Welcome Baby!!!

This year there are a lot of babies coming into our family...yeah!  We just love babies!!!

The girlies and I made the favors for the latest baby shower and they turned out pretty cute.

The invitation was our inspiration... see that cute little baby peeking out - and the little blue bird?  (We had a huge debate over whether the bird is a 'blue bird' or a 'humming bird'...you'll see what we went with...)

...and the pretty blossoms...since we know the baby is going to be a girl we were able to go all pinkish with these!

First on the 'to do' list - tiny birds (can you tell which one we decided on?)  I drew 50 little birds on water colour paper...

and then - surprise - I water coloured them!  First a layer of a pretty lighter blue..

next a bit of darker blue detailing and some black for the beaks...

time to cut them all out, turn them over, and do it all again!  I also added a tiny loop of string so we would be able to hang them.

This particular favor involves several mini projects within the bigger project - we had to make the babies now!  A walnut for the cradle...

Lane took charge of cracking the walnuts for us and saving only the perfect halves...

Madison painted and glittered the shells and we added some twine so they too would hang...

Now it is time to put the babies in the cradle...

we used little wooden beads for the babies heads...and because we didn't want to paint them all we had to use coloured pencil to make the faces.  The beads were porous and sharpie and paint both bled.

So the sweet little faces were added, the babies were swaddled in a bit of felt...and into their cradles they went.

To hold the babies and the humming birds we made tiny trees...

mini french flower pots and some sticks from the garden and the trees begin to appear...

a little plaster of paris in each pot and voila! tiny trees...that are home for a little baby and a tiny humming bird...

a bit of moss covers the plaster...but every detail isn't there yet...we need a few blossoms to adorn the tree...

small pale pink tissue paper circles make tiny blossoms...

we put two circles together, twisted the back and glued on a pink bead...and they were ready to glue onto the trees...we put three on each tree (we were doing 45 favors and at three per tree that was already 135 flowers!!!)

Add a small wooden clothes pin and you have a label to welcome baby that turns the favor into a photo holding treasure for guests to use at home.  Both the baby and humming bird are removable so this tree can be tailored to any one's decor.

Here they are all done and packed to travel.  We only had a couple of casualties...some of the wooden clothes pins fell off...that's why I always pack a little travel emergency kit.  Extra clothespins, a few extra humming birds, a bit of moss and a glue gun...that way any necessary repairs can be made.

And here they are at the party!!!

The favors and some beautiful fresh flowers and the tables were good to go...

These could easily be adapted for many different party themes...and each guest goes home with something they can use in their own home.

Arent' babies wonderful!?  Love and Best Wishes Angela!!!

xoxo  Elizabeth