Tim Burton Baby Shower

Tim Burton Baby Shower
 
The last party I threw was in the beginning of April. It was a baby shower for a friend of mine and she wanted it to be Tim Burton themed since she was having a boy. This was a lot of fun to plan and I had some help from a couple friends too. The above photo is a shot of my kitchen table. I had a black and orange tablecloth, black and white striped cups to hold the silverware (which was also black and white) and I even made a cute sign using the "Snips and Snails..." quote about boys. Since it mentions puppy dog tails, I added three photos of dogs from Tim Burton films.

The card themed napkins are from Birthday Direct in their Alice in Wonderland section (since Burton directed an Alice film). The plates and silverware also came from here.

A friend that was helping made these little "meat pies". She used toothpicks to make signs for some with labels like "Vicar" and "Butler" to mimic the "meat pies" in Sweeney Todd (another Tim Burton film). I also had mini chicken and egg salad sandwiches. I used both wheat and white bread, placing the sandwiches one after the other so it looked like a chess board. I saw this idea online!

I wanted the food to feel like a tea party, to go along with Alice in Wonderland, so I made these cute ladybug appetizers. You can find the recipe here.

Here is a closer look at the sign I was talking about above!

I made these caterpillar grape kabobs that were a big hit! Aren't they cute? You can find that recipe here.

In the corner of my kitchen was the dessert table full of black, white, and blue treats (the main colors of the shower) and some Nightmare Before Christmas themed items. I hung up my Jack Skellington "wreath" above the table. I got this at Walgreens around Halloween. I placed my Jack Skellington statue on top of the cupcake stand and put out the Jack cookies on both levels. These cookies were so good. You can read my review here.

I got the black and white cups from the etsy shop Party Cup Medley. I chose the black and white stripes because it made me think of Beetlejuice and Jack Skellington. The lid was a domed shape with no hole so people could put their candy from the dessert table in the cups to bring home. These cups (without the lids) are what I placed the silverware in as well. Another favor came from the friend that made the "meat pies." She created these little pockets with Hershey bars so it looked like a Willy Wonka bar. Each one had a golden ticket welcoming the new baby inside!

This tea cup is from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. It has the Red Queen and says "I don't do tea parties" on it. I got the cup out for the mom-to-be to use. The other items are the prizes (all Alice themed). There is a mini checker board, a bag that says "Open Me" and has two heart soaps that say "Love Me" and something else. Then there is a cookies n creme bunny. I wanted all white, for the White Bunny, but cookies n creme was the closest I could find. The mom-to-be ended up winning the chocolate!

A closer look at the plates and napkins from Birthday Express.

I really wanted a fun drink for the shower so I decided on Shirley Temples. To fit the theme, I called them Sweeney Todd's (they both have S.T. as initials after all!) Above is the sign I made with some skull stickers for decoration!

I laid out cups and supplies for making Sweeney Todd's beneath the sign. I also included mini cans of Coke and Diet coke. The black, white, and blue paper straws are from the etsy shop Puppy Cat Crafts.

Another item on the dessert table were Jack and Sally rice krispie and cake pops. These were from the etsy shop Wickedly Whipped Creations and were very yummy. My review (and a discount code) can be found here.

Here are the cake pops. I got round styrofoam at the dollar store to place the pops. They went through the base but they stayed upright, so it looked good.

A couple friends (including a sister of the mom-to-be) made this awesome Jack cake. It was so yummy too!

Here is a wider shot of the dessert table, so you can see the candy. I had things like black, white, and blue sixlets, coconut jelly beans, blue air heads, mints wrapped in black plastic, etc.

Right next to the dessert table is a window, where I placed the following sign that reads "Tim Burton's Table of Treats." I used Jack Skellington face stickers for the "o's." I think it turned out nice.

I also placed these signs out around the house for decoration. I got he bottles from the dollar store and the blue and white marbles were left over from a friend's wedding. I taped the signs on a stick and pushed them into the glass. All the quotes are either from Tim Burton or one of his movies. I tried to find things that suited a mom or were about children/babies.

For those that don't know, "nappy" is British for a diaper.

The above quote is from a song in the movie musical Sweeney Todd.

One of the activities for the shower was to have people write amusing or cute things on the bottom of some diapers for the mom to use when she changes her little one at night. I got the free printable from Driven by Decor and the blue basket is from the dollar store. It's said to get Pampers diapers because the bottom isn't "silky" and use fine tip sharpies to write with; that way the writing won't run. People seemed to enjoy this one!

This other blog, Lauren Makes, offers free Wishes for Baby printables. I printed some out and laid them next to the late night diapers. You can see them in the right hand corner. The cup on top held pens. Everyone filled out the paper and I put them all in a mini blue album for the mom to keep.

As for the games, I really wanted to find some different things that wouldn't be too awkward to play. One item was "Whooo are you?" which is what the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland says. I found a print out of this quote and taped it on a poster board. Then I taped baby photos of various guests at the shower and people had to write down who they thought each baby was (they were numbered). The one who got the most right won. This seemed to be well liked by everyone, so I'm glad I put it together!

The other two games were free printables I found on other blogs. One was questions about Nursery Rhymes that you had to answer and the other was multiple choice questions about babies. These facts were hard! I Heart Naptime provided the Nursery Rhyme game and Finding My Aloha had the Baby Trivia game. On the same page, Finding My Aloha also offers a free printable to write down what the mom got and who it was from. I printed this out and had a friend write everything down while the mom-to-be opened gifts and I took photos! Very handy to have.

And finally, this is where the mom-to-be sat. Sorry for the dark quality. We had some balloons standing behind her, one of the quote signs next to her, and even a cute blue bucket with gifts (the bucket was from my own mom). We figured it would make a nice decoration before the mom-to-be dived in!

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I link up at http://www.somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/, http://www.raegunramblings.com/, and http://tatertotsandjello.com/

Favorite Things Party

This was laid out in my kitchen. The drinks and punch were to the right of this.

Favorite Things Party!!

I held this at the end of February, which I felt was a good time because I was able to get some Valentine's Day themed supplies that worked for "favorite things" since it was covered in hearts. Unfortunately a lot of my friends weren't able to attend, so this is a party that I'd like to throw again, just in a different month. It was fun though, so here is what I did!!

I got some roll up sandwiches at the grocery store for the main meal. Just something easy and light, and the guests that did come seemed to enjoy them.

I got these cute sugar cookies at the store and laid some out on a plate. Since it was close to March, they had St. Patrick's Day colors. They were still good, regardless!

I got these snack cups at target and filled some with white cheddar popcorn and others with Valentine's Day colored Hershey kisses.

I don't do flowers a lot, but we thought something cute and girly would be appropriate. I put a plate upside down and placed the flowers on top so it was higher than the items around it.

I placed some fruit salad and dip in separate pink bowls. I believe they are Zak! designs. Very cute.

Here are a couple shots of my kitchen table with the food lying out!

Here's a picture of me before the party. I wore my pink dress for the occasion!

That's the food...but for the main event of the night, we swapped our favorite things. If you've never heard of a Favorites Things party, the idea is to have each guest bring one of their favorite items to share. You state how many of each item and what they can spend beforehand. I chose for people to bring four of the SAME item and the item they pick can't cost more than $5 each. So you could bring a $5 item and four of those would be $20. Or you could bring a $1 item and you only spend $4. It should be one of your favorite things though!

This is what I brought. I got the popcorn containers, popcorn packets and buncha crunch from the dollar store. Each item was $1 each, so my favorite thing cost $3. I just got four of them!

A friend of mine brought a few things, such as Whoppers, Cookies n Creme Hershey bars, modeling clay, mini candles.

The same friend brought those giant bubble wands as well! My sister brought the dove chocolate (in the bottom left hand corner) and the Bistex chapstick (upper left hand corner).

A better shot of what my sister brought!

My sister also brought pints of Mocha Chocolate Chip ice cream from her favorite ice cream place Graeter's (a local place).

Because so few people could come, everyone got one of each item brought, which was fun! Normally, if there were more than four people, everyone would get four items because they brought four but they wouldn't get something from every attendant.

Before we could swap gifts though, I had a fun activity! People on pinterest often made their own bags for people to bring their goodies home in. I decided to buy some yellow bags at the dollar store and lay out a box of fun markers, stickers, and other scrapbooking supplies so my guests could decorate their own bags! They had fun with this, so I'd suggest it as a cute activity if you throw this party in the future.

Here is a look at the bag my sister made! Cute huh?

I also wanted to have a game so I used an idea I saw on pinterest where you write out a list of questions that ask people about their favorites. "Favorite thing to buy..." "Favorite Color..." etc. The idea is to have everyone go around and read their answers. If someone says the same answer you wrote, you cross out your answer in terms of points. At the end, whoever has the most unique answers wins. I figured if there was a tie (and there was), I would ask them to choose what they thought my favorite number was and the closest answer won. It was 16 and my sister won (I swear she didn't know before; she just guessed closest). I gave her a bag with a couple other items that are on my favorites list like Sheila G's brownie crisps and a mini pack of the Yes To Cucumber face wipes. Each item is under $5 individually, so they could have been items I chose to swap too.

And there you have it, my first ever Favorite Things party! I hope to do it again with more guests in the future, since it would make the swapping more fun!

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I link up at http://www.somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/, http://www.raegunramblings.com/, and http://tatertotsandjello.com/

Nightmare Before Christmas Party

Nightmare Before Christmas Party! A friend of mine and I held this around Christmas time, but you can do it whenever. This is the tree at her house...she put fake cobwebs around it to add a Halloween flair, though I'm afraid you can't tell too much in the photo! It was a nice touch though. The party was at her house, but I brought a lot of the food and prizes. It's tradition to do Christmas at her place.

Around Halloween I found various Nightmare Before Christmas and Jack Skellington items at Walgreens. This Jack figure was bought by my sister and we used it as decoration on the food table. I added four mini bottles of sparkling cider for people to share with a simple sign that reads "Christmas Town Cider."

I found Red and Green tortilla chips at Target and grabbed a couple bags and some salsa for "Sandy Claws Salsa". This went over quite well actually! Yum!

I wanted something a little healthy to off set all the sweets so I laid out some cucumber slices and mini carrots with ranch for dipping. I titled this "Reindeer Food" to go with the theme.

My sister made these cake pops with white chocolate for the head. She drew on the faces and voila, you get "Jack Skellington Pops."

I placed these mini tubs of cotton candy on the coffee table that everyone sat around. The sign reads "Sally's Stuffing."

This isn't Jack, but my dad bought me this around Halloween so I put it next to my friend's TV. It can dance as "Moves like Jagger" starts to play. I figured it works since it's a skeleton!

This is some of my friend's decorations. It's obviously a very cute mix of Christmas and Halloween decorations. She even set out her book The Nightmare Before Christmas! Love it.

You can't forget Zero! I got a plastic dog bowl from the dollar store and put whoppers in it, labeling it "Zero's Kibble." I saw a version of this on another blog, though I'm not sure the exact link.

I found this idea on pinterest!! You take a brown lunch bag and fill it with gummies. The example I saw was a bit more elaborate. I just ripped back the top of the bag so it looked like a tear into the stomach and put regular and sour gummy worms in it. And there you have it..."Oogie Boogie's Insides." This was definitely a hit!

And here's a shot of the food table with most of the items out! I love the mix of Halloween decorations and Christmas lights. It looked cute!

And finally, a look at the prizes! I got the marshmallow lollipop, Jelly Beans, Pen, and pen/paper at Walgreens around Halloween and held on to them. My friend offered two free tickets to the Aquarium where she worked as well. The "This is Halloween" nail polish is from etsy. You can get your own from Lyn B Designs!

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That's the food and prizes. As for the games, I was pretty busy around this time and therefore I couldn't come up with too many great games, but I had to do something!

Stocking Questions: I filled a Christmas stocking with various Christmas and Halloween related questions and we passed the stocking around the room having people answer a question at a time. It was meant to be a fun "getting to know you" type of exercise. Plus, the game aspect was because I chose a question ahead of time out of the stocking and that became the "winner." Therefore, whoever chose that question during the game was told to be the winner at the end.

Fear Elimination: I filled note cards for everyone with statements such as "I am not afraid of heights." If this was true; you are NOT afraid of heights, then you would circle it. Whoever had the most circled (the least fears) was the winner. Three people won this...all boys, so they could have been lying (haha). We picked one winner by choosing a number and then at the end of the games, the other two got to choose from the remaining prizes.

I can't remember if we did any other games or not. I think these were the main ones though! It was fun and the theme was something I'd wanted to do for awhile. I think it turned out well. This would be great for Christmas, Halloween, or even someone's birthday!

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I link up at http://www.somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/, http://www.raegunramblings.com/, and http://tatertotsandjello.com/