Auntie A's Baby Shower

It was a crazy whirlwind of a weekend. I flew into Seattle Friday night, unpacked and sorted until 1230am (okay - Ms. A did steal me for a spa pedi treat - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU), packed up the suv, picked up the cupcakes with Grandma Bub, and we were off to Gramma Sue's.

Handmade garlands. Poms are cut muslin circles hot glued to large wood beads on linen twill tape. Banner is precut Martha Stewart Crafts note cards with light grey buttons and precut letters from Michaels.

Gramma Sue and Ms. Julie were fabulous! Gorgeous plated food. Super pretty.

Foods: fruit, veggies and cheese trays (thank you Gramma Sue and Ms. Julie). Homemade cinnamon rolls and Egg Casserole (yum, yum, yum Gramma Sue and Ms. Julie). I baked some sugar button cookies and most survived the plane trip (those that didn't, got eaten before 10 am, a girl gotta eat, right?)

Scalloped bowl from Marshalls (I luv Carson City, just can't find this stuff in Seattle) and scalloped enamel cake stand from Farmhouse Wares (see prev. post). Cute as a button made from old scrabble tiles and hot glue.

Mini cupcakes were from Trophy Cupcakes in Seattle. Yum! Vintage jars and vintage pressed glass cake stands. Lidded apothacary candy dishes are from Williams Sonoma. Wire pedestal from Sur La Table.

Everything looked better than I had hoped. I had just started taking pics right as guests arrived. Just in the nic of time. I should have taken more, but I am still learning photography.

Guess how many buttons is in that little jar in the middle. Not including the decorative one on the lid...guess...really...522. Go figure. Guests wrote their guesses on scalloped tags from Martha Stewart Crafts and plopped 'em in the mercury glass planter from Pottery Barn. Green pencils (see other post) were from Twig & Thistle and in votive holders from Martha Stewart's line at Macy's. Gorgeous vases for flowers are Waterford (borrowed from Grandma Bub). "ON DUTY/OFF DUTY" pillows were from Target with iron on transfers printed by me but inspired by Wry Baby, which I couldn't find at the time of the shower.

Few bunches of green and white flowers for ambiance (love flowers). Prizes for the shower games were packaged in square kraft paper boxes tied with muslin twill tape and a light grey button. Prizes were all around $5, 1. cupcake stand (as shown in prev. post), 2. galvanized plant stakes with marker, 3. set of 4 button magnets (2 large buttons, two frilly flower buttons), and 4. Starbucks GCard for $5 (always popular). Handmade felt booties (one shown) from Heather Bailey's blog. Tiered wire stand from Crate and Barrel. White vase from Martha Stewart at Macys. Cute as a button blanket found at Marshalls. Vintage reader cards found in Frenchie and Flea's store on Etsy.

Button coasters are from Parrot Designs (see prev. post)Homemade Blueberry and Peach Jam favors by Grandma Bub (resident jam maker and supplier of the B Family), I printed out labels on cardstock and cut with a circle cutter to screw in between the lids. Easy peazy.

A few more goodies

For the grammies...mammas of the mama always get left out. They aren't allowed to really "throw" a shower, so they need some lovin' too! Not that everyone doesn't already know, but now they can wear their bragging rights.

So, those poor cheap tissue balls have gone to the wayside. Apparently, tissue paper from the dollar store is not as forgiving as the better quality, and can't make very large poms, because the size is more square than rectangular (which is needed for a good pom.) That's okay, I always have a back up plan. Martha - I have my coupon, will trade for poms. hee hee. I will make another strand of fabric poms, too.

Here are some cute tags for the table. I still have to print out the labels and iron them on to muslin before I attach them.

I finally finished the Bingo game! yay! It didn't take as long as I originally thought, I am such the procrastinator! I made a template in PowerPoint for the board, and instead of copying and pasting each one differently, I made the original with numbers 1-24. Then I copied that slide 20 times and changed a few numbers around. After all slides had different combos, I did "find and replace" for each number, which resulted in different combinations of the words. It was easier to check for doubles or if you forgot a number in each slide visually with actual numbers, just count 1-24 on each and boom, done.



For the pieces I used a Martha Stewart Crafts button embossing punch on green copy paper. You would be surprised how hard it was to find colored copy paper. I finally had to go to Walmart (bad girl) because all my craft shops didn't have plain, lightweight paper. Only cardstock and funky patterns. Ed laughed at me when I punched them out because I had to "remove the hanging chads" hee hee hee.

button up

Previously I mentioned these fabric covered buttons are easy, did I mention how incredibly satisfying and relaxing they are to make? I am terribly impatient, and I get easily frustrated, on occasion, okay alot, when making stuff. This is not so good when it comes to crafting, and when it comes to baking...well, lets just say difficult. These make me happy. Here we go...

First things first...get a button making kit from your fave fabric shop. $2-$3, super cheap, right? I used Dritz brand. Break out some fabric you like. Cut out the round template on the back of the box. Cut out a fabric square. Trim to the template. I also made a lining by using a regular white quilting cotton, it helps keep from seeing the shiny button underneath.
Take the circles of fabric and lay them face down on the table, lining on top.

Center the top button piece on top and place all three in the white mold. (You might notice I take out the wire piece on the button top - easy to do, because I want my button to be flat so I can glue a magnet on back later)

Push down, making sure to keep the fabric smooth.


Push all the fabric ends in, they will be covered by the button bottom.


Put the bottom on top,


put the blue pusher on top of that and push until it pops or clicks into place.


Pop out the button.


Voila! Instant button. How easy was that?

Next post, add flower backing.

Button Flowers

While flitting around, well okay...chasing the boys around, my favorite fabric store, I found button making kits. Yeah, make your own fabric covered buttons. Such a good idea, perfect for Auntie A's shower.

I can make all kinds of things with these guys... magnets... necklaces... earrings...yay! Out of any fabric I choose! Double YAY!

I gathered some strips of fabric and hotglued them to the back of the buttons - ta-da, instant flowers. I got so excited about it, I forgot to take pictures to show you how easy it is. So easy, so cute. Will do a tutorial this weekend.

Button Cookies ala Martha

These are the cutest cookies I have ever seen! How perfect are they? Gorgeous simple sugar cookies, I think these are the main reason I chose a button theme. So sweet! Here are the instructions from Martha (of course.)

Tools and Materials
Cookie cutter
Drinking glass
Skewer
Ribbon
Buttons (optional)
Boxes
Tissue paper
Wrapping paper

How-To
1. Prepare dough for gingerbread or sugar cookies, and cut out round shapes with a cookie cutter.

2. Add an inner ring by gently pressing a glass into dough. Poke four button holes into each cookie with a skewer, and bake.

3. Stack several cooled cookies, and thread a thin ribbon through the holes. Line boxes with tissue paper, arrange cookies, wrap, and sew ribbon through buttons for added effect.

Cute as a button

The date is set - Feb 13th. Ms. Auntie A is gonna get the cutest little shower in the cutest victorian house I have ever seen. (Thank you Ms. Sue for letting us have it there) if it isn't obvious - the theme for the shower is "Buttons" or "Cute as a Button" 'cause we know he will be!

The color theme is mostly white with linen/taupe and green pops of color. My goal is to have all white serveware and creme colored simple paper plates and napkins. I have found the cutest ideas for garlands / "Sweet Baby" signs and will pop it up here once I finish. Here are some more pics from my inspiration board.

1. overspill.etsy.com

2. & 3. pinkynoodles.etsy.com

4. enjoycupcakes.com

5. green katie jump rope fabric by denyse schmidt

6. trophycupcakes.com