Naughty or Nice Bridal Shower (Guest Book)

I wanted to make a cute guest book for Aly's "Naughty or Nice" themed shower. Something cute that could showcase some pictures of her and the groom-to-be and where people could leave her well wishes for the future. It had to be hot pink and black, to match the theme. And it had to be cheap, to match my budget!

Here's what I came up with.

To create my book, I started with this little journal I bought at Michael's for $3.

It had recycled brown paper inside, and I really wanted plain white. So I untied the ribbon that bound the book together and took apart the book.

I replaced the brown paper with white. I just took some regular paper from our printer, cut it down to size, stapled them all together, punched my two holes, and re-tied the ribbon.

Then it was time to decorate! I padded the outside covers of the book with a little batting and then wrapped them in some pink fabric I had on hand. The I wrapped some pretty black ribbon around the front over.

To finish the inside (and hide my fabric edges) I cute some white card stock and glued it on the inside. I printed the date and theme on the card stock for the front so our bride will always remember her shower!

Then I filled the book with pictures of her and her groom (making sure to leave space for the guests to write).

Super simple and super affordable! It'll be a great keepsake from the shower!

Naughty or Nice Bridal Shower (Games & Prizes)

The bridal shower is almost here! Eeeek!! I still feel like I have so much to do, but when I really think about what's left, there's not much to do now. Everything else has to wait for the day before and day of. It's just like me to stress myself out for no reason! :op

Now, when you're having a shower with a theme like "Naughty or Nice", you know you can't just play traditional bridal shower games! Oh there will still be a couple of those . . . but we're putting a twist on the others!

Two of our four games are games everyone has probably played at some shower or another. There's "The M Word" game where you can't say "married", "marry", or "marriage" and if you do and another party-goer hears it, she can take away your clothespin, necklace, whatever (we're using plastic bracelets).

Then there's the ever-trusty "How Well Do You Know the Bride?" Always a good shower game.

Here's where the twist comes in. You know the game where people create wedding dresses out of toilet paper and the bride chooses the best one? Well, instead of playing "Toilet Paper Wedding Dress" we're playing "Toilet Paper Wedding Night"! Teams will have to use toilet paper to create the best nightie or lingerie to win a prize! How naughty!! ;o)

Another "naughty" game we're playing came straight from the adults-only shop (it was my co-hosts idea to go there . . . although they did have some cute stuff). It's "Pin the Junk on the Hunk". I think this one is self-explanatory. I got the censored version. No need to get too dirty! I've also printed out a picture of the groom and cut out his head to stick on the poster. So we're really playing "Pin the Junk on the Groom"!

And for prizes? Well they had to be "naughty" and "nice". So we grabbed some "man parts" shaped lollipops at the adult store and then headed to Dollar Tree for some bath stuff (lotion, bath salts, etc).

Any crafty gift-giver knows it's all about the presentation! So I printed out pictures of vintage pin-up girls, applied them to some hot pink bags, and tied them shut with some black ribbon. What do you think?

I really like them! I think they fit perfectly with our theme and are sexy without being nasty!

I can't wait to see what the bride thinks! :o)

Dinosaur Football Baby Shower (Invitation)

It's official . . . I have become the party planning queen of my work place. First there was the Cowboy Baby Shower. Then, there's the Naughty or Nice Bridal Shower being held next week. Now, I'm helping a co-worker plan a Dinosaur Football Baby Shower for her daughter.

Being the Homemade Diva that I am, I decided to make the shower invitations!

OK, that's a lie. Have you ever tried to find baby shower invites that include dinosaurs and football? There aren't any. Which left me with little choice but to design some myself. (Or maybe I just subconsciously love to make invitations? I did make these and these).

Thankfully, I managed to find this cute graphic of a dinosaur playing football. I designed the whole invite around him :o)

I think they turned out really well (especially considering I am no graphic designer and I just used Word to create this).

Once again, for some cool football fonts I turned to the internet and found BJFootball, SF Sports Night, and Collegiate Heavy Outline all for free at FontSpace. Gotta love free stuff on the internet!

Now I just gotta get started printing these babies. 100 of them! Looks like someone's gonna get a lot of baby gifts! :o)

Guest Book Cover

Have I mentioned I'm getting married?? I know I have, I'm just so excited I have to say it again . . . I'm getting married!! :oD

I choose the theme "lovebirds" for our wedding cuz I'm a bit obsessed with birds and it seemed to fit the spring time feel I'm going for.

Have you ever tried to find a cute "lovebirds" guest book? I have. There's not much out there. I found one.

It's cute. Fits with my color theme (aqua blue and white with pops of sunshine yellow). The only problem? No one sells this book anymore :o(

Not to be deterred from having a super cute guest book at my wedding, I decided to do it myself! I bought a plain, unlined memory/sketch book and am making a cover to go on it.

Here's what I've whipped up so far!

I'm soooooooo in love with how this has turned out!! I found the cute "birds on a branch" image online and used it to make a freezer paper stencil, then painted my image.

I used the same stenciling technique to create our names and wedding date, then turned them into iron-on appliques and attached them to my cover.

I told FH that the blue bird was him and the smaller yellow one was me :o)

It's not completely done yet. I'm going to use some decorative stitching on the appliques, then I have to actually make my cover. But I love the direction it's going. It's going to look awesome and will definitely be a one-of-a-kind guest book that only FH and I will have! :o)

I Love My Honey Tree

What is a "Honey Tree" you ask? Allow me to show you . . .

Isn't it adorable?? I've been so excited about my little piece of art that I just had to share it with you all!

I found this sweet little painting on etsy from Studio Zen. Leah (the artist) can "carve" your tree with your initials, names and/or a special date! I had mine done with mine and my fiance's name and our upcoming wedding date!

I'm always looking for unique ways to personalize our wedding next year, so I bought mine to display at the big event! I love it!! And it totally goes with the spring/garden feel of the whole event!

I'm so excited to show it off!! I'm sure this little baby will be a big hit with our guests! :o)

Homemade Baby Shower Gifts

I had the pleasure of attending a surprise baby shower for one of my very close friends and his wife. We were discouraged from buying gifts from the registry (which the mommy-to-be checks frequently) so we wouldn't give away the surprise. This was a perfect excuse for me, the Homemade Diva that I am, to make their baby presents :o)

First, I whipped up these little babies:

I love the monster! I free-hand sketched him and think he's so cute! And the tie! The daddy-to-be is a big tie wearer. Seriously . . .  he wears a tie All. The. Time! So this was perfect!! I made iron-on appliques for the tie and the monster, and I used a freezer paper stencil for the lettering. Super easy!

Then I decided to make a baby rag quilt. Since this is my third one of these, I should be an expert by now! :o)

I found a super cute dinosaur print fabric (center) and coordinated the other fabrics with that. It's so fun and cheerful!

I used a simple star fabric for the back.

I threw in a pack of diapers (cuz what parent couldn't use more diapers?), and my present was complete!

Mom and Dad loved my presents and will hopefully get good use out of them. I can't wait to meet the little guy! He'll look awesome in his tie! :o)

Have I Mentioned Lately . . .

. . . that my fiance is nuts? Don't get me wrong! I love the man with all my heart! But he can be kinda crazy sometimes!

Wanna know what he's doing now?

He's sanding his truck so he can paint it.

Flat black.

By himself.

Using a paint roller.

Uhh . . . OK honey. Knock yourself out!

At least the truck really did need a new paint job. The paint on the roof was peeling . . . I still think he's nuts!

And while he's doing that, I'll be turning these . . .

into this . . .

Check back for the finished results!

Naughty or Nice Bridal Shower (Invitations)

Once again I'm in full party planning mode! (Which is conflicting quite awfully with my sewing-stuff-for-baby-showers mode)

One of my dear co-workers, Aly (you may remember her as my co-host for the Cowboy Baby Shower) is getting married in a few months. Her best friend Jen and I are throwing her a bridal shower!

We debated themes before finally settling on "Naughty or Nice". We figured the theme went well, since we're having the bachelorette party right after the shower. However, there aren't many options for invitations for this sort of theme. Most of the results of my Google searches came back with invites for a lingerie bridal shower, which is not the direction that we're going. Solution? Make my own!

I, by no means, am a graphic designer (Lord knows, I wish I was that talented). But, I am a capable manipulator of images using word processing software (like Word).

So here's what I managed to put together! Here's the front of the invitation:

Cute, huh? I thought it showed the theme of the shower well, without being raunchy or too much.

Then, here's the inside:

The fonts I used for the "Naughty" and the "Nice" were free fonts I found online. Merced (the "Naughty" font) came from  Fonts 101. Abbeyline (the "Nice" font) came from 1001 Free Fonts. I just love free fonts, don't you?

I showed a prototype to the bride-to-be and she loved it! I'm so excited to be planning this party! It's gonna be so much fun!! :oD