book baby shower (and free printables!)

book shower by craftiness is not optional

If you couldn’t tell by now, I kinda love throwing parties. I’ve hit a good balance lately between minimalism and what I call “I’ve lost my marbles” party planning.

I dangled a baby shower tantalizingly in front of my sister (mostly to get her to come VISIT! haha!) and that took place a few weeks ago.

She’s worked as an editor for a few years, and we have long shared a love of books, so I knew what my theme would be!

BOOKS!

Let’s dive in, shall we?

craftiness is not optional

I hosted it in my backyard, and hung up a (teensy) fraction of my Little Golden Book collection on some twine. Also a little boy chalkboard art next to it!

craftiness is not optional

The favors were some gummi (book)worms…har har…I know you appreciate that punny joke. don’t act like you didn’t.

I made some quick labels and stuck them on some clear containers. I love these little guys!

craftiness is not optional

To go with the favors, some bookmarks with a sweet quote and bakers twine on top. (FREE printable DOWNLOAD ALERT)

craftiness is not optional

The full view of the LGB banner!

craftiness is not optionalI raided my house for cute children’s books and used them for decoration on the tables.

Also grabbed some white flowers from costco and stuck them in my milk glass vase collection. I love having fresh flowers at parties, even if they are few in number.

craftiness is not optional

craftiness is not optional

I grabbed this cool Orla Kiely numbers book (affiliate link) at Powell’s when I was visiting Kristin.

It is as awesome inside as the cover suggests. you should probably buy it. just sayin’…

craftiness is not optional

Alrighty! food table time!

Guys, yes. A book died for the sake of this party.

In my defense, it was an awful book, from what I could read while I was ripping pages.

I had to edit out some swear words…lol.

Anyways.

craftiness is not optional

I ripped out lotsa pages and stapled them together in columns, then to the fence.

Rag garland! SOO easy and cute. Below is a quick little tutorial for it, and all fabric was from my sponsor, The Fat Quarter Shop!

easy-rag-garland

craftiness is not optional

K. I saw this idea for writing the menu on the spine of (wrapped) books and had always LOVED it.

for the savories (I’ll link to the recipes here), we had:

hungry caterpillar fruit salad

chicken little salad sandwiches

strega nona pasta salad

3 little pigs in a blanket

green eggs & ham mini quiches (bacon and spinach…frozen)

craftiness is not optional

craftiness is not optional

craftiness is not optional

craftiness is not optional

I was lucky enough to thrift these amazing blocks also in Portland. The one on top had other funny sides, like a bald man, sunburn, yard sale, etc…haha!

craftiness is not optional

craftiness is not optional

oh and raygun. !!

craftiness is not optional

for sweets, we had:

good night MOON pies

madeline’s madeleines (costco)

big hungry bear chocolate covered strawberries

if you give a cat a cupcake

10 apples up on top hand pies

the cupcake recipe (mango and coconut) was from this book,(affl link) which was one that my sister worked on. FUN

craftiness is not optional

We dipped some of these madeleines in the almond bark after we dipped the strawberries, and…..let’s just say they didn’t make it to the tray. YUM!

craftiness is not optional

craftiness is not optional

I made some cute book plates for the guests to place in the books they brought ( in lieu of a card).

FREE DOWNLOAD ALERT!!

craftiness is not optional

For a fun little activity I printed out some alphabet pages that I put together in illustrator

(FREE DOWNLOAD ALERT) AM I ANNOYING YOU YET?

They are made for 8″x8″ photo albums, (affl link) and the guests had a lot of fun with them!….after some gentle prodding from me.

craftiness is not optional

Sadie did at least 6 of them, and she LOVED it. We have plans to make one for Ava together. She can’t wait!

Charlotte did a few too (that’s her apples up there)

craftiness is not optional

It was a great shower-perfect weather, great company, and lots of fun was had. I’ll post about her presents another day!

Comments

  1. This is amazing! Every party you throw us just amazing. Bravo!

  2. Laura J. says

    This is totally the best shower ever! All your parties are fantastic-looking, but this is pretty much the cutest thing EVARR!! I’m about to start yanking pregnant ladies off the street to plan showers for them!

  3. I don’t know how seamlessly the planning goes for you, but the end results always look as if it was entirely effortless! I love your party posts.

    You’ve got two favorites on your Little Golden Book garland – ‘The Saggy Baggy Elephant’ and ‘Pokey Little Puppy’ rival any great classics the world has every produced! haha

  4. So great , as always! Though I must say that your food names were a little twisted or something, lol. Poor little chicken little was sacrificed for chicken sandwiches, not to mention the three little pigs, hahaha!

  5. Fantastic party theme! I’m completely amazed at how perfect your parties turn out.

  6. Oh my gosh this is the cutest party ever!! Although I think that if all your parties ha! But seriously this party is just too cute!

  7. My favorite party theme! I going to try to have a baby… Just so I can have a party like this :-D.

  8. I LOVE this! I’m not fond of sacrificing books either, but I guess it’s a good thing if it’s a bad book… I’m just nervous I’ll miss something nasty in the editing and someone will accidentally read it! I love the LGB garland and the food names are cracking me up. =D Oh, and the blocks! Raygun and sunburn… wow. =)

  9. yay! fun to see this party come to life after seeing the master at work preparing for it! ๐Ÿ˜‰ those blocks were really an amazing find, as was the orla kiely book…so cool. you’re just awesome at parties.

  10. How fun! Everything looks so perfect, I bet you created lots of smiling faces. Good job.

  11. How delightful! You are the best party planner ever!

  12. People must line up for you to give them a baby shower! So cute.

  13. LOVE LOVE LOVE this.
    Book showers are my favorite! This could be the only theme ever and I’d be happy. ๐Ÿ™‚
    Everything is fabulous (as usual)- I LOVE your creative menu. Totally will be copying at some point.

  14. Soumashree says

    I am really curious as to what book that was?
    Love the idea wholeheartedly.

  15. Thank you Jess for the wonderful alphabet pages download.
    I’m gonna love working with these with my girls for their scrapbook albums… so many Ideas coming to mind as I type this up!

  16. what did you do for invites? I’m trying to put one together!

  17. Hi Jess! This is so cute! I’m featuring this post in a round-up about baby shower ABC books! May I use one of your images to link back to your site?

  18. what are the containers with the worms in them called? Such a great idea!!

  19. Hi Jess,
    Thank you so much for adding in a link to the PDF for the ABC book. I absolutely LOVE IT!!! I was wondering if there is a way you can either send me an editable version OR upload a NUMBERS addition to the book (1-10)? We have more than 26 guests coming to my sisters upcoming baby shower, and I know EVERYONE is going to want to participate. If you can, that would be AMAZING!!! If not, no worries! Thank you again for sharing!!
    Amy

  20. What Pattern is your table cloth with the triangles? I love the combination of colors!

  21. Thank you so much for all the wonderful ideas and the free printables!! I absolutely love everything you did and will be using a lot of it for my sisters shower.

  22. Thanks so much for the alphabet book! I added “Made with love by:” at the bottom of each page and we used it at my cousin-in-law’s baby shower this weekend. It was a hit! The only challenge was that many people thought they were supposed to write what “A is for” at the top of the page, not the bottom, even though we had examples on the table.

  23. Would you be able to add “Made with Love by” at the bottom to each ABC page? That would be perfect.

  24. Ashley McHugh says

    Amazing! Just lovely!! Where did you get those containers for the “book worms?” I am looking for something similar.

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