A Baby is Brewing - How I Crafted a Baby Shower at a Tea House

 Hi Friends!

I'm in a challenge to grow my YouTube channel by uploading a tutorial every week. I hope you'll join me each week as I make progress toward my goal!

This week I'm making a keepsake for my new granddaughter. It's a nursery decor item that includes the names of the guests who attended her mom's baby shower tea party in back May. 

When I decided to throw a baby shower for my daughter, I wanted to keep it simple as we were in the midst of a home renovation that had our house in a state where hosting it was out of the question. I planned to invite just a few close friends and family to a local restuarant to hold the party. Then I had the idea of holding the shower at the historic Reynold's Tavern in Annapolis, which is my favorite place to enjoy afternoon tea.

Being a paper crafter and a lover of teas parties, the preparations proceeded! I ordered baby shower tea invitations from Amazon. Since I didn't plan to invite too many people, I opted to hand address the invitations, saving on having them printed. The invitations were printed on a coat cardstock that would have caused ball point pen ink to smudge, so I used an ultra fine point black Sharpie.

For the favors, I bought clear party favor bags at the local Dollar Tree (much cheaper than Amazon!). I filled the bags with goodies appropriate for a tea party - biscotti (from BJs, my favorite local big box store), chocolates, a small candle tin, and a small draw-string muslin bag with tea bags and and a mini honey pack (Nature Nate's from Amazon). I placed these items in the favor bag on top of a little paper shred.

Favor Tag from Invitation

  

Back of Tag with stamped Thank You

I used leftover invitations to make tags for the favors by cutting off the top and stamping Thank You on the back in Memento Tuxedo Black ink using Stampin' Up's Go To Greeting stamp set. I added a piece of patterned paper from my craft stash (my Stampin' Up friends may recognize it as Softly Stippled DSP) along the bottom of the backside to cover a bit of wording visible. I'm pretty proud of myself for having paper in a coordinating color!

Inside the favor bag I included a mini muslin bag (long retired Stampin' Up product from my stash) filled with 2 tea bags and a mini honey packet. I created a tag on Canva for these small bags; I printed them on my home printer and cut out.

Mini Muslin Bag with Canva-Created Tag

As I planned to have several shower games, I needed prizes and decided to give StarBucks gift cards to the winners. To package them, I used the Februrary 2024 Sweet Springtime Paper Pumpkin kit for three treat boxes with a stamped Thank You tag. I also decorated two small glassine bags with leftover kit die cuts and tags. I love the bunny and chick imagery from the Paper Pumkin kit!

Shower Game Prizes

I googled free shower printables and found Aspen Jay's website offered just what I was looking for! I was able to download shower games, labels and a guest book that doubles as a nursery decor piece.

Aspen Jay recommended printing the guest book bunny piece as 11 x 17" then cutting it down to 11 x 14" to fit a photo frame that size. I wanted it printed on matte cardstock which Office Depot offered, so I had it printed there. As we didn't know if my daughter was having a girl or a boy, I had guests write their name on both pink and blue balloons. Now that my granddaughter is here, I can adhere the pink balloons! Click here for the bunny guest book printable.

Guest Book and Nursery Decor!

Completed Guest Book / Nursery Decor

Watch my video as I complete the Shower Guest Book / Nursery Decor picture https://youtu.be/uzhAhe3qqkw

I printed the free Aspen Jay labels (click here for link to labels in this Aspen Jay blog post) and games (click here for name race printable) at Staples as they had the best prices. I could have ordered the same games from Amazon for a little less but they had a more generic theme. Click here for Old Wives Tales printable game and here for the shower bingo card.

Table Tent Labels

 

Shower Game Free Printables from Aspen Jay

Of course, we had to have Thank You notes, too. I ordered them from Amazon but didn't realize that they were postcards; my daughter preferred thank you cards. So I trimmed the postcards so they could be glued to the front of a white cardstock base.

 

Since I love throwing tea parties, I have several tea pots and I wanted to use them as decorations for the shower. 

Tea Pots

My youngest daughter volunteered to create floral arrangements. I picked up two rose bouquets from Sam's Club and a bunch of baby's breath and greenery from Safeway for the arrangements. I think the arrangements turned out beautifully!! The only thing I would change is to not use floral oasis inside the tea pots. I thought it would make the flower arrangements last longer but they barely lasted a week. The mom-to-be enjoyed looking at them in her office while they lasted though.

Pink Roses in Bunny Tea Pot

Yellow Roses in Tea Pot on Prize Table

Shower Gifts with Balloons

It was a lovely day as we enjoyed tea and showered my daughter and grandbaby-to-be with love!

Have you hosted a tea party? Leave me a comment with your thoughts on tea parties.

DSP Sale!

It's the perfect time to create your own gift bags as Stampin' Up is having a DSP sale during August! Save 15% on select patterns! Shop my online store today and save on 15% on select patterned designer series papers!

It's time to redeem the Bonus Days coupons you earned last month. Shop my online store and redeem your coupons today! Bonus Days coupons expire on August 31st, so don't miss out!

If you do not already have a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator, I would be happy to be yours and help you plan fun stamping projects.

Interested in receiving a discount on all of your orders? I'd love to have you join my Stamping is Fun team so you can receive a 20% discount. Let's chat, just give me a holler or click here for more info.

Stamping is fun!

Terri