Make Party Favors for a Baby Shower
Mothers-to-be and their friends celebrate their baby’s anticipated arrival by participating in a baby shower. Typically “women only” events, these showers were designed to provide gifts and baby supplies for the mother-to-be and to allow experienced mothers to impart valuable parenting advice. This article will teach you how to make a variety of party favors for an enjoyable shower that the mother-to-be will always remember.
Contents
Steps
Edible Party Favors
- Make-a-Baby-Shower-Candy-Pacifier-Party-Favor. In the 1600s, parents often used white candy sticks as baby pacifiers. These edible pacifier party favors are made from either Life Savers or chocolate-dipped sandwich cookies. A jellybean becomes the “nipple.”
- Make-a-Diaper-Candy-Holder-Favor. Diapers are a much-needed baby supply and a popular theme for baby showers. The diaper candy holder in this article is made from a simple dinner napkin. Then, the favor is either filled with candy or has a cup of candy placed inside. Dip the candy holder in paraffin to make it extra sturdy.
- Make-a-Favor-Cake. A favor cake is not an actual cake but a tradition that originated in Italy. A favor cake consists of a series of cartons assembled into a design that resembles a layer cake. A miniature favor is glued to the top of the cartons, while the cartons themselves are filled with sugared almonds and a personal note.
- Make-Baby-Shower-Cookies. These sugar cookies are cut into the shapes of baby items, like bibs and bottles, and then decorated with Royal icing. Royal icing, like fondant and other formed or rolled icings, not only decorates the cookies but also helps to seal in moisture and freshness. Royal icing supposedly used to be the traditional icing on fruitcakes, which were once the cake of choice for royal weddings in England.
Favors that Include Baby Supplies
- Make-a-Diaper-Cake. A diaper cake consists of layers of rolled diapers that are tied with ribbon and formed into the shape of a cake. Within the cake, people often conceal baby clothing, ointment or other baby supplies that the mother may need. A diaper cake can serve as a party centerpiece that the mother-to-be can take home along with her gifts.
- Make-a-Baby-Shower-Baby-Clothing-Bouquet. With this bouquet, baby items like clothes, socks and washcloths are formed into rosettes, assembled as a bouquet and given to the mother-to-be. The bouquet can either be tall and assembled in a vase or short and assembled in a pot. Clothing can be color-coordinated and given in a variety of sizes.
- Make-Baby-Sock-Roses. This craft will require you to roll baby socks and shape them into miniature roses. The roses are then attached to a stem made of florist’s wire and florist’s tape before greenery is added. These roses can make up part of a clothing bouquet, or they can be attached to baby shower gifts to decorate gift packages or gift baskets.
- Make-Washcloth-Lollipops. Rolling baby washcloth lollipops, wrapping them with cellophane and attaching either a lollipop stick or a baby spoon is another great way to give a mother much-needed supplies. You will need a washcloth with contrasting piping to give the washcloth lollipop its swirled appearance. These can be given in bouquet form or as add-ons to a package.
Commemorative Favors
- Make-Bookmarks-for-a-Baby-Shower. This project will help you to create laminated, fabric-covered bookmarks that feature the mother’s name and the date of the shower. You can add favorite quotes, short poems or other text to these bookmarks in addition to the date. The fabric can either match the baby shower theme or can consist of scraps that you have around the house. Bookmarks like these are great for a book-themed baby shower.
- Make-Candy-Bar-Wrappers-for-a-Baby-Shower. Make commemorative labels for foil-wrapped candy bars. Use a word processing template, some clip art and some brochure paper to assemble these special gifts for guests. You can play a game with these candy bars. Draw baby and pregnancy related words on cards. Shuffle the deck of cards and turn them face down. Have guests take turns taking cards looking for a match. Guests who find matching cards get a commemoratively wrapped candy bar.
- Make-Disposable-Camera-Favors-for-a-Baby-Shower. Pictures taken throughout the baby shower from a guests-eye view will provide the mother-to-be with memories that she will never forget. With this craft, you can order specially colored cameras and then decorate them. You can also decorate the cardboard that wraps disposable cameras that are more readily available. If you’re in a hurry, just leave the cameras lying around without decorating them. The mother-to-be will still enjoy the pictures.
Floral Favors
- Make-a-Baby-Shower-Corsage. Baby shower corsages can be made from fresh or silk flowers or from baby sock rosettes. The basic components of a corsage include flowers, greenery and ribbon. Each are bonded in the back with florist’s wire and floral tape.
- Make-Takeaway-Bouquets-for-a-Baby-Shower. The bouquets in this article are designed to be placed at a guest’s table setting or at a table so that guests can take one as they leave the shower. For the bouquets, you will need 3 different kinds of flowers, some greenery and some ribbon. These bouquets are always best when flowers are in season, although you should make sure that guests do not have severe seasonal allergies before creating this favor.
Decorative Favors
- Make-Gift-Bags-for-Baby-Showers. These eco-friendly gift bags made of either fabric or paper are a great use for scraps that you already have around the house. Additionally, your guests can reuse the bags to give gifts of their own. Fill the bags with edibles or other small tokens of appreciation and give them to guests as they leave the party.
- Make-Baby-Shower-Napkin-Rings. Most hosts create a dramatic centerpiece, but not as many consider the detail provided by custom-made napkin rings. This article will teach you to make floral, fabric or ribboned napkin rings. You will also learn how to fold the napkins that you use with each design.
- Make-Baby-Bottle-Favors-for-a-Baby-Shower. Baby bottle favors can be large or small and made from a variety of materials. Instead of choosing expensive vented baby bottles, you want to choose more decorative baby bottles that can hold more items. You can tie balloons to these bottles and set them around your decorated rooms or fill the bottles with candy or other items and give them to guests as favors to take home.
- Make-Baby-Shower-Umbrellas. The umbrella became a popular baby shower symbol because, when Victorian women attended afternoon tea showers, they traditionally carried parasols or umbrellas to deflect the sun’s rays. In addition to teaching you how to decorate a baby shower umbrella, this article gives you some ideas for displaying umbrellas whether or not you choose umbrellas as your shower theme.
Activity Favors
- Make-Chocolate-Diaper-Poo-for-a-Baby-Shower. In this silly shower game, different types of candy bars are melted and placed into diapers. Each diaper is then numbered, and guests have to guess which candy bars are inside each numbered diaper. The winner of the game typically receives a bag of the candy bars that were used in the game.
- Make-Baby-Wish-Cards-for-a-Baby-Shower. Writing down wishes for a baby at a shower helps people to pass on the wisdom that they’ve learned and to dedicate it to nurturing a new life. The host usually provides the wish cards, and guests complete them. Then, the cards can either be collected and given to the mother or read out loud and shared along with a parenting story. Guests and the mother-to-be often find this activity to be emotionally moving, so set out plenty of facial tissue.
Tips
- Different cultures celebrate baby showers in different ways. In India, for example, the mother wears traditional attire and is decked with jasmine flowers. A swing is decorated with flowers of her choice, and she relaxes in the swing throughout the party. Before the shower, the mother receives a massage with ayurvedic oil and a traditional bath. In South Africa, baby showers are called “stork parties,” and people sometimes come to the shower in costume.
- Make sure to confirm the scheduled date of the shower with the mother-to-be as well as with the baby’s grandmothers so that all of the important guests can be present.
- Make sure to include registry information when you send out invitations to the shower.
- Don’t forget to find out if guests have certain dietary needs (vegan, gluten-free, etc.) before preparing your baby shower menu.
- According to Emily Post, the mother-to-be’s friends as opposed to family should give showers. According to Post, families asking for gifts, even for the baby, is in poor taste.
Warnings
- Talk to the mother-to-be about her preferences for the shower. She may find some games and activities enjoyable and some not so enjoyable. Also, she may dislike surprise parties.
