Necessity is the mother of craftiness

My sweet friend Andrea is having a baby. And I got to help throw her a shower! Now, I am not a terribly crafty person. Really. No, really. I'm not. Put a computer in my hands and I am a happy girl. Give me a paint brush and some scissors and there will be tears. And blood. But, sometimes things have to be made in actual life, not just on the computer. This was one of those times. I was so excited to be asked to help with a baby shower, but since it was at my house, it seemed like it was most logical for me to do the decorating. Logical, yes. Easy, not exactly.

And because I am ever practical, it seems silly to me to make lots and lots of decorations just for one event, so I tried to think of things that could maybe be reused in other places. Like decorating the nursery. Andrea said she had a "Classic Winne the Pooh" theme for the nursery, so we went with that for the party as well. Sort of. I didn't want to go over the top with Pooh, more like create the feeling of the hundred acre wood, with hints of Pooh.

I made 5 pictures with Winnie the Pooh quotes and some coloring picture line drawings in PSE, printed them out as 5x7s, and stuck them in frames.

"As soon as I saw you, I knew adventure was going to happen."
"Let's begin by taking a smallish nap or two."
"Sometimes, said Pooh, the smallest things take up most room in your heart."
"How do you spell love? ~ Piglet You don't spell it, you feel it. ~ Pooh"
"One advantage of being disorderly is that one is constantly making discoveries."

They were displayed at the shower, and afterwards, Andrea got to take them home.

I also made an 8x10 print with the quote "You're just in time for a little smackeral of something." because I thought it was cute. I displayed that one with an easel on the food table.

I made lots of cute tissue paper flowers, hung them from the arch way, stuck them in vases, scattered them around the table. And then I decided that we needed bees. And I couldn't find any (okay, I found some to order, but the ones I liked cost an arm and a leg). So I made some, mostly using materials I had on hand - pompoms, pipe cleaners, felt, and hot glue. (I spent $.99 on a package of medium sized yellow pompoms because the package I had at home was multicolored and only had two yellow pompoms. Cuz I decided that red and green bees would be a little weird.)

Basically, I just wrapped a piece of black pipe cleaner around the pompom a couple times, and twisted the ends together. I used needle nosed pliers to twist the ends and to cut the pipe cleaners.

I cut wings from some white felt.

I hot glued the wings onto the pompoms, over the spot where I twisted the pipe cleaners together. Tada!

I thought about adding eyes and antennas, but I think they are cute just the way they are. (And best of all, I made 26 of them in about an hour for less than a dollar!) I wrapped some thin wire around some of them and wired them to the cupcake display, so they looked like they were buzzing above the cupcakes, and I hung some from fishing line so they looked like they were flying around some of the flowers in the archway. I also nestled some in the flowers on the table.

Maybe my craftiness is expanding. Maybe.

I  wanted to make a honey pot (how can you have Winnie the Pooh without a honey pot?), so I found an old vase that had the basic pop belly shape, and I painted it with acrylic paint. I learned a LOT about using acrylic paint on smooth glass. (Thin layers work better than thick. Lots of drying time between each layer. Patience is your best tool.) When it was all painted, I sprayed it with some sealer, and then added a piece of fabric and some jute to finish it off.

All in all, I had a great time helping with the shower. And I think it turned out wonderfully.