Ashley hosted an amazing  baby shower for a dear friend who was expecting a little boy.  Ashley says that this shower  was an extra fun one to plan for because the guest list was for a dozen lovely ladies {rather than 30}, so she was able to spend some extra time on the details–she even used real plates (a girl after my own heart!)

She chose a “spring time” theme in turquoise, lime green, orange and yellow.

So let me introduce Ashley and have her tell you all about her beautiful baby shower.  Almost makes me want to have another baby (not) but I am stealing some of her ideas for a baby shower I am helping host this summer.

Here’s Ashley:

I chose a “spring time” theme in turquoise, lime green, orange and yellow.

I made these Pom Poms using a tutorial from Leanne at Organize and Decorate Everything. I love them so much–I wish I could leave them up all year round {and maybe I will, lol}.

To stay within the “garden/backyard” theme I bought a 12 pack of mason jars at my local grocery store and used them for cups. I used extra large malt straws purchased from Michael’s.

I made this banner using scrapbook paper and pre-cut letters that come in a pack {also available at Michael’s}. I glue gunned each paper flag down on to a long strand of turquoise ribbon.

Here was my nifty little party favor. I made these earrings using this tutorial.

The theme was “Cute as a Button”.

I glue gunned this trim around vases from the dollar store.

I learned how to make these pinwheels from Gillian at All the Small Things.

I threw some of the pinwheels in with my flower arrangements.

Yummy Spring time cupcakes.

Summer salad with strawberries, mandarin oranges, sliced almonds and a sweet honey vinaigrette dressing.

Homemade chicken salad sandwiches on croissants.

Most of my decorations and favors were used with supplies from the Dollar Tree and the sale section at Michael’s {and I’m not just saying that}. If you want to know where I purchased anything specific leave me a comment over at my blog and I will get back to you.

All in all, one rather awesome baby shower!

One of their end of the year celebrations is an ice cream social.  Dawn put together these darling table decorations and shared some photos with me.

Using empty ice cream containers and fresh flowers from her garden she not only carried out the theme but saved a lot of money too.  I love it!

She just placed jars inside the containers and placed the flowers in the jars.  She also made some mini bouquets with the tiny teeny new single serve
cartons.

Thanks for sharing your fun table decor idea Dawn!

Do I just lay it on the counter? That doesn’t look too good.

What do I put it in?

This weekend we stopped for a beverage at a fun food cart in Portland and I saw this idea  – I loved it.  Could hardly believe it was a foodcart – antique silverware.

I love the idea of putting the silverware in mason jars!  How pretty is that!?

Do you have a fun idea you use for silverware at a party?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Here’s a fun idea I found on a website that I thought was great.  I love it when you can use part of your meal as decoration on the table -filling glasses with biscotti and breadsticks!  It has a definite romantic, Tuscan feel to it!

I also loved the look of the large urn with roses and grapes.

I can’t wait to hear how Ellen’s big wedding weekend turned out!

This one in particular!  Loving the use of the Peeps in the vase (I am a Peep lover)  The yellow Peeps with the orange  jelly beans and tulips is amazing.  If you are not an orange and yellow person there are all kinds of different color Peeps available.  I was at Target today and they have lots of different colors.

I think they probably used a vase within a vase and put the tulips in the inner vase.  I’m headed to the Dollar Store to see what I can find!  Our Winco grocery store has individual color of jelly bellies in bulk too!

I also think the idea with the ice cream cones stuck in the wheat grass with  green jelly beans wrapped in cello is brillant too!!

Photo from The Party Dress

Would love to hear how you are decorating your table – please leave a comment and let me know.

Last week and this week have been “show week” at our house.  The two weeks the high school musical – this year Guys & Dolls – is performing.  Tessa is a cute little Hot Box Doll and the featured dancer.

I am busy helping pull together the details for the cast party Saturday night as well as some gifts for all the adults that help put the show together.

I counted up the other day how many high school productions my 3 “theater” kids have been in (I have 3 theater kids and one sports kid!) and it is about 30.  Not only is that a lot of performances but a lot of flower bouquets to present to the performer after the show.

In the past I have gotten a little tired of just bringing flowers, especially when it is a male performer.  Another idea I came up with was a candy bouquet.

I have put them together either in a vase/pot or just wrapped up in tissue like a flower bouquet would come.

I tape the candy bars onto the end of bamboo skewers and tie them together with some tissue and ribbon – the kids love it.

Here is a candy bouquet I put together for Tessa when she was performing in Willy Wonka.  This was an easy one to do as I used all kinds of Willy Wonka candy!  I just wrapped a box in some peppermint candy wrapping paper, put a piece of styrofoam in the inside and covered it with shredded paper.  Popped in the skewers with the candy attached and added a bow.  She loved it!

I’ll be back soon to share plans for the cast party I’m organizing as well as some fun cookie bouquets I am putting together – think dice, spades, hearts, diamonds etc…….

Luck be a Lady tonight!!!

That’s just what a couple of you have done with the candy bar cake idea we shared here on the blog!!

Thanks to Jenni for sharing her darling version of a candy bar cake.  I really like the smaller size….

and here is Carolyn from Australia’s version!!  Yes, all the way from Australia.  Love her use of ribbon and a candle on top!

And here it is all wrapped up and ready to give to someone.

The other cake idea we shared this week was that cute diaper cake.  My niece Michelle sent me a few more photos of another darling diaper cake she made – so cute!!!  Won’t someone I know please have a baby so I can make one of these!!

Do you have a picture of a fun cake you have made?  Any kind of cake?  I’d love to share them here on Your Homebased Parties.  Just send the picture in a jpeg and brief description of the event the cake was for and I’d love to highlight you and your cake here on the blog!

My niece Michelle is a cake decorator extraordinaire! She recently helped host a baby shower and this is the amazing cake she made for the party.

Isn’t it darling!?  I loved the color scheme for the party – red and teal.  Do you recognize that cute little cupcake?

Here’s a close up view.   Michelle is a master with fondant!

Michelle made another cake for the shower too.  This cake didn’t taste quite as good but it was just as cute and very useful!

It’s a cake made out of diapers!

I asked Michelle to share with us how she put together the cake.  Here’s her great tutorial.  Thanks Michelle!

Supplies you will need:

*2 big packages of Pampers Swaddlers- it needs to be Swaddlers for a few reasons:
1. They are all white.
2. They seem to be a little bit stiffer and hold shape better than other diapers when you roll them (I used 117 diapers for this cake, you may need more or less depending on how tall you make it, and if you have other fillers in the middle)
I recommend using a size 2 diaper instead of a newborn or size 1. That way, the mother doesn’t need to take it apart right away to use it before the baby grows out of that size diaper.
*4-5 yards ribbon (I used two colors, but I didn’t do any bows. Had this been for a girl, I would have used more to make some big bows)
*Cans of formula, or bottles for the center (Or more diapers to fill it in)
*Baby socks
*Other baby supplies like pacifiers, small clothing, etc. almost anything for baby can be added to the cake.
*Card with poem (you can get that off my blog)
*Card board circle or something sturdy to put it on. I used my kitchen lazy susan, but a big Pizza Pan works well, and it’s only about $3 at Walmart (and is best if you are transporting the cake somewhere- they can get heavy)
*Rubber Bands
*Wooden dowel- this will go through all the layers to hold it all together. The circle decor thing (I don’t know what you’d call it- I found it in the floral section at Hobby Lobby) was all attached to it’s own dowel, so I just used that.
I also like a cute kind of topper. I used the stork and baby (it’s a topper for a real cake) but I have seen signs made from paper that say “Welcome ________” (baby’s name) I have an embroidery machine, so I actually had that embroidered right on the ribbon that I was using around the tiers. Sometimes a baby item, like a little pair of shoes also makes a great topper.

Assemble:
Once you have the supplies, take a diaper, roll it from the end to where it folds, put it inside a rubber band (I use the big ones that my mail comes in) as you roll more diapers, keep adding them to the inside of the rubber band until you get the base the size you want. If you are including a can of formula, that would actually go in the middle, with the rubber band around it, and you would keep adding the diapers around the can. Bottles work well, too, if they are the same height as the diapers.

Do the same for the next layer, making it smaller that the base by 1 row of diapers. Make as many tiers/layers as you would like. I did 4 layers, but 2 or 3 look just as nice.

Take your widest ribbon and cover the rubber band with it. It works best to safety pin the ribbon closed in the back. You can cover the pin with something, or even use diaper pins (if you can find them- I couldn’t) to secure it. I alternated the ribbon, you can do that or use the same- just use your creativity!

When all the layers are made and the ribbons attaches, stack the cake and insert the wooden dowel through the, placing it as close to the middle of the layers as you can.

Now the fun part: Decorating the “cake”

To make the sock roses, unroll a sock. Starting at the toe, roll it back to form a rosette. If they are lacy socks, the lace will look great turned back up a little around the base of the rosette. You can use some extra ribbon to be the leaves. I also used a wash cloth around a group of socks. Secure the rosettes individually with a small rubber band. These can then be inserted in between the diapers, or laid on top, however you think it looks best.

Add other baby items. You can use floral wire and sticks, or double stick tape, or even tie things on with ribbon. You can add as few or as many other items as you would like. Blankets can even be folded the width of the diapers and wrapped around one of the layers.

Michelle display the cake along with this cute poem:

Here is a cake made with love

Though I wouldn’t call it yummy

For the ingredients used go on the baby

Not inside your tummy.

Flour, sugar, milk, and eggs

will make a cake so sweet

But diapers, formula, and baby socks

make a handy treat.

Photos courtesy of Little Starling Photography.

Thanks Michelle for sharing your amazing talent with us.  Please let us know if you have a fun cake – edible or not that you have created.  We’d love to share it here on Your Homebased Parties!

The theme of the event was preparedness and food storage – the event was called “Stockin’ Up!”  There was a great guest speaker from Arizona who shared with us her method for storing food and being prepared.

Since we were unsure how many people would attend we decided to go with a dessert bar.  We did bar cookies because those would be easy to cut into smaller pieces if we had more people than we expected.  We planned on 200 and had over 350 people there so we quickly cut all the bar cookies in half and it worked great.

For a list of the bar cookies served and the recipes go here.

Of course we had a budget to work with for the event and bar cookies are great way to stretch your budget because you can cut them big or small. 

I also came up with a few fun ways to stretch that budget with the table decor.

One of my favorite things to use on a serving table is cake plates.  Not only are they pretty but they create nice height on the table.  So using the theme of the event – food storage  and stocking up I created my own cake plates out of canned food and other items found at the dollar store!

I used a combination of clear plastic and silver serving plates from the dollar store along with some canned food I bought there.  Our color scheme for the night was green and pink so I found some canned fruit with pink, green and yellow labels – perfect!

Because the plates were fairly lightweight we used some duct tape to attach the plates to the cans so they didn’t topple over when people reached to get a bar cookie  – thanks to my husband and friend Jeannena for figuring all that out for me!!

I always like to lay out the serving table with all of its serving pieces beforehand – to make sure that it looks good and the table is well balanced.

Of course a centerpiece of flowers in a large can added the perfect touch!  The flowers and the pink and green ribbon came from Costco and helped tie everything together along with the pink and green sheer pieces of fabric we already had from another event.

I also created little place cards in my Creative Memories Storybook Creator software that sat on little stands I found at the dollar store!!  I like to know what I’m eating!

The total spent on table decor was very little and was created mainly out of things from the dollar store!

Of course the table always looks prettier when it is full of food!

What’s your best budget saving table decor ideas?

Katie wanted to do cupcakes and a candy bar.  White cupcakes with all kinds of blue toppings looked very festive and made a great centerpiece for the table!
 

Oreos dipped in white chocolate with blue sprinkles were also very popular!  Katie used the peppermint Joe Joes from Trader Joes – so yummy!
 

The candy bar consisted of lots of fun candy.

Since Katie conveniently lives next door to me so we used my collection of white and clear glass containers to give a cohesive look to the table.  We grouped the candy into color themes – there was the blue and white/silver candy…

the blue and yellow candy….

and then the bright, rainbow colored candy….

We almost forgot the red licorice!
 

There were cute little Chinese take out boxes for the girls to fill with their candy and fun little smiley faces and peace signs to decorate the table.

The table looked darling!
Anchored in the center of the table were some balloons to help carry out the Blue/Peace theme.

What would a party be without balloons!
 

Other fun decor included this clothesline full of photos of Molly through her long 12 years!

When the girls returned to the house after a few games of bowling they munched on pizza and treats from the candy/cupcake bar.

The girls answered some questions to see who knew the birthday girl the best….

and played some other fun “tween” girl games like two truths and a lie!
 

Of course music and a little bit of dancing made for a fun party!

The girls each went home with one of these darling party favors.  I’d been looking for an excuse to use these darling Jones Soda labels I had seen over at Karyn’s shop – Pixel Perfect Boutique.  

Katie emailed Karyn some photos of Molly and some words that decribed her and Karyn personalized the labels.  Aren’t they cute!!!  What a fun party favor!

Thanks to Katie and Molly for letting me help with the party and Peace Out Molly – we love you!!

A special thanks to Karyn of Pixel Perfect Boutique for helping us create the perfect party favor!