Baby Shower in a Box!!

It has been killing me not to post about this project for so long!! 

 I put so much work into it.. and I am so excited to share it with you!  

I didn't want to take the chance of spoiling the surprise!  

But...  

Today is the day.... 

not only for me to blab about my handiwork... 

but also for the "Baby Shower in a Box!".  

What am I talking about?  

What the heck is a "Baby Shower in a Box?"  

Well, please... let me explain!

My cousin, Alyson, got married last year.  The happy couple is expecting their first baby in late June or early July.  Unfortunately (for me and other friends & family), her husband got a job in Kansas and they are halfway across the country now.  Since they have only been there a few months, they are still working on making connections.

  Understandably, friends and family can't make a trek out to the mid-west to throw them a baby shower.  I was kind of sad.  I didn't get to even go to her wedding because she had it in another state and I had a 3 month old baby that I sure as heck wasn't going to haul around during flu-season!!

Her mom was bummed too.  

Our moms like to host wonderful bridal and baby showers... 

and it looked like it wasn't going to happen for Alyson.

  

But THEN, my mom told my aunt about something that I had done for a friend last year.... 

and the planning began.

My aunt asked me to pull it together since I knew what I was doing... and I happily obliged!  Sometimes having a reason to be creative is refreshing.  Of course, sometimes it's stressful with a deadline... 

but I got 'er done and I'm sharing it with YOU!

I designed the artwork for the invitations.  The theme was "owls" as per my aunt's request.  My mom laid out the words and had them, along with custom address labels, printed.  

The invitations went out to friends and family... asking everyone to "shower" Alyson and her husband, Danny, with presents.  The idea was to have the items wrapped individually in the boxes (and labeled with tags so they knew who sent what!)... then the boxes were to be sent to Aly and Danny's house over the course of a month or so and they weren't allowed the open them until TODAY, April 27th @ 2:30PM!

(Alyson was going nuts having all of these boxes come and not being able to even peek!!  Haha!)

We realized that it was a lot to ask for people to buy a gift(s) and also spend the money to mail it, however, we really wanted to do something special!  And luckily, many of the friends and family were gracious enough to participate.  And those who couldn't afford were still able to send a card and possibly even gift cards.

SO!  My big task, besides creating the invitation art was to put together the FIRST box.  This is the box that they open FIRST and have instructions on how to go about their baby shower...

Here come the pictures!!

I hope you enjoy!

 

These labels (below) were included in the invites 

(along with an explanation/instruction sheet) 

so that anyone who participated could put their 

return addy and slap it on the box/envelope!

Easy Peasy!

This instruction sheet was so fun to make!

And I think it looks cute!

 They are supposed to log on to Skype with Alyson's parents 

so that they can at least share in the excitement! 

We are hoping their internet connection is working - it's been sketchy.  If not, they'll just have to call and my aunt will give her the further instructions, which is just: "Open the present marked #1"  

(They have to decorate for their own baby shower before they start opening presents...)

Spread out the table cloth then blow up some balloons!

 I couldn't get a good pic of the whole banner.... 

but I made one that says: "Baby (their last name)"

and was decorated with owls.

 

I am not overly thrilled with the centerpiece... but I couldn't come up with anything else!  I made the owl without any patterns.  It turned out pretty cute!  Wish I would've had colors to match the shower... but oh well!  I used what I had!

Alyson loves Lemon Heads.  

I don't know what Danny likes, 

so I filled his "favor" with 

"Cry Baby" Gumballs! 

I hope they get a chuckle out of that!

(I forgot to take a pic of the card that went with this... 

it was witty, but oh well... obviously it also says to open the next present... #7)

 

Since they are going to have quite a number of boxes 

and all sorts of presents, 

I thought it would be helpful to have a mini-notebook 

to help them keep track!

 

I forgot to take a picture of the card for the below picture...

but it is telling them to open each box, 

take out each present and enjoy their baby shower!

Then they can have their cake and eat it too!

(A lady from their church is making one and dropping it off before the shower)

 I really hope they have fun...

I am so excited to see pictures!!

Eloise enjoyed helping decorate one of the boxes we sent out!

 If this is something you might like to do for someone you know and you need some hints on how we pulled it all off, please shoot me an email!  It was so much fun to put together and I'd be happy to share!!

Hooray for Baby Shower Day!