Bird-Themed Baby Shower

I had the pleasure of planning a baby shower for a friend earlier this year as she welcomed her new baby girl. The guest of honor absolutely loves to be outdoors, so I wanted something of a natural theme for the festivities. I came up with the idea for a bird theme, and I have to say it was one of the easiest, most enjoyable showers I’ve ever worked done! I wanted to change things up a bit and venture away from the soft pastels usually found at baby showers, instead opting for a color palate of vivid fuchsia and bright yellow, blue and green.

The Invitations
If you’ve never heard of Lettering Delights (you may have noticed I used their products in my blog design), you really should head over to check out the plethora of fun graphics, fonts and other goodies they have on their site. I stumbled upon them about a year ago, and I’ve been hooked ever since! For the invitations here, I used their Mulberry Lane graphic set. As an added touch, I tucked a couple of brightly colored craft feathers in each envelope before sealing them.

To assemble the invitations, I designed them in Photoshop Elements before printing out in 4 x 6-inch size on high-quality card stock. After I trimmed them down, I rounded the corners with my 1/4″ rounder. I then backed each with solid charcoal grey card stock trimmed to 4.25 x 6.25 inches and adhered with my Tombow adhesive roller. After that, I punched holes in the top left with my Cropodile and threaded some 3/8-inch pink grosgrain ribbon through the holes and tied in a decorative bow.

Invitation wording:
A little birdie told me…
There’s a chick soon to hatch in the {Name} family nest!
Please join us for a shower brunch honoring {Name} and her baby girl.
Date, Time
Location
Hosted By
RSVP

The Menu
For any come-and-go party like this one, I like to serve things that are equally tasty warm or at room temperature. I opted for a breakfast casserole with hash browns, ham and egg, a breakfast bread pudding made with croissants, a yummy sweet dip with assorted fruit for dipping, and a spread of fun bird- and egg-shaped sugar cookies complete with the new little one’s monogram. Be sure to check back in tomorrow when I’ll be sharing each of these recipes with you!

The Decorations
Have you seen the giant gerbera daisies at Michaels? I purchased these in assorted colors to tuck away in a bird cage I snagged from the clearance section at Hobby Lobby (for $4!) along with some vivid green paper grass. I prettied things up with some rolls of blue and fuchsia 6-inch organza that I wound through the cage and around the rest of the table. To fill in any areas that needed a touch more color, I placed small candy dishes filled with candy-covered chocolate eggs and jelly beans.

It is always nice to have elements of a party serve dual purposes to help cut down on the work required. As a part of the table decorations, I took branches from my back yard and sprayed them white before I anchored them in a container with glass marbles in assorted colors. On the branches, I hung felt bird sachets I made for the party to accessorize the table and also to hand out to the shower guests as favors. On each bird, I affixed a little note that said, “Thanks so much for flying by!” I’ll be sharing detailed instructions tomorrow for how I put each bird together (as well as a free printable template), so stay tuned!

Another example of an element that worked double-time were the monogrammed sugar cookies. Not only were they delicious, but they looked absolutely darling on the table on the serving tray I placed beneath the bird-covered tree.

A Gift Idea for the Mama-Bird-To-Be
I love to give books as a shower gift. The bird theme of this shower made it easy to pick out the perfect title to give to my friend to read to her baby for many years to come: In My Nest by Sara Gillingham. The book itself is so darling, it was a perfect accessory sitting on the food table. I honestly wish I had put out some other titles, as well, because everyone commented on how fun it was to books as a form of decoration! Another children’s book that would be great to go along with a bird theme is one I posted about last week, Seven Hungry Babies. I just can’t say enough how much I love that little book!

I do hope you’ll stop back in tomorrow when I share a few more of the details of how to put together a shower like this one of your very own!