To save myself money, and to express some creativity, I decided to make my own decorations for my baby shower. I already blogged about my baby shower decorations on a different post, but on this one I’m going to explain exactly what I used and how to make what I made. (:
First, I googled some baby shower decoration ideas and came across quite a few inspirational ones. The first one I like was this gorgeous brooch that I found on Google Image Search, but for some I cannot seem to find the photo on the search engine anymore. and I didn’t save the link, just the picture. Anyways, I thought it was the cutest brooch ever and it was the perfect theme of my baby shower: pink and zebra. So I went to walmart to get a bunch of supplies to make this. Mine looks very similar to the picture I tried to follow, but I added my own extra girly touches to it and made it look fabulous. I made two, one for me and one for my mom. (:
I bought 1 yard of hot pink craft boa for $4.50 on Amazon. Zebra and different shades of pink ribbons from Walmart. I usually buy the entire roll of ribbon so I can have some left overs for a future project! I bought glitter foam for $0.80 and black foam for $0.47. I had some adhesive rhinestones used for scrap-booking and black bows that I got a while ago for $2 at Walmart. I used those for my ribbon decorations. I used craft glue to make sure everything would stick together really good ($3 at Walmart). I also had safety pins handy, so I didn’t have to buy those, which you can find at the dollar store. First I cute 8 pieces of the zebra ribbon and 8 pieces of the sheer black ribbon to make my flower (4 of each were used for me and my moms brooch). I cut them long enough so that I could glue them in the middle and have enough hanging over to reach all the way to the other side. Once I glued all 16 individual ribbons together, I glued one on top of another in an alternating pattern. Once that dried I cut 2 large circles of glitter foam to use as my middle background and glued that in the center of the glued ribbons for each of the brooches. I then printed Mother-To-Be and Grandmother-To-Be on the computer, cut it out and glued that on the glitter foam. Then I cut enough of the craft boa to form a complete circle lining the outside of my foam. While I let that dry I cut 2 more circles of the black foam to use for the backs of my brooches. I cut a bunch of several different kinds of pink and black ribbon for mine and my moms brooch, glued them onto the foam in a string line pattern and waited for them to dry so I could add the little bows and rhinestones to the ends of each ribbon. Once I did that, I glued to flower part of the brooch to the back piece and let that dry. Lastly I glued a safety pin to the back of each brooch so we could wear them on our clothes on the big day. They turned out looking better than the picture I originally got the idea from! I was very proud of myself. And now, I’m going to save them as keepsakes for my little girl. I’m still debating whether I want to hang it in my room, or frame it in hers. (:
My next favorite idea that I can across and decided to make were these adorable pink and zebra table top imitation flower decorations. Here is the link to the website where the girl teaches you how to make them. I changed mine up a little bit. I had to improvise because I did not have the things that she had. Instead of tin cans I used recycled toilet paper rolls. And I used some pink straws instead of pens because I didn’t have that many of the same kind of pen. I covered the cardboard rolls with the zebra duct tape that I bought at the Dollar Tree for $3.75. Then I taped assorted pink feathers ($5 on Amazon) to the tops of my straws and pens to make the “flowers”. Last, I tied a pretty pink bow around the cardboard to add some pink to the base. I used a sheer light pink ribbon that had wire in it so I could shape the bow how I wanted it. That was pretty much it for those! I thought this was the easiest of them all and it took no time to make. I did have to buy the feathers online though and wait for those to be delivered because I live in a small town (Lake City, FL) where there are no large craft stores around.
Last but not least, the garland. I could not find ANYTHING that I liked as far as a garland for the baby shower. So I decided to come up with my own idea. I drew my own zebra striped on card stock with a sharpie, cut hot pink poster paper in smaller squares to accent the background of the letter, cut black letters to spell “Welcome Natalia”, glued black glitter on the outside edges of the pink paper, and bought a 100 ft. silver sparkly garland from an after Christmas sale for $1.50. The whole thing cost less than $10. $3 for the sharpies, $3 for the paper, and the garland. I already had the glitter, but if I didn’t I would have only had to spend $2 on that. Unfortunately I didn’t get to display this decoration because I could not hang it in the outside with all the wind that was blowing, nor did I remember to bring thumb-tacks. -_-
Well here are three really easy ideas that anybody could use for any pink or zebra party event. They are inexpensive, fun and easy to make! Now I’m going to end this post with one more interesting idea from “Pinspiration”. Hershey’s candy bars; use acrylic paint to pain the he blue for a boy, the she pink for a girl, or both if you don’t know the gender. ❤
Laura Ann ♥ 