Zoo-Themed Baby Shower

Welcome to Cooking With Cricut Cartridge Showcase.  Every Monday and Thursday members of the Design Team will feature one of their favorite cartridges along with some projects that showcase it.  We hope that it will provide you some inspiration -- and maybe you'll use a cartridge that's been collection dust or you'll discover a cartridge that you need to add to your collection.  Today I will be featuring one of my all-time favorites . . . Create-A-Critter!

We recently threw my sister, Elizabeth, a zoo-themed Baby Shower.  She and her husband, Matt, will be welcoming a baby boy in late November/early December.  Baby Everett will be the fourth baby welcomed into our family this year!  A niece and nephew were born on January 14 (no they're not twins) and then another nephew on February 14.

I've already shared with you the door sign and the cake and cupcakes.  Today I will share the rest, as promised! 

The inspiration for the shower was the bedding Elizabeth picked out.   The fabric has teals, lite blues, navy, blues,  brown, khaki, green and white -- our color palette for the shower ended up being lite blue, teal, brown, lime green and white.

Not only did Dee and I create all of the paper decorations, cake and cupcakes, we also created the invitations, favors, diaper cake, table decor and all of the food!  Two of Elizabeth's good friends co-hosted the party with us -- Heather provided the location (her church's fellowship hall) and money for the food; Jessica did all of the shower games, prizes and paper goods (cups, plates, etc.).

All of the papers used were either Bazzill card stock, from a Recollections paper pack or  The Paper Studio Basics paper pack.  All of the ribbon used was purchased at Michaels.

The "It's A Boy" Banner was created in Cricut Design Studio using the Plantin SchoolBook cartridge.  I took a square and welded two triangles flipped on their side for the points.  The pennants measure 8" tall by 5 3/4" wide.  The text was also cut from PSB at 5" tall. 

Create-A-Critter:

• Monkey ~ cut at 3 1/2" tall.
• Vine ~ cut at 5 1/2" wide.
• Zebra ~ cut at 5" wide.

Everyday Paper Dolls:  I ended up using this cartridge because the lion and elephant from CAC were just too wide.

• Lion ~ cut at 5" tall.  I cut him twice.  Once in dark brown for the mane and then in an orangey-brown for the body.
• Elephant ~ cut at 5" wide and 4 3/4" wide.

Some pen detailing, inked edges, eyelets and assorted ribbons complete this super cute banner.

This Diaper Cake has 112 size one Pamper Swaddlers, 10 cloth bibs, 3 rattles, 2 pacifiers with paci clips and an elephant toy for the topper. 

After rolling the diapers and assembling the layers, we hid our structural ties behind some beautiful 1 1/2" ribbon.  The diaper cake is "served up" on 16" Wilton Cake Base.  We covered the edge with a 5/8" lime green and white polka dotted ribbon. 

Create-A-Critter:

• Alligator ~ cut at 8" wide
• Hippo ~ cut at 6" wide
• Lion ~ cut at 7 1/2" wide.

Cake Basics:

• Monogrammed medallion cut at 3 1/2" wide.  I welded the text using Design Studio.  

Here are a few pictures of the other shower decorations and food table.

The tables were covered with plain white table cloths.  We took lime green
and teal blue tulle and ran them down the center.  Covered paint cans with
balloons, candles, favor boxes and wrapped silverware added more pops of color.

Little brown favor boxes held Hershey's Kisses and were tied with a turquoise
satin ribbon.  A tag cut from Plantin SchoolBook was stamped with
"Thank You Very Much" in a bright blue.  We dressed up clear votive holders
with ribbon and the same punched circles that were used on the cupcake picks.

Yummy!  Our luncheon featured sliced ham, turkey and salami; mini croissants and rolls;
condiments for the mini sandwiches included all of the standards plus a delicious Cranberry
Mustard; Curried Chicken Salad; Egg Salad; Santa Fe Pinwheels; Veggies with Ranch Dip; Apples
with Caramel Dip; assorted sliced and cubed cheeses; Zesty Cheese Ball; Baked Brie in Pastry;
White Bean Hummus with Pita Chips; hot Spinach Artichoke Dip with tortilla chips;
Seven Layer Tex-Mex Dip with tortilla chips; and a fresh Fruit Tray with a Creamy Lemon Dip.

The guest of honor, my sweet sister, opening
some gifts.  We had about 30 people at the shower.

Dee and I also made some of her gifts ~ some framed art for the baby's room, half a dozen burp cloths ~ and we bought baby Everett the cutest Christmas outfit! 

The framed art was created using Animal Kingdom and Cake Basics (font) cartridges.  The frames are 8" x 10" white wooden frames purchased at Michaels.  (She really wanted me to do some vinyl cuts for the nursery -- but her walls were just too textured.)

I showed you this piece earlier this summer in this post.  However, when it came time to frame it, the darned thing wouldn't fit -- so I had to re-work it a bit!

It is the chorus from the song "You Are My Sunshine."  Elizabeth's mom (my step-mom) passed away in 2006.  She used to sing this song to her when she was a baby.  As Elizabeth got older it became their special song.  I know how much she is missing her Mom, especially now, and wanted her to have a special "piece" of her Mom in the nursery.  She loved it and even cried a bit -- and then scolded me for making her mascara run!

These burp cloths turned out so cute.  We used some of the nursery fabric we purchased as well as some orange and blue Gator fabric. 

The cloth diapers were purchased at Wal-Mart and then the fabric panel was sewn to the center section. 

It was a great Shower -- everyone had so much fun and enjoyed all of the yummy food and cake.  Now all there is to do is wait for baby Everett to make his appearance!  The nursery is finally finished and loaded to the gills with all the necessary (and unnecessary) baby gear. 

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and check out our creations.  Please leave me a comment and your blog address . . . I'd love to come visit and see what you're creating!

Hugs!

~ Jen

P.S.  Make sure you check back on Wednesday for our weekly challenge at Cooking With Cricut and you won't want to miss Thursday's Cartridge Showcase.  One of our new Design Team members, Debbie, will be featuring the Cricut Lite Handy Man cartridge.