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Thursday, August 18, 2011

A Navy, White & Yellow Nautical Baby Shower

For the last 4 weeks my life has felt like a whirlwind, I have been planning the decor for my sister-in-law Tiffany's baby shower.  She's married to my brother and they are expecting their first baby, MY first nephew and I am so very excited.  I wanted the shower to be something special and memorable so I basically threw myself into it, literally.  It basically consumed me, lol.  I am so very happy with the way it turned out and so happy to show it off.  I scoured the internet for inspiration and put my own twist on some things.  Tiffany has his room with a nautical theme so I know I wanted that but I didn't want the traditional blue, red and white that you associate with the theme, I ended up going with navy, white and yellow and I have to admit I am very happy with the end results.

It started with the invites....I worked hard on these and they turned out better than I had hoped.

 I kept the yellow banner as a theme throughout, I bought the life preserver at Michael's as unfinished wood and then painted it added the blue ribbon and even decoupaged the letters for S.S. Nathan. All of the desert platters are glass plate glued to vases and painted to match the decor.  They cost literally about $2.50 each. I made the giant paper fans from posterboard, each paper fan is two posterboards.  The yellow "rose balls" are actually crepe paper roses on a styrofoam ball and attached to what was once a clear vase from Hobby Lobby but I painted them white to match. For the bunting, I could not find the perfect paper, anywhere so I actually designed the paper in photoshop and printed it myself, it was really simple and added that exact match that I was looking for.

The cake came from a wonderful woman located on the far east side of Houston, it was a drive for my mom but well worth it. It tasted amazing and she made it better than the original inspiration I showed her, the details were amazing.  You could actually see what looked like nails in the boat, the waves were perfect.

The pretzels were made by my 14 yr old daughter, she helped out so much and I am so appreciative to her for all her help in getting ready for this day.  I also had put my other kids to work at home, lol.  The jello cups turned out so cute, I actually saw this on Pinterest but they were made with oranges but as you can see orange did not fit my color scheme so I used lemons as the mini sailboat base.

This table served as an entry for the guests, it displayed the diaper cake I made (the very first one I ever made actually), the favors, the name tags and the guest book.  For the favors I took baby food jars and filled them with bath salt, painted the lids and added a custom label.  Inside there was a note rolled up (to resemble a message in a bottle) that said a cute little poem.  I had a little sign next to envelopes where the guest could pre-fill there address for the thank you notes to help the mom to be out.  For the guest book I saw where people were using their thumb prints to make trees and guests would sign around it.  I took it a little be farther and made a guest book with plain white pages and I asked the guests to stamp their thumbs and then write a little message or advide to the parents.


I love how the diaper cake turned out, I wanted it to be a decoration
 and it turned out better than I had expected.


I really thought these name tags were going to be the death of me, lol.  I made 32 of these things, they were not that difficult but a little time consuming.  I wanted them to resemble the paper fans
and be a little over the top, I think they were. 


Tiffany's stepmom was in chage of the food, I simply just wrapped the plastic ware and helped with the table decor.  I painted little wooden sailboats and a couple of lighthouse.  Over the table I used more bunting and on each end a cluster of paper lanterns to give it a finished look.  The table cloths that you see on both tables and island were painters drop cloths. Yes they were a little bit more than a normal table cloth for a party but they were thicker, longer, wider and gave a canvas look to help tie in with the nautical theme. 

We chose to stick with easy and quick games, but one thing I really wanted to try was to let the guest decorate a onezie or burp cloth for the mom-to-be.  It was a hit and a lot of fun to see what the guests came up with.  I supplied plenty of fabric, paints, fabric markers and templates.


And here is the guest of honor....my sister-in-law Tiffany....I am so ready for her to pop out my nephew!  I made her this ridiculously large name tag to where all day, as if any one couldn't tell she was the guest of honor with that gi-normous belly.
Thanks for looking and if any of you want to know how I did something or more details leave me some comments and I will try to answer you.

21 comments:

Jenne said...

What a fabulous shower! You did an amazing job. What a lucky little baby to have someone who already loves him so much!

Jo Pearson said...

Love this party! Great job---any hints on making the big fans?
Jo

Courtney B said...

Will you do my next baby shower....I will supply you with everything....I'm so serious! Now that I know you can do it on this level. I'm not letting anyone else do it and for once, I will get to just show up and know that my shower will be great! Beyond Great!

Anonymous said...

I hopped over to your blog from 2 Peas. Gosh everything is so cute. You did a fantastic job!!!

Debbie from Illinois

April Michelle said...

Thanks everyone...I'll post a tutorial on the fans tomorrow, they are really easy.

Courtney B, I would love too!

Anonymous said...

I'm visiting from the pod and wanted to tell you what an amazing job you did on this! I love all of it. You really did pour yourself into this; it shows!

Lexica at the pod

Anonymous said...

somehow i got to this site because of a picture someone pin on Pinterest.
we're doing our baby boy's room with the nautical theme, so i've been looking everywhere for ideas.
you're so talented and everything looks great. i just had to let you know!

They Call Me Bobby said...

love this! The bath salt party favor idea - what is on the outside of the jars?? Just so you know, I'm in love with this baby shower and hope to do something at least half as nice for my cousin's baby shower coming up in about 5 weeks. HOping I have enough time to get all this done! Thanks for the inspiration!

Anonymous said...

What is in the jars? Also, what size are the invites and then the envelopes? Thanks, Heather

Anonymous said...

Can you tell me how you made the pin for your sister in law?

Lamitra Randle said...

omg, so cute, did you make all the party decor?

Jenny said...

Hello! I absolutely loved the entire event it was simply gorgeous! I too am hosting my best friends baby shower, she's due in October and I am using the same color scheme and theme as you are and my question is how did you get the print on the pennants for the invitations? Did you print them from the computer then cut out the pennants? I am attempting to do them with my cricut but they are coming out with clean cuts! Please let me know thanks!

Anonymous said...

Help! My sister's baby shower is this weekend and all I'm missing is nametags. Can you tell me how you made yours? Thanks

April Michelle said...

^ You didn't leave an email or I would respond to you personally.

Here is how I made them:

I made paper rosettes using this youtube tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHRTKXAFjDM

Then I printed out the names on white paper, cute them and glued them on.

I used double side tape to stick them on the guests as they arrived.


Anita W said...

OMG!! this is too cute for words!! My daughter is having a baby in October and she has chosen Nautical as her baby theme and wants me to use it for the shower theme also. Would love to use some of your ideas!! anitajowil@aol.com

Heather said...

What template did you use for the banner portion of the invites? My cousin loves your invites and has asked me to recreate something like it for her wedding invitations. Thank you in advance for any and all assistance!

Unknown said...

Love all your ideas.. how lucky this baby and mommy ofcourse...
I need help with the anchors...how can I make them so pretty... Thank you for all your ideas and for sharing...

Unknown said...

Love all your ideas.. Thank u for sharing.. Can u help me how to make anchors please.. Thank u....

Lainaholo 'Ohana said...

You did an absolutely amazing job with the shower! My sister-in-law's shower is the same theme, and you've got such fabulous ideas...kudos for a job well done!

Anonymous said...

hello my name is Trachelle an i am 6 months pregnant and i am starting to get thongs ready for my baby shower for august i would love to know how you made the invites Because i am doing a nautical theme as well with the same colors please email me your details @ trachellebrown@AOL.com. thank you

Unknown said...

I absolutely love this theme. You did such an amazing job. Can you send me the template for the invitation and the tag that went on the invitation? Also, how did you make the banner that went on the invitation? Thanks