Parenting & New Baby Advice Blog

Posts Tagged ‘baby shower favors’

Door prizes can be a fun addition to a baby shower you are hosting. The idea behind the door prize is to offer a gift for some special game. It’s a little different than a favor in that guests will have to do something—be it answering questions or participating in a raffle—to win the door prize. They need not be elaborate or wildly expensive. It’s just a small token gift, and most guests really look forward to these prizes.

Door prizes can be anything from candy to candle favors. You can make them yourself or go out and buy them. The whole reason to give them out is so that guests will get involved and mingle. Often there are people at the shower who have never met each other. There could be coworkers of the mom, family, friends from college, friends from old jobs, so it can be really nice when everyone feels comfortable enough to get up and laugh and play games.

One way to do a door prize is to have a bowl of items on a table for guests to take when they arrive. It could be hard candies, small chocolate bars, diaper pins, or anything else. Make some kind of mark on one or two of the pins and when you call everyone together, give prizes to the people holding the marked items. This can add an element of surprise to the festivities as guests didn’t know it was coming.

You should try to offer prizes that would appeal to everyone. This can be a bag of goodies like lotion, small shampoos and conditioners, hair products or other toiletries. You can raid the travel aisle at discount stores for some good ideas. You may want to put together a travel pouch of goodies for ladies to win. That way the next time they go on a trip, they’re all set. You can also do a few $5 gift certificates to coffee houses. It doesn’t cost you much and it’s enough to get a coffee and maybe a muffin.

Try to make the prizes fun so people want to stay involved. If the prizes are ho-hum you may find people’s attention wandering.

You might have chocolates personalized with the date of the baby shower or just “Beth’s Baby Shower” and give those out as prizes. Or you could have small bottles of wine or champagne for the ladies to take home.

Whatever you decide to do as door prize activities and the prizes themselves, remember, you don’t have to spend a lot on this to make it fun. A bag of individually wrapped candies can go a long way. You aren’t there to offer luxurious prizes, but instead to honor the mother to be. So keep it in perspective. If it’s starting to become a source of anxiety for you, lighten up about the party planning. Everyone will have a great time and if they see you relaxed, they’ll be relaxed too.

For great sources of baby shower favors, look online. Why spend your time running from mall to mall trying to find just the right baby-themed items? You can find everything all in one place online.

If you know an expectant mom who is having twins, what better way to shower her with love and affection than to host a Two Peas in a Pod baby shower? This theme can be adorable when you work it through all the décor and food.

Many sites online that sell baby shower favors and décor will have this theme, but you can also do a lot of it yourself.

The invitation should reflect the theme. You can draw two baby faces in a pea pod, color the pod green, and copy the design on a color copier for your invitations. Or, order a pea pod invite online. Write a cute poem about twins if you’re good with a pen. A site called baby-shower.com offers this poem by Jennifer Williamson that you can also include inside:

Two peas in a pod, just as snug as a bug
Two babies to cuddle, to kiss and to hug
We couldn’t be happier, for we’re aware
The best of all things in the world come in pairs.

Serve foods like, you guessed it, snap peas so that guests can get a chuckle out of the cuteness factor. Serve other foods that go together like pigs in a blanket. The cake should definitely carry the theme as it will be the centerpiece of your table. Ask a bakery to create pea pods out of fondant icing. A good baker will have heard of this theme and may even have a photo of a cake she’s done to show you. She can roll fondant icing to make two baby faces to put on the cake. The rest of the cake can be green with round polka dots of fondant in a coordinating color. You can also have cookies made that are decorated with pods and baby faces done in royal icing.

For the color scheme, go with green. Have green balloons that will simulate peas and plates and cups in green. You can sometimes find the pea pod theme, especially if you shop online.

Games you can play include any games where you have to double up with a partner such as feeding your partner a jar of baby food faster than the other team. Think up pair races or other fun games that include doubles like listing famous couples and their children’s names. You’ll get a good laugh at what everyone comes up with.

If you want, make a pea pod hat out of felt for the mom to be to wear. If she’s a good sport, she’ll love it and it will make for cute photos.

For baby shower favors, give out creams or candies that have pea pod labels on them. You can make them off a computer with clip art of peas or you can order them pre-made online. Or double up gifts like two packs of mints or a pretty pen and pad. You can also give those cookies in pea pod design as your favors if you wrap them in tulle or cellophane.

One thing to note is that if you are attending a pea pod shower, you should bring two gifts—one for each baby unless you are opting for a larger gift like a crib or playpen. Any clothing you buy should be given in two sets, especially if you know the sex of the twins.

So you’ve found the perfect baby shower favors. That’s great. Now how do you make interesting tags for them? Get crafty with the materials you probably already have around the house and you’ll find you can create tags that will wow everyone.

The kind of tag you make should relate to what you’re giving as favors. If you’re giving a bottle of hand lotion or a candle, you’ll want to make a more delicate looking tag. If you’re giving candy or a picture frame, you can do something a little different. Try to think of tag styles that would coordinate with your favor. Pick out a color that’s in your favor or choose a coordinating color.

Say you’re giving a miniature bottle of jasmine hand lotion as your favor. You can create a gift favor tag that has jasmine flowers on it. Or, you could print out a scroll initial from your computer in a very ornate font with the mom’s initial and apply it to a silk leaf.

If you’re giving a picture frame favor, your tag can be displayed inside the frame. Take a piece of craft paper (or brown paper bag) and write your guest’s name on it with calligraphy pens. Or print out their names in a fun font from your computer. Slip it inside the frame. When all the frames are lined up, it will make a nice display.

One tag that works well for just about any gift is the mailing or shipping tag. These are made of oak tag and you can buy them at office supply stores. They come with twine already tied on them so it’s easy to tie them onto your favors. And because they are precut, you don’t have to do any cutting.

Pick up a bunch of mailing tags at the office store and get busy creating a little piece of art. Take a photo of the mom to be and copy it on a copier. Now you can decorate it with glitter, ink, found objects and trinkets, feathers or crayon. The more interesting you make your tags, the more fun it will be for everyone. This type of art is called altered art. The beauty of this art form is that you can use whatever you like and make it uniquely you. Use rubber stamps, paints and pastels. Whatever seems fun to you. Get a bunch of girls together for a tag decorating night. Bring out scraps of decorative paper, glue and images cut from magazines. You can do all sorts of new baby gifts like diapers and bottles and baby faces. Or just pick something you think the mom would like. Is she fond of teddy bears? Use rubber stamped images of teddy bears. Are you having a rubber duckie themed shower? Include images of ducks on your tags. The idea is to be as creative as possible. And don’t forget to turn the tag over and write each guest’s name on one.

When you’re finished creating these wonderful tags, tie them on to your favors. Everyone will ooh and ahh when they see them. And they can take them home and display them as works of art.

A cute addition to any baby shower is a personalized candy bar to remember the event. You can easily do this from your home computer. If you are crafty, you can do it without a computer! (You can use any paper you like and rubber stamp an image. Hand write your text with permanent marker.) But for now, let’s stick to the computer version.

There are companies that sell paper already decorated with a baby shower theme. You can pick from many designs for either a girl or a boy. You can find these paper forms at craft stores and hobby shops. There are also many places where you can order them online. The paper will come with a space for personalization and will be the size of a candy bar.

You can personalize candy bars that are jumbo, regular size or even miniatures. Write down your paper dimensions you chose and go out and buy candy bars that match the size. Hershey bars are a good choice as the candy is tasty and the size is standard. If you choose, you can buy the over-sized jumbo bars or the minis. Just make sure you ordered the paper size that matches. Consider also that there may be nut allergies, so stick with plain chocolate bars just to be sure.

Once you have your decorative template paper in hand, you’ll only need a few minutes to get set up to print. The instructions will come with the paper, but all you really need to do is open a document writing program on your computer such as Word. You don’t need any special skills or design templates. Follow the package instructions to align your type to the correct spot.

You choose the wording you’ll place on the candy bar. “Amanda’s Baby Shower, September 5, 2010” is fine. You may also choose to write something more personal like “Sandy and Debbie wish Baby Boy Smith a happy welcome into the world.” Whether you write a note as if it’s to the baby or to the mom to be, either is fine. You might even choose something light and comical if the mom is a good sport.

After you’ve settled on your text, align it and run a test print. Make sure everything is spelled correctly and that the type lines up with the space where it will go on the wrapper. Place a flat wrapper in the printer according to the directions and print. Once you have printed all your wrappers, you may need to cut the excess paper away. Then you will need to place them on the chocolate bars. Take the paper labels off the candy bars carefully so that you don’t rip the foil wrapping. Then, wrap the printed paper around the candy bar, folding it so it forms to the shape of the chocolate. Secure with a sticker (usually included with kit) or tape. Be careful not to break or damage the bars.

Place your finished candy bars in a basket decorated with ribbon so that guests can take them as they leave as baby shower favors. Remember not to leave them in the car out in the sun as they can melt. Very cold temperatures can crack candy bars, so try to keep them in room temperature if you can.

If you have never hosted a baby shower before you may not realize just how much it costs. You have the expenses of baby shower favors, invitations, food, plates, forks, cups, drinks, and games and prizes and possibly even more. However, there is a way that you can throw a wonderful baby shower on a shoestring budget. It just takes a little planning and some creativity.

Invitations

You can go out and buy the invitations or you can get creative and make them yourself. It’s not always easy to come up with the right material but you can make invitations with construction paper or stock paper. If you know calligraphy, you can create a formal invitation that is unique and beautiful. If you are going to use a theme for your baby shower then purchase stamps that display the theme so you can stamp each invitation. Save on stamps by passing out as many invitations as possible. A personal invitation means more when it is hand delivered.

Decorations

Over time, it’s easy to accumulate streamers from various occasions but streamers are not that expensive to buy per roll. You can decorate with streamers in a variety of different ways. Streamers can be tied, twisted, placed in a special design, and can come in many different colors. Search online for templates that can be printed out and applied to cardboard to hang up at the party. Place some string through the top and hang decorations from the ceilings. Use the streamers to highlight or accent.

Purchase some small pieces of material from your local sewing shop and cut them in half. Fold them up to resemble a cloth diaper and use a small safety pin to pin the diaper together. These homemade cloth diapers can be made with any color or theme, depending on what you want the decor to look like. You can place name cards in the diapers, a number used to draw on the doorprize for the evening, or a baby shower souvenir. Flower seeds are a great souvenir to place inside the cloth diapers with a little note telling everyone to plant their flower seeds on the day that the baby is born. You may want to place the flower seeds in saran wrap or zip lock bags so the seeds will stay fresh until they are planted. You also want to make sure that the flowers fit the season. You can also use the cloth diapers to place mints or nuts in.

Games and prizes

There are several baby shower games you can play with guests that cost little to no money. Draw a baby face, measure mommy, and guess who the baby is. To draw a baby face, you need a paper plate and crayon. For the measure mommy game, you need cheap toilet paper or yarn. To guess the baby, you simply need all the guests to bring a baby picture of themselves and have the guests match the baby picture to the right person. You will still need a prize for the winner who got the most right.

Prizes should be simple like candles, bath and body kits, or a disposable camera. It’s best to keep the prizes simple so you can use most of the money on everything else. After all, it’s about the mommy-to-be and not so much about what prizes there are to take home.