Last weekend my friend Amanda K. and I threw a baby shower for a close mutual friend of ours. We knew the minute she found out she was preggo we were going to have quite the little party. When we found out she was having a girl we went a little nutty! The mom-to-be is such a girly-girl and completely obsessed with Hello Kitty. So our theme was “Hello Baby.”
We started with the invitations.
We started each making an invitation and then we couldn’t decide whose we liked better so we decided to make each invitation completely different. Michael’s craft store had a great little corner with all kinds of Hello Kitty embellishments. We had paper, stamps, memo pads, and a ton of stickers! Sticking with our extremely girly-girl theme, we kept everything very pink, glittery, blingin’ and sometimes a little gaudy, but just the way Miss Jess likes it. Some people wouldn’t understand this, they might think we went over the top, and in all honesty we did but that was what made this so perfect for our mom-to-be.
We filled the insides with glitter and tons of confetti. This touch makes opening the invitation a memorable moment, just enough to make people laugh and say “Darn it now I have to get the broom.” 🙂
We sealed the invitations with footprints and it would soon be time to let the festivities begin!
***Quick TIP*** I knew I had these little foot and hand-print stamps that were so stinking cute!! I was very disappointed to find my ink pad all dried up. I hadn’t used it in a while. So I took a hot pink marker, colored the stamp and VOILA, I have the perfect ink color! This is an awesome little touch because you can use virtually ANY marker. Instead of searching high and low for the perfect ink color, just use a marker! It takes a few more seconds to do, but I think it’s worth it.
Time to work on decorations! I made tissue paper flowers and chandeliers. I took strips of cardboard to form the rings at the top, fishing line hold it up with a few pony beads at the center, strips of tissue paper, and some curling ribbon. Very simple! The only issue I had was when I first put on the tissue paper strips they still had the folds in them from the packaging. A friend suggested using my hair straightener to iron out the wrinkles…WHAT A GREAT TIP! This worked perfectly! Thanks Kayla R.!
Next I cut up a pool noodle! Who knew I could have so much fun indoors with a pool noodle??
This was a flower shaped pool noodle. I couldn’t find a flower shaped one in pink, so I just had to make orange work. (BTW, Dollar store….one dollar! :)) I did not use my paper cutter you see above, just a serrated edge steak knife and a cutting board.
Sebastian kept putting the flowers over his eyes and saying, hi mommy! So I took a few seconds out of decorating mode to turn a pair of flowers into sunglasses using a few straws. He thought this was hysterical!
I don’t know why I didn’t get a better picture of these….but this is the pool noodle flowers strung onto fishing line with pony bead accents tied in-between to create this cute decoration. My 11 year old daughter loved this idea so I think we might be decorating her room with these. Beaded curtain with pool noodles anyone??
I also took the pool noodle flowers and put them on straws. Another cute little accent, but something I forgot to take a picture of!!!! I think I may have some leftover somewhere so I will have to update you with a picture of that later.
I took some of the scrapbook paper leftover from the invitations and cut out the Hello Kitty faces. I glued these to card stock and toothpicks for cupcake toppers.
Oh look, there’s the pool noodle flowers in the corner!!! Aren’t they cute??
Then the mom-to-be had to have a tiara. I added some felt kitty ears and a pink bow, just to keep with the theme.
I made the watermelon baby that has been spreading like wildfire on Pinterest! Except that I had to make the baby look like a kitty too.
Is she not just the cutest thing ever??? The watermelon rind whiskers were another friends idea. Thanks again Kayla R.! I was stumped on what to use for whiskers…:)
So to finish off this post I have to share with you some special crafts from the heart. I know I have shared with you how much I LOVE to knit and crochet for babies, so it wouldn’t have been truly a gift from me unless I made something for this precious little bundle.
I crocheted a flower blankie, a hat, with a matching hat for MOM, and matching pants. Here they are:
The pattern for the flower blankie I just love, but stops the blanket so small, probably about half the size. I really wanted a blankie that baby can grow into, play on the floor on, and snugggle with if she loves it. So I continued the pattern stiches and changed a few things to make it the size I wanted.
The pants I saw on Pinterest as well but did not include a link to the pattern. So I wrote my own pattern. (Am I going to be a pattern wirter? Maybe a book is in my future?) I wanted to make them in one piece without sewing them together. I knit the legs much like you would make the thumb piece for mittens, then attached them together and knit all the way around the waist on a circular needle. I had a little trouble with the center (crotch area – I just hate that word, sorry, but what else do you call it? LOL) so I’m going to have to mess with the pattern on that for the next pair. But I also devised a neat way to knit in the allowance for the elastic band without even sewing down the top! I’m very pleased with my discovery. I’ve already had requests for a boyish pair that is green and blue that maybe has a monkey-butt (haha monkey butt!!!). So I’m going to flex some with this cute pattern.
As for the hats, they included crocheted steps that were basic for any hat, and didn’t include the ear flaps. So again I pretty much wrote my own pattern for the hats, plus I didn’t like the pattern instructions for the bow—it came out funky looking, so I messed around with the yarn and made my own bow! Again I already have requests for more hats! My daughter wants one that is black with a red bow, and my sister-in-law wants one black with a pink bow and no kitty face. She likes the kitty thing, but not necessarily Hello Kitty. I’m also thinking about making a red-eyed-tree frog hat for my older son who is completely obsessed with frogs. I love that I can make patterns so flexible! So I’m thinking about whipping out a bunch of these little hats and putting them on Etsy. A great lap project for the summer! Any more requests???
This post is dedicated to my friend and mom-to-be for the second time around, Jess B., congrats MOMMA!!! I cannot wait to meet the new addition!! Just a few more weeks!!! 🙂
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Clever Catastrophe 
Heidi you are amazing. I wish I had half your energy. Love you, Meema
Thanks Meema! 🙂
Oh my goodness! You went totally crazy and I love it! You are like the Queen of Crafting!
Lol! Thanks! You know people don’t believe me when I say I do everything when it comes to crafting…. But I really do! I like so many different things it’s hard to choose one craft! 🙂
one thing to do to make baby feet is to make a fist and on the pinky side paint it the press down and use you fingers to add the toes in. We use to do this on the bus when the windows would get frosty. It looked looked like there were babies running loose on the bus windows by the time I got off.
Lol! I remember doing that on the bus too!!!! 🙂 those were the days huh??