Little man baby shower: guestbooks and activities (& a freebie!)

I hosted a baby shower last summer (see more here) and we played 2 games…Who did it and Who’s Who? For the little man shower this year, we did Who did it as more of an activity center with a self check answer sheet. After all, Annie and I are both teachers at heart. It was a fun (free) activity for guests to wander around and learn a little more about the parents.  I e-mailed Annie and Austin’s (Annie’s husband) moms’ and asked each to send me 10 things Annie or Austin did before age 7. Then I used note cards to cut out conversation bubbles and write the incidents down as gender neutral as possible. Lucky for us, Vikki had the netted frame on hand, and Annie had orange spray paint at home! I cut out some letters and a mustache for a sign, and voila free baby shower game!

little man baby shower ideas

Baby shower game

I made the answer sheet out of a manila envelope and card stock. I added the pull tab to a plain white sheet of card stock with a glue stick. A super simple way for guests to self check their answers and start  up conversation!

free baby shower gamefree baby shower games

We used 2 guest books. We had big plans to use a puzzle guest book, but like I said planning from another state was uber tricky. The puzzle thing didn’t work out. By didn’t work out, I mean I attempted to draw something in permanent black marker on the puzzle that was well… ugly. We ditched the idea last minute, after attempted to paint over it with no luck. Annie used the “leaf a thumbprint” print she used at a previous shower. Everyone “leafed” a thumbprint and signed their name. I t will be a simple piece of art for the nursery or a really cute page in the baby scrapbook. You can get a blank puzzle at Michael’s for $1. I suggest using paint instead of giant permanent markers! Maybe even buying a wooden puzzle and painting over it?

guest book ideasHere is what we ended up using:

guest book ideas

Vikki, one of the 5 hostesses, framed the invitation in a blue picture frame she had on hand. Love how it turned out! I love the little rhyme, “A little mister is on his way, let us prepare for arrival day. Join us for a mustache bash” You can find the invites on etsy here.

guest book ideas

The second guest book included a little mad lib action I made up. Remember the 25 guest book ideas I posted about while back… The mad lib is on the list (along with the puzzle that didn’t work out this time around!). The actual mad lib I used for Annie’s shower is more personalized to her and her husband, but I made a generic version in case you want to use it!  You could always cut off the mustaches. We printed it on 3 different colors of card stock to brighten up the table.

Get the free printable Mad Lib {HERE}
mad lib baby shower

The photo booth is super easy. We used thumbtacks to pin up 2 pieces of burlap. I borrowed this idea to add to the burlap backdrop. Marnie’s sweet daughter made us the chain loops out of brown paper sacks and construction paper Sadly this is the only picture i have have the whole thing.

photo booth backdrop

Annie and I teamed up to make a fun photo booth sign with black poster board, a white paint pen, and scissors. You can see our inspiration picture here… we basically copied it exactly. Here she is in progress…

diy photo booth

It went up next to the backdrop and props…

diy photo booth backdropdiy photo booth backdrop

That’s it for the activity portion of this little man baby shower.  Do you have a favorite shower activity? Game? Theme? And one more time, you can get the free printable Mad Lib {HEREI’d love to hear…

Here are some more fun shower themes ideas:

 

Psst… See more little man baby shower deets here…

Little man baby shower: garland, tulle balls, menu & food labels

large tulle pom pom

I showed you some of the fun stuff yesterday, but today I’m giving you the deets. The little man shower decor, for the most part, was done all in one day. Marnie was the proactive hostess (there were 5 of us!) who whipped up some crafty goodness in advance including: mustache & bow ties on sticks, cupcake stand, silverware holders, mustache plates and cups and she brought scrapbook paper, and twine to the baby shower eve craft night. We couldn’t have pulled it off without her decor fore thought. My mom was also essential in operation little man shower decorations. Thankfully, my mom is use to my extra messy crafting style and her house is always fully stocked with craft essentials.  She is also a super star at resurrecting my craft disasters and assisting to make my visions turn into reality. Annie (the guest of honor) was another major player in her own shower decor! Lucky for us, not only is she good at putting together fancy fiestas… she loves it!! The mad lib gust book (more on that Friday) was the one completed craft I had with me when I arrived in TX. Oh… and I had e-mailed the mom’s about the “Who did it?” game. But, other than that the shower was all just a vision in my head upon deplaning in TX on Friday morning.  Saturday was the shower. Ah!

The whole traveling from Florida to Texas thing made shower decor pretty tricky. Not to mention, I had never been in the house where the shower was planned. On the plane, I made a list of all my ideas. Check it out:

little man baby shower

 

I had ideas, it was implementation and transportation that was tricky. Somehow, we actually pulled off about 80% of the list! Here’s how it went down. My mom and I started making recycled garland early on Friday morning… I knew we could find a place to hang it up. Annie took off of work, and the 3 of us went to tour the shower house that afternoon.  Annie had a basic idea for party layout already in her head… food, drinks, gifts, photo booth.  We just needed to decide how to jazz up the already pretty space  in little man fashion. Here was the refined to do list after the initial house viewing on Friday afternoon:

  • 2 recycled pom pom garlands (one over who did it? game and one over food table)
  • put together little man activity with a large netted frame Vikki already had on hand
  • food and drink labels with felt mustaches (Annie made these with iscrapbook on her computer and I cut out the mustaches and pinned on random scraps)
  • burlap and paper chain photo booth back drop
  • 2 scrapbook buntings (one on crib and one on drink bar)
  • tulle balls (hanging over crib filled with gifts)

My mom and I had started the recycled pom pom garlands. We attempted the crepe paper tying technique I’d seen on pinterst. Sadly, it didn’t work out as well for use, and time wasn’t on our side. We tried 2 techniques: dipping crepe paper in blue food coloring and using a spray bottle filled with watered down acrylic paint. As you can see neither worked out to well for us…

dip die garland

We ended up opting for a version that included things from around the house and no drying time. We used brown paper bags, crepe paper, blue string, and orange fabric to create a lovely bundle of texture and color…

pom pom garland supplies

pom pom garlandHere is the pom pom garland product…

pom pom garland

Next up was tulle pom pom’s. We speeded to Hobby Lobby (something we don’t have in South Florida!!) for tulle ball materials. We wanted to make 5 balls of different sizes for above the crib of gifts. None of us had ever made large tulle balls, and had no idea how much tulle to buy. We opted for 4 yards of mustard and navy and 2 rolls of the sparkly orange. (I didn’t even realize tulle cam in rolls!) Just an FYI, if you have time order from Amazon, it’s cheaper. (here is an orange tulle roll for $2.98, but I can’t see how many feet is on one roll and here is another orange tulle roll for $3.59 with 75 feet of tulle).  The mustard and navy had to be cut into strips, while the orange was already the right width on the roll. Another thing about the tulle on the rolls is that it was stiffer than the tulle bought by the yard… this made for fuller pom poms. For the small orange balls, Annie cut out circles from old cardboard. I’d guess our circles were 12 in. in diameter. My decoupaged life has a good tutorial if you want to see the play by play.

tulle pom pom

tulle pom pom

For the really big tulle pom pom’s we went crazy and free formed them. We cut the tulle by the yard into 6 in strips, and alternated it back and forth on top of itself. Then just tied the giant bunch of tulle in the middle with twine. 4 yards was not enough if you want super fluffy tulle balls. I’d say at least 8 yards cut into 6 in strips for 24 inch tulle balls. We didn’t have time on our side, and decided since the tulle balls were being hung up high, you wouldn’t notice if the not so fluffy tops. It was festive and certainly added a splash of color and a focal point for the party room! See for yourself:

tulle pom pom's

The scrapbook bunting was a Sabrina/ Jamie/ Marnie project at operation little man craft night. Marnie brought all of the coordinating scrapbook over, I cut out all of the triangles, and Sabrina taped and arranged the bunting on the twine! I love it on the crib… arranging was a group effort. Moving on to food and drink labels… Annie made the food labels on the computer with her scrapbook software and printed them out on card stock. The hardest part about this project was defining the menu… ha! Vikki, Marnie, and Sabrina were the menu makers, chefs, and bakers! I contributed one (super duper simple) food item (to be seen shortly).

The little man menu included:

  • ham sliders
  • fruit kebobs
  • tomatillo dip and chips
  • artichoke dip
  • veggie cups
  • bow tie pasta salad

Desserts:

  • Mexican vanilla cupcakes
  • lemon blossoms
  • chocolate mustaches on a stick (party favor)
  • mustache cookies (party favor

Drinks:

  • tea, lemonade, water
  • mimosa bar
  • wine

Each label was printed on card stock with a fun border, I added a few scraps and a felt mustache, and Annie glittered some clothes pins… pretty simple, but definitely added a little pa-zazz… How fun is this watermelon baby carriage for make your own fruit kebabs!

baby carriage watermelon

Here is my one food contribution… individual veggie dip cups… I first saw the idea here… it’s perfect for a party because you can pick one up and eat ‘em with your fingers.

veggie cups party foodbaby shower menu

These tasty treats were baked by Vikki’s sister in law, Jenny Rudder Baer. Annie hand crafted the chocolate  ‘staches!mexican vanilla mini cupcakes

These were the super cute edible party favors baked by Steffany Bowling with Peace, love & Cakes

little man party favor

Vanessa was in charge of  “wettin’ your whiskers”… we had lots of alcoholic and non alcoholic options available… The cups even had cute little mustache stickers!

little man baby shower ideas

The mimosa bar complete with strawberries, raspberries, and 4 juice options was a tasty option for the non pregnant people in the room… (I need to add mimosa bar to the list of 16 party bars!)

mimosa bar

Have you ever hosted an event while living in another state? It’s a tricky/ pseudo frustrating venture. There are all these things you want to bring/ do but the suitcase can only hold so much.  More little man activity deets on Friday…

 

 

Little Man Baby Shower

A few weekends ago, I headed home to Texas to host a baby shower for my high school BFF, Annie. Lucky for me she is blog less and has shared lots of her crafty things on C.R.A.F.T… (tie dye nails, DIY wedding, ice painting to name a few). Me and 4 other ladies worked together to bring Annie and baby a fancy fiesta… She is using navy, orange, and mustard in the nursery and we decided it would be fun to use those colors for the shower!  Vikki, one of the 5 hostesses happen to have a crib in her attic. Perfect spot for presents!

little man baby shower

little man baby shower

We had a “Who did it” center set up for guests to guess which baby (Annie or Austin) did what silly thing.

Baby shower game

baby shower games

One of the hosts, Vanessa, her baby girl and Annie…little man baby shower ideasThe food cards…little man baby shower ideasThe DIY photo booth with lots of props…little man baby shower ideas3 of the hostesses… little man baby shower ideasMe, Annie, and baby…little man baby shower ideas“Wet your whiskers” at the drink station…little man baby shower ideasMustache cookie favors and a mad lib guest book…

little man baby shower ideas

Mini Mexican vanilla cupcakes, complete with mustaches made by Annie…

little man baby shower ideas

The food table and puppy…

little man baby shower ideas

little man baby showerAnother guest book station…

leaf a thumbprint guest book
Hosting a baby shower is a lot of work, and it’s tricky having 5 hostesses. Especially when 3 of them live in different cities, and one (me!) in another state! I will be over sharing details and pictures over the next couple of days…

  • Wednesday: Menu, food Labels, and garlands
  • Thursday: Creating Really Awesome Free Trips: Nashville, TN
  • Friday:  Free baby shower game, guest books, photo booth

How about you… Have you hosted a baby shower lately?  Mustache bashes? Or any other parties? Totally random, but I’m super curious… what would you name a baby boy today?