Some of the Best Things in Life are Mistakes: baby

My brother Dan and his wife, Jen are having a baby boy! My family and Jen's family threw a shower for them on Saturday together. Since the baby will be a boy, the shower had a grey and navy blue elephant theme. This is the color scheme that my new nephew's new nursery will be.

The invitation was purchased on Etsy and printed on photo paper.

This is my beautiful sister in law and her baby bump.

We had a table for the cake. The cake was designed with the same graphic that was on the invitation. We decorated the table with the stuffed elephant (Hobby Lobby), one of the centerpieces and a framed elephant print (Dollar Tree.)

This little insert was included with the invitation. The baby received a huge assortment of books!

We also held a diaper raffle. We asked every guest to bring a package of diapers. If they did they received an entry in the raffle. We drew a ticket and the winner received a prize. Since I am a Thirty-One consultant all of the prizes were awesome Thirty-One products!

They got a ton of diapers! They won't last as long as they think they will. Those two have no ideas how many diaper changes they are in for! :)

We also had a "Guess the Number of Peanuts" contest. I decorated the baby bottle with the same paper elephant that is seen throughout the shower decor. You can also see the mini hear t and elephant cut outs that I purchased on Etsy that I spread throughout the tables.

I made these centerpieces for the shower. I bought the tin buckets from AC Moore and the peanuts on sale in giant bags at ShopRite. I purchased grey paper elephants on Etsy and embellished them with the navy blue ears and eyes. I purchased Navy blue chvron paper, grey and navy solid paper at Hobby Lobby. I bought inexpensive grey and blue ribbon at AC Moore and glued white buttons on top. I mounted the whole thing on a wooden dowel and stuck it into the bucket of peanuts. I surrounded the centerpiece with mini paper elephants and hearts that I purchased on Etsy. It took awhile to make ten of these but I love how they turned out.

Of course every shower needs a favor for the guests to leave with. These cookies were adorable and delicious. Jen's family purchased these and they matched everything perfectly!

I can't wait to meet my new little nephew and take pictures of him in his new elephant nursery! I also can't wait to find out what his name is going to be!

Need more baby shower ideas?

Check out my Pinterest board filled with Elephant Themed Baby Shower Ideas

Check out the Hot Air Balloon Themed baby Shower Decorations that I made.

Check out my Baby Shower Ideas Pinterest Board.

My sister in law Hilary is having a baby girl! The baby shower was last weekend. I volunteered to make a hot air balloon decoration. At first I planned to cut them out by hand. I did my usual search on Pinterest for inspiration and free templates. These were some of the ideas I considered:

None of these ideas seemed quite right. I decided to make my own version. I wasn't happy with how this first attempt turned out.

My free hand version

Fortunately, a friend of mine said that she had a Silhouette machine that could easily cut out beautiful hot air balloons.

I decided to make a 6 sided hot air balloon. I used 3 solid colors and three patterned papers.

The balloons were scored by the Silhouette machine which made them easy to fold.

I glued half of each balloon to the half of another balloon.

Since the balloons were cut by a machine, each balloon lined up perfectly.

I was really happy with how the balloons turned out! They looked really great when they were hung from the dining room chandelier.

At the shower, I strung the balloons over the dining room table.

My mother in law and sister in law also made some super cute decorations for the shower. My mother in law cut out the adorable paper dolls by hand. I also love that they strung baby pictures of the new mommy and daddy. It was so fun trying to picture what my new niece will look like!

My sister in law made this cute "baby" garland. It was really cute that she spelled it out in Spanish since my brother in law is Colombian.

Now we all have to wait and see when this little girl will make her entrance to this world. They are keeping her name a secret until she is born. I can't wait to meet this little sweetie!