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Archive for the ‘Baby Shower Themes’ Category

Twins are double the fun, right?  For mom and dad, though, they are double the work!  Double the blessings, to be sure, but double the clothing, double the diapers, the bibs, the food… Help mom and dad out with a twin baby shower.  Here are some fun themes that celebrate twins and the double love they bring to a family.

There are plenty of cute baby shower themes for twins, and you could also opt for a more general twin theme for the entire party.  Let’s take a look at two popular themes to get your creative juices flowing.

Peas-in-a-Pod. It’s very easy to do peas-in-a-pod.  Your baby shower favors, for instance, can be several green jelly beans wrapped in green cellophane.  Twist and tie at the end, and you have an adorable pea pod.  For decorations, you can get balloons and green cellophane.  Wrap an inflated balloon in the cellophane and make little twists at both ends to resemble a pea.  For twins, simply do two balloons – or two peas in the pod!  You can do this with triplets as well.  You can also:

• Bake sugar cookies and frost them with green icing for peas.

• Make several small round cakes and ice them with green frosting, adding a bit of darker green icing for cute vines and leaves.

• Find peas-in-a-pod salt and pepper shakers for your decorations or favors.

• Make peas-in-a-pod with bath bombs and green cellophane.  Just as with the green jelly beans, place two bath bombs in green cellophane and twist the ends and secure with ribbons.  This is a cute, fun favor for guests.

• Look online for sales on favors and decorations. You can find cute pea candles, green streamers and balloons, and much more to add to the theme of your baby shower.

Thing 1 and Thing 2. Another very fun baby shower theme, this Dr. Seuss-inspired party is sure to be a success.  Again, this is a fairly popular theme – and rightly so! Because of this, you will be able to find premade supplies.  You will also be able to make a great deal of the decorations, favors, and food on your own.  When decorating for a Thing 1 and Thing 2 baby shower, use lots of red, blue, and aqua balloons – not pale shades, but bold, bright colors.  Find tablecloths or napkins featuring bold red and white stripes; dishes and flatware can be bright red, blue, bright yellow or green.  Very Dr. Seussian.

• Make Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes.  These are adorable and simple to make.  Make red velvet cupcakes in red liners.  When cool, frost them with white frosting and add blue cotton candy for their hair (you can buy bags of cotton candy at many stores and online). You can make little labels to stick on the liners that say Thing 1 for some cupcakes and Thing 2 for others. Delicious and mischievous.

• For decorations, simply Google “Dr. Seuss pictures.”  You will find printable coloring pages, which may be a fun party activity, especially if there will be children there.  Otherwise, you can color these yourself and hang them around your room, framed with red, blue, yellow, or green ribbon or dangling from ribbons suspended from the ceiling.  You can also buy big wall decals or signs online.

• Find inexpensive white, blue, and red paper lanterns and hang them around the room.
• Prop Dr. Seuss books around the room.
• Make green eggs and ham.  Really!  You could make deviled eggs and splash a drop of green food coloring in the mixture.
• You must get Thing 1 and Thing 2 onesies for the twins.

Twin baby showers are all about double the fun.  Make sure to acknowledge and welcome two babies in all of your decorations and details: twice-baked potatoes, double cheeseburgers, twin pops, two flavors of drinks or ice cream, sets of two stuffed animals, and, hopefully, two sets of great baby gifts!

As with all my cake posts, I’m drooling by the time I finish my research!  Luckily, my husband’s birthday was earlier this week so I was able to indulge in a little cake, although it wasn’t quite as inspiring as the cakes shown below.  All photos were found on www.flickr.com

The adorable creation shown in the top left is displayed by mandott on Flickr.  The two layer design features a railroad track piped on the cake plate and a train pieced together with fondant chugging around the bottom layer.  The top layer has fondant mountains and the topper is a railroad crossing sign.

The top center photo is a colorful train engine created by bo_n_arro.  The cake was cut and pieced together, then skillfully iced with buttercream.  Although it was time consuming to achieve the texture seen on the cake, the end result was worth the effort!

There are many ways to add a train to your shower cake, as seen on the top right cake made by sharoncakes.  The fancy 2 layer cake has colorful fondant accents, topped with a cardboard train that is decorated with icing.

The bottom cake shown above is my favorite train cake because of the shape, color and display!  The display board was simply decorated by cakeboxsoc with green icing and small, simple flowers along with a curved train track created out of icing.  The train itself was covered in brightly colored fondant, then small details were added with colored icing.  Although the design is not the most complex of the cakes shown here, it’s still a successful creation.

The center cake in the collage shown above is a simple sheet cake, iced with a small train design in the center.  The train was modeled after the one on the tableware that was used at Linda’s Kitchen’s shower.

The top design in the second collage is a large train piece baked and frosted by bluecakecompany.  The large pieces were frosted and decorated with buttercream and fondant.  I especially love the gum paste babies that were along for the train ride!

The bottom left cake was made with cakes baked in a loaf pan, then cut, iced and decorated with cookies, graham cracker bears and candy pieces.  The tracks were made out of popsickle sticks and a toy conductor is perched alongside.  This cake was made by amanda p. wu, and I found a great instructional video illustrating how to make a cake similar to this – sponsored by the Betty Crocker Kitchens and Howdini.com.

The final cake in this post is a professionally decorated piece with zebra stripes and jungle animals riding inside the train cars.  I love the detailed fondant work done by Pacific Pastries.  She actually created the circus train out of rice krispy treats because they are easier to mold into shape than cake.

It’s always fun to have little gifts to hand out to your baby shower guests.  Whether they win it playing a game or you give them out at the end of the shower, make sure to have some matching favors that will highlight your train themed baby shower!

One suggestion is the beautiful crystal train shown here.  Each multi-faceted lead crystal design glimmers in the sunlight and makes a great decoration or paperweight.  My husband loves to buy me lead crystal favors because of the way they reflect light and create rainbows for my boys to chase around the house!  We also have train-themed candles to decorate your tables or to send home with each guest.

You may want to bake train shaped cookies for dessert at your shower, you can either use cookie cutters as a guest favor, or decorate and package each cookie to send home as a tasty guest favor itself!  Edible favors are always a hit, you can purchase a colored favor box, fill it with the mother-to-be’s favorite candy and finish it with a personalized train-themed sticker.  Create your own sticker at zazzle.com for as little as $.32 each.

When decorating for a train-themed baby shower you can go with bold, bright colors or more muted tones.  Since trains are a very popular birthday theme, it should be easy for you to find tableware and decorations that can also be used for your train baby shower.

Once you find train themed tableware that you like, I suggest accenting these pieces with single color balloons, streamers and/or napkins.  Pick an accent color from the design – score bonus points with the mother-to-be if you can use her favorite color!  Many of the train items I found online are appropriate for a baby boy or girl, but most train-themed showers I researched have been for a boy.

I believe that reading to babies makes them smarter from the time they are conceived, so I try to find ways to tie books in to a shower theme.  There are two perfect book selections for a choo choo train shower – The Little Engine that Could and Thomas the Train.  There are a number of Thomas books based on different themes (sharing, friendship, etc).  Purchase one of these books as a shower gift, use it as for decorating or take phrases out of the book as inspiration for a shower game.

If you want to go all out with your train theme, turn the food table into a food train!  Start with a blank tablecloth and draw tracks winding across the table.  Before sketching out the design, you may want to set up each tray to see how wide the tracks should be.  Use square or rectangular-shaped serving platters as the train cars.  Add Oreo cookies or Ritz crackers for the wheels on the cars, and link them together with licorice whips.  To make the display more realistic you can add an actual train engine at the front and a caboose at the end.  You can also decorate the tablecloth with phrases like “All Aboard” or “Thank You for riding [mother's name] Baby Train”.

If your shower will include guests that may not know each other, print some train-themed name tags and ask each person to fill one out when they arrive.  You can also create or purchase a choo choo train diaper cake that is filled with useful baby items for mom.  These diaper cakes make an amazing centerpiece and a useful gift for your guest of honor!

Our first home was close to the railroad tracks.  When I mean close, I mean that our backyard ended where the tracks began.  We were also near a railroad crossing, so the trains heading east would blow their whistles right in our backyard!  Thankfully our firstborn inherited my “heavy sleeper” gene so the early morning whistles never woke us up.  When my husband’s work asked us to choose a personal design for our baby’s blanket (a standard gift from his office), it was an easy choice – a choo choo train!  The blanket is still in his keepsake chest, a treasured reminder of his birth date and the home where he spent the first 2 years of his life.

Trains hold a special meaning to me – I especially love the old steam locomotives and colorful train cars.  Boys young and old love trains too – from Thomas the Train to The Little Engine That Could to the fancy Silver Bullet.  If you need some inspiration for a baby boy themed shower just start here!

Get your train shower rolling with a ticket-themed invitation like the one seen here.  You can create them yourself, or simply enter the information and order them from Personalized Party Invites.  Use phrases like “All Aboard the Baby Train”, “Chugging Along”, or “Choo Choo Baby”.  You can even ask guests to show their ticket for admittance, then give them a gift if they remember to do so.

For a fun themed shower game, line up guest chairs from front to back and have the guests ride the “baby train”.  Starting with the first person in line, ask each guest to name an item they would bring along (bib, pacifier, diapers, etc).   The next guest in line must repeat everything that was previously mentioned, then add an item of their own.  By the time you get to the caboose, there should be a long list of baby items.  If the last person in line can repeat everything that’s on the train, reward her with a prize!

Decorate for your shower with train themed partyware and choo choo party favors.  Select primary colors and use Thomas the Train decorations, which can easily be found at a local party store (look in the birthday aisle). Wind a train track or toy train around the food table, for even more fun have the train running on the track during the shower!

Help out your guest of honor by providing her with a list of all the passengers onboard her baby train.  Pass around a clipboard titled “Mom’s Baby Train Manifest” and ask guests to fill in their names and addresses so mom has them close at hand when writing thank you cards.  You can even provide the thank you cards for your guest of honor, there are a number of adorable train thank you cards online.

Wrap up the party with a big thank you to all who rode the guest of honor’s baby train!  Let them know there were some interesting stops along the way (games, gifts, food) and invite them to the next stop – baby’s arrival!

The cupcakes pictured here are perfect for a Blooming Flower Baby Shower, but you don’t have to wait for a baby shower to make them!  The creative designs are so easy that they can be made for no reason at all.  The pretty cupcakes are fun to look at and delicious to eat!  Special thanks to my cousin Ashley – whose cupcake creations are an inspiration to me.  Some of her designs are shown here along with great homemade cupcake photos from Flickr.

The top left design is shared by Frostedbites on Flicker.  The cupcakes are covered with white frosting, then decorated with marshmallows that have been cut into petals.  The sticky inside of the marshmallow is perfect for catching colored sugar sprinkles, and a Pez inserted into the center of each cupcake completes the design.

The remaining 3 photos shown above are all cousin Ashley creations.  The top right photo shows cupcakes dipped in colored sugar and decorated with miniature candies such as jellybeans, mini M&M’s and colored candy sprinkles.  To get the teardrop shape, insert an M&M sideways into the frosting so only the edge shows.  The bottom left photo is by far my favorite because I love sunflowers!  The cupcakes were initially frosted with light green icing.  Ashley then used Oreos (regular and mini sized) to create the sunflower bases.  She used a petal tip and decorator’s bag to form the petals, and finished the flowers with red M&M ladybugs.  The leaves are gummy candy.  The bottom left photo shows miniature cupcakes, created for a very special birthday tea.  The mini cakes were frosted with a green base using a leaf tip for texture.  Ashley then cut out miniature gum paste flowers and dusted them with edible pearl dust to make them sparkly.  The dot in the center is a small candy bead.

1. The pink and white floral design shown above (far left) is a little more labor intensive than the other designs, but once you get the hang of using candy melts it’s a lot of fun!  The cupcakes seen here were made by mommy golightly, but check out bakerella’s blog to see how to make these neat cupcake toppers.
2. The orange and yellow flower cupcakes are easy to make, and perfect for anyone who loves licorice!  Here the bakers at Betty Crocker Recipes show us how to create brightly colored flowers using varying lengths of licorice sticks, some white icing and chocolate candy sprinkles.
3. The third design is another use of marshmallows for flower petals.  This time the cut side of the marshmallow is set on top the frosting, so the rounded portion is showing.  The center is made with colored M&M’s.  Kids of all ages can help with decorating these cupcakes, which are displayed by Us3Crew.
4. The fourth design (far right) is all in the placement.  The chocolate cupcakes are simply dipped in icing, then sprinkled with colored sugar and artfully arranged on a cake board.  The flower stem is a piece of green licorice, and the leaves are gummy candies.  This floral pattern was created and shared by lars hammar.
5. The sprouting flower design is another one of my favorites – the cupcakes are brought to life with the use of pretzel sticks, miniature flower-shaped cookies, M&M’s and gummy candy leaves.  The bakers at McCormick Kitchens will help you through the process on their Flickr page.
6. The final design I chose to spotlight shows yet another use of marshmallows for flower petals.  This time the marshmallows are simply cut in half, then placed around the cupcake in a circular pattern.  The center is again a colored M&M candy.  The hot pink frosting creates a dramatic background for the white flower.  These pretty cupcakes were made by hopskipjump.

As you can see by the designs shown here, it just takes a little creativity to make fun and tasty desserts for your Blooming Flower Baby Shower.  Virtually any type of sweet treat can be used for flower petals, leaves or stems.  Even if you’re a novice baker or decorator you will be able to make these beautiful cupcakes, and if you make any mistakes all you have to do is eat the evidence.  Happy Baking!

It’s always nice to send your shower guests home with a little favor to remember the special day.  I love personalized favors that are useful even after the event – like the mint tins shown here.  Our mint tins are all about choices – we offer two tins sizes, 6 tin colors, 8 filling options (breath mints, candy mints, sweet sour tarts, mint gum, candy ducks, bubblegum, sugar free cinnamon candy or sour apple candy) and your choice of personalized message on the label.  Priced as low as $2.50 apiece, these favors are a fun and functional option.

A great personalized favor that ties in perfectly with your Blooming Flower theme are our wildflower seed packets.  Filled with enough seeds to cover 20 square feet, these favors provide a beautiful living reminder of your shower.  The packets are also customized with label designs, colors your own shower message.

You can’t have blooming without a little buzzing, which makes our ceramic honey pot favors a fitting choice.  The beehive-shaped pot comes with a honeycomb stick for guests’ to drizzle honey over their favorite snack!

Flower cookies are a delicious favor option, you can package them in a simple plastic baggie that is tied with colorful curling ribbon and a flower-shaped tag thanking guests for attending.  Cupcakes are a tasty favor also, but they are more difficult for guests’ to transport so you may want to serve them as dessert instead.  Stay tuned for some easy and beautiful flower cupcakes!

When a baby girl is on the way, it’s fun to give the new mother frilly outfits to dress baby in!  It is also a great idea to provide bibs so mom can keep these beautiful new clothes clean during feedings.  Baby Gifts & Gift Baskets can help with both gift choices, we carry a wide selection of Bib and Clothing Gifts, many of which can be personalized.

If you would like to help decorate baby’s room, you’ll find an entire line of personalized baby furniture on our website.  We offer dozens of hand painted design options including our bright and colorful blooms and butterflies.  When my first son was born, my best friend gave him a piggy bank that still sits on top of his dresser.  You can purchase personalized child banks that come in all shapes and sizes, including a cash box, dinosaur, and blooming flower as shown here .

Other useful blooming flower baby gifts include a flower-themed diaper bag filled with diapers, wipes and diaper rash cream.  Many new mothers appreciate a gift to pamper her, so consider floral-scented bath oils, hand lotion or aromatherapy candles.  Although not necessarily tied into the blooming flower theme, gift cards for local restaurants are a lifesaver when a new baby takes up much of mom’s time, and gift certificates for a cleaning service are highly prized by new parents.

I may be corny, but my favorite part of a baby shower is game time!  Maybe it’s my competitive nature, or my love of winning prizes, but in any case I’m always first in line for game time.  Over the years I’ve played some fun shower games and even been inspired to create a few.  The ones listed below work perfectly for a flower-themed shower:

Flower Word Scramble – Scramble up the letters to popular flower names and have guests arrange them in the proper order.  The first one done (or the one with the most correct answers) wins a prize.  Excellent flower names for this game are gladiolus, daffodil and delphinium, but you’ll also want to include a few easier names like rose, daisy and tulip.

Guess That Flower – Visit a flower store or farmer’s market prior to the shower and gather a number of blooms.  Make sure you know the name of each flower, and put each flower in a different vase (baby bottles work well for vases in this case).  Number each flower and have guests write down the name – the person with the most correct answers wins.  A great prize for this game is to gather all of the flowers into a beautiful arrangement and present it to the winner.

How Many Petals – As mentioned in my previous post, ask your shower guests to estimate how many petals are contained in a certain bloom (daisies are perfect for this game).  Let mom pull the flower apart and the person with the closest estimate wins!  Present her with a floral-scented candle, bubble bath or hand lotion.

Flower Colors – Announce certain flower names and have each guest (including the mother-to-be) write down the first color that comes to mind (like red roses, white baby’s breath, yellow daisy, purple iris, etc).  See which guest has the highest number of matches to the new mom and reward that person with a suitable prize.

X Marks The Spot – Purchase personalized blooming lemonade packets and mark one of these packets with an X on the back.  Place the packets in a basket and make sure your guests select one (or two) as a take-home favor.  Before the shower ends, ask your guests to check the back of their packets, the person who holds the marked packet wins a prize!

Perfect for an outdoor or springtime party, your Blooming Flower Baby Shower can be a fun way to introduce the new baby girl to her new friends and family!  With a few simple and colorful decorations, exciting shower games and cute take-home favors, your guests – and especially the guest of honor – will have a great time.

Introduce shower guests to the theme with your blooming invitations.  Purchase themed invitations online or create your own by cutting daisy shapes out of construction paper.  Write shower information such as when, where and what time on each petal, then put the star of the show in the center of the bloom!  If your flowers are too large to fit in a standard envelope, fold the petals toward the center so your guests can watch the details “bloom” as they unfold the invitation.

Decorate your shower tables with large bouquets of colorful daisies.  Use these bouquets for a shower game where you ask guests to count the flowers in each bouquet or count the number of petals on a certain flower.  Sprinkle flower petals across a plain white tablecloth or use a different colored cloth for each table for a bright and cheery presentation.

When guests arrive at the shower, greet them with a large flower-shaped sign announcing “Welcome to (the new mother)’s Blooming Baby Shower”.  Make sure to have a corsage for the guest of honor and a refreshing beverage for her to relax with.  I recommend lemonade or a light fruit punch to keep with the theme.

Daisy cupcakes are a tasty and relatively easy dessert option for this type of shower theme.  Either decorate individual cupcakes with daisy designs or frost them in different colors and arrange in the shape of a flower.  I saw a really unique dessert idea at kraftfoods.com (see photo on right) and you could easily put your own unique spin on it.

As guests are getting ready to leave, bring out a basket of blooming shower favors so they will each have a memory of the special day.  Help mom pack up all of her baby gifts and send her home with a beautiful flower bouquet to keep her special theme alive as long as possible!