We are really excited to share our new baby shower theme! Ready for a totally do-able and fresh gender neutral baby shower?  Sea breeze inspired hues of mint, aqua, lime, and yellow set the stage for some yummy desserts and soft, yet striking decor!

We love to go overboard incorporating fabulous professional dessert artists, party decor companies and seamstresses.  There is so much talent out there, but there is also the reality of a budget.  This time we Anders Ruff girls did it all on our own {with exception of our sidekick photographer, Becca Bond Photography}.  It was fun to create a realistic menu including easy and beautiful desserts and finger foods that we made ourselves.

One source of decor that was so powerful and economical was the use of yarn. Yarn is such an economical embellishment and while we were trying to show a “down to earth” baby shower, it seemed like it would set the tone perfectly.

 

We loved incorporating these milk glass cake stands!

Macaron cupcake toppers, anyone?

 

 

PARTY DETAILS:

SWEETS & NIBBLES

The menu consisted of  homemade fancy desserts mixed with store bought basic desserts that were easily embellished.

Cake: We bought a $12 plain white Target cake and added mini yarn poms {Keep in place with toothpicks that are easily hidden by the fluff}.  The cake was topped with a printable flat label from our baby shower printable collection.  Simple & Soft.

Gorgeous milk glass cake stands are so wonderful because they can be used for so many themes. The jadeite colored cake stands were so gorgeous, as were the classic white cake stands.  Milk glass is so classic and timeless!

Ombre Macarons: I finally mastered macarons and now have been experimenting with color.  I added a squirt of darker aqua batter into my piping bag and the results were beautiful with ombre macarons.  We filled them with easy butter cream and topped them with our printable party flags for embellishment.

Meringue & Chocolate Oreo Delights: We showed this dessert combo in our North Pole shoot and wanted to freshen them up.  Golden Oreos were covered in chocolate (a layer of white chooclate on top with light yellow chocolate for the rest).  I made the meringues using a Martha Stewart recipe and added a stripe of contrasting color as she showed in a recent magazine.  We put the meringue on top of the chocolate oreo and slipped in a little printable flag under the meringue for extra detail.

“Gourmet” Cucumber Sandwiches: Adria is our savory goods chef.  She stacked white bread with cream cheese and cucumber.  She topped it with a light layer of cream cheese and strips of the peel of a cucumber to add a dramatic stripe.  Lemon peel was added to the top and a printable flag.

Marshmallow Pop Bouquet: Marshmallows were dipped in yellow, aqua and lime chocolates (We mixed regular store bought colored melting chocolates to come up with the tones that matched our decor).  I tapped the top of the marshmallow onto a tray of pearl sprinkles of the same shade.  These were stuck into the milk glass vases with the DIY Yarn Pom flowers.  Simple and fun display technique!

Rattle Topped Cupcakes: Target cupcakes were easy enough to embellish!  Some cupcakes were embellished with yarn backed cupcake toppers with a little bow around the stick to resemble a baby rattle!  (Easy yarn backing – glue yarn in a circular shape onto cardstock and trim around the edges.  Do double sided to hide the paper!)  Others were topped with a small macaron with a little bow around the stick to also resemble a rattle. Yummy!

White Chocolate Drizzled Popcorn: Easy and delish!  We utilized the drawers in the antique dresser to display some of our items.  Popcorn cones were made out of the printable patterned paper and stuffed with aqua tissue liners for the white chocolate covered popcorn.

Lemonade Spritzers: These were displayed in glass bottles from Shop My Little Love and put in the top drawer of the desk.  A yarn pom was wrapped around the neck and a printable flag adorned straw was stuck in the side.  The bottles were labeled with a printable wrap, of course!

DECOR

Our main piece of furniture was an antique desk.  This was helpful for displaying the desserts and drinks because we could use the drawers.

Yarn Pom Bunting with Mini Pennants: Printable mini pennants from our collection were strung on a length of yarn.  Various sizes of yarn poms were made in coordinating color combos.  These were sewn together onto a long piece of yarn and hung over the table.  Since our shoot was outdoors, we used white painted thin dowl rods that we attached to the back of the antique desk to be our “stands”.  It worked well!

DIY Milk Glass Stands: We searched high and low for unique milk glass display pieces.  A local antique store had votive holders out of milk glass and small milk glass plates that were interesting.  We used a little hot glue and made our own stands!

Yarn Pom Flowers: More poms were made using the easy pom maker we created on our Ruff Draft.  These were attached to pipe cleaners and the stem was wrapped with more yarn.  Add some interesting bends in the stems and the flowers looked adorable in milk glass vases with the marshmallow pops!

Yarn Wrapped Gifts: To coordinate with the table, we wrapped some gifts in coordinating solid papers and embellished them with more yarn and poms. Labels from the printable collection were added to the gifts as well.

FAVORS

Baby Pickles in Baby Food Jars: Every pregnant woman craves pickles at some point, right?  We made homemade baby pickles and put them in upcycled glass baby food jars. The lids were painted and embellished with yarn trim.  We added a printable label to the front and it made for a memorable and funny favor.

Baby Candy Jars: We found an antique spice rack with old glass spice jars.  We cleaned it up and used the little jars for solid colored M&Ms. (Hint – Easter candy on clearance was separated by color and made for an economical favor).  These were labeled with our printable flat label and displayed on the aqua spice rack along with other treats.

The printable invitation, registry card and coordinating printables are available in the Anders Ruff shop.

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VENDOR CREDITS:

– Production, Styling, Printables, & Food (Macarons, Merinuges & Sandwiches): Anders Ruff
– Photography: Becca Bond Photography
– Glass Bottles & Straws: Shop My Little Love

SOURCES to create this look:
– Milk Glass Cake Stands: here or here