their website most weeks. Every once in a while they don't offer that coupon- but if you wait a week you can bet it will be back).

3. The minky fabric is 60" wide- you can get two 30" by 36" pieces out of each yard. I think this makes the perfect blanket size. This makes your blankets very affordable (if you use the coupon). Only about $4 in minky fabric per blanket!

Once you have cut your minky in half it is time to trim the cotton. One side of your fabric (the 36" side) should match up in size pretty closely. You will have around eight inches of overhang on the other side of your cotton. Trim this strip off and use it later for burp cloths, hair bows, bibs, etc. A nice little addition to a gift!

 4. It is time to sew your ruffle onto the front of your blanket. Your ruffle should be folded in half with the right sides out. Line up the raw edges of the ruffle and the blanket top, and position your presser foot to leave a two or three inch tail.

 4. About every four inches you can make (approximately) a one inch pleat. Alternate the directions of the pleat as you go. Continue until you approach the first corner.

 5. When you reach the corner you want to give yourself plenty of fabric to work with. When the blanket is opened up it will spread the ruffle out and you will need the extra. Carefully stitch slowly around the corner- making the ruffle as full as you can.

 Continue until you have gone around the entire top of the blanket.

6. When you get to the end- guess about how much fabric you will need on your ruffle to make one more pleat- and trim the excess.
You will then want to sew the two ends of the ruffle together. Open up the ruffles and put the right sides together and sew. Make your final pleat and finish attaching the ruffle.

 This is how your top should look now.

 7. Lay your top out- right side up, and ruffles going towards the inside of the blanket. Make sure the blanket is completely flat- with no wrinkles.

 8. Now it is time to attach the minky fabric.
Lay the minky fabric (right side down) on top of the cotton fabric. Again- make sure there are no wrinkles and everything is nice and flat. This is where things can get a little tricky, so take your time!

 9. Once it is all laid out pin pin and pin some more!!! This is such an important step! This is what keeps it from ending up a wrinkled, stretched out mess!
Pin your corners first, and then pin the center of each side. Then another pin in between the center and corner pins, etc. etc. until you have pins all the way around- no more than about 2" separating each one. I can't stress enough how important this is!

10. Carefully begin sewing around the blanket, removing the pins as you go. Make sure your minky is on the top, and the cotton is on the bottom. Take care not to stretch the minky at all as you go. it needs to stay flat or your blanket will be totally wonky (that is a very accurate description!) when you are done! Also, be careful that all your ruffles inside the blanket stay flat, and you don't catch them in a stitch. 

11. Leave a 4" opening so you can pull your blanket right side out. Go ahead and turn it right side out and check to make sure all the ruffles are securely sewn into the blanket and everything looks as it should. Now is the time to fix anything that may not be perfect.

 12. Turn the blanket inside-out again and trim all the excess fabric around the edges. Take care not to cut your stitch!

 Flip the blanket right side out again and get ready to top stitch.

13. When I do the top stitch, I do it with the cotton on top. Start your top-stitch at the 4"opening and stitch it closed. Continue your stitch all the way around the blanket. Pull gently on your ruffle periodically to make sure it stays nice and flat on both sides.

Cut off any loose strings- and that's that!

These are my favorite blankets! They fold up small enough to go in the diaper bag- but are big enough to use as your baby grows. And they get softer with each wash. My four year old has blankets as old as he is- and they look just as good as the first day we used them!

The perfect pajama craft- and I think all this talk of blankies made me sleepy! Night Night!

ElleBee