When the time comes to plan an event as special as a baby shower the first thing that most people try and figure out is what theme to choose. At Candles and Favors we have lots of unique baby shower themes to choose from and truth be told we all have our favorites. But one that is consistently at the top of all of all of our lists and is chosen quite often by our customers’ is the build a library baby shower theme. This relatively new baby shower theme was introduced in 2014 and was inspired by a customer’s request as so many of our themes are.
When we set out to design this theme our creative staff brainstormed and unanimously decided on an old and weathered looking library card as a true symbol of classic literature with trips to your local library and of course those special memories of reading your favorite children book to your special child. The only thing we couldn’t figure out was the “old book smell”. Many of our themes are fun and cute and based on plays with words such as our ready to pop, or our cute as a button and the ever popular a star is born. But the real benefit to this theme is that all of your guests can help build the soon to be born babies library with all of the children’s books that made them feel magical when they were young. The other really cool thing about these gifts of literature is that they will keep giving for years to come as the child gets older they will have physical books to have, hold and pass on to their children some day. This is a really big deal in a world that is quickly moving away from any kind of physical media and opting for digital everything. Just our opinion 😉
We are often asked by our customers’ for ideas when planning their library card baby shower so we thought this would be a great opportunity to create this blog post and give all of our readers some ideas. When we started planning this event we decided to go outside the norm and choose children stories that may not be as commonly used and a more old school approach. The benefit to this is that it will be a little more interesting to the invited guests and maybe even expose them to some classic stories they may have forgotten about. The point here is to choose your favorite children stories and have fun with it.
All of the decor featured in the following photos were purchased from craft stores such as Michaels and JoAnn as well as some thrift stores. We always can find inexpensive items that are just wonderful and interesting. Nothing shown here was expensive and the items that we crafted were very easy to make with very little supplies required. We also integrated some of the favors, stickers and labels we offer in this theme as well as our custom printed library card baby shower invitation. We have given some food ideas some are even based on the stories chosen but we find that everyone has their own favorites not to mention you may need to consider any special food requirements that some of your guests may have.
The children’s stories that we chose for this event are:
(Click each for more information)
Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Alice in wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Rumplestilskin collected by The Brothers Grimm
Frog Prince by The Brothers Grimm
So without further adieu we will show you what we came up with!
There are many unique and crafty things we did with this party. We will take you step by step so you can achieve the same results we did.
The following framed piece was the centerpiece of the table. We love how this turned out. This diamond in the rough was purchased from our local thrift store. We used a little spray adhesive on a piece of cardboard and added the burlap for a nice base color and a little texture. The letters “BABY” are paper mache which we purchased from Joann Fabric. We painted the edges of each letter brown and
mod podged pages from a Peter Rabbit children’s book onto it and hot glued each letter to the cardboard. This is an inexpensive project that really adds that three-dimensional wow effect. This also can be given to the mommy-to-be as a gift for the babies nursery as a keepsake.
We always try to integrate the decor and food so that the two are seamless on the table. Our thought here is that both should complement each other. As you can see from this picture we have healthy and vegan covered with some fresh veggies including carrots and strawberries which we pulled from Peter Rabbit. The strawberries are in a porcelain container which we picked up from our local JoAnns Fabric Store. The fresh vegetables were cleaned and placed in a wooden crate that we purchased from Michaels. Lastly the delicious olive oil came from the
Temecula Olive Oil Company. To give our guests an idea where we got the food idea from we added the book cover in an inexpensive frame from the thrift store. To the right you will notice some yummy homemade scones which pairs perfectly with the Mad Hatters tea party from Alice in Wonderland (it wasn’t too long before they were all eaten!).
We labeled the different stories with our table confetti affixed to a small handmade book.
To go along with the scones, we also made some delicious tea sandwiches that we cut in the shape of hearts with our easy as pie sandwich press that we bought at Target. This is a tool that can be used for so many different things including our children’s lunch!
You will also notice some mushrooms, tea cups and, of course a large pocket watch!
(I’m late! I’m Late! O-Dear I’m Late!)
For a little ambiance, we affixed pages from some children’s books to some mason jars and we added some tea lights for a warm flickering glow. We added a three-dimensional effect by adding some paper mache flowers with some jute twine.
Right below that we have placed some matching build a library themed bookmarks complete with a twine string and handmade tassels. These were easily made with pages from a book and a scissor.
(Caution One Book Was Harmed During The Making of This Blog Post!)
For a sweet treat we provided some strawberry flavored
personalized lollipop favors. We wrapped the box which converts to a stand that the suckers come in with some pages of a book, are you seeing a theme here?
We used a
personalized library card 2-inch square stickers as a bookplate for our invited guests. Are you are wondering what a
bookplate is? A bookplate is a small label usually located on the inside front cover where one enters the owners name. Our guests were instructed to bring a book as a gift to help build the new babies library; now they can write a small personalized message that the parents and child can reflect on for many years to come.
Not to toot our own horn, we have some pretty talented staff members. Our MVM (most valuable member) PJ wrote this poem for the table:
Take just a moment,
A second to look
Did you remember
To sign your book?
Your gift is special,
It comes from the heart,
We want baby to know
Where their memories start.
Take a sticker,
Write your name,
A short note too
So baby will know
This book is from you.
This vintage looking pinwheel utilizes pages from a book and in the center is a
build a library personalized table centerpiece with the base used to make it stand on the table removed. If you would like to see how to make this here is a great tutorial, thanks to
Ela Claire Inspired for the idea! Everything you see here except for the centerpiece came straight from the thrift store, even the books!
My favorite piece out of everything we did is the door wreath. We followed a great video tutorial from
Jenna’s Studio it was super simple to follow and really fun to watch. You can check out Jenna’s video on youtube
here.
This is truly one of our favorite themes. To recap, we really like the old world or vintage feel. We love the fact that you are
building the babies library. The skies the limit as you could choose any children’s story you like. Did we mention you can use this theme for any occasion including graduation, bridal showers and birthdays. We have printed and shipped them for all themes. Throwing a soiree like this does not need to break the bank or take months to do. As we mentioned above most of the items here we purchased at our local craft stores or at our favorite thrift stores with coupons and or on sale.
Do you have a greta idea for a craft, food or decoration we missed?
Help out others and inspire us by leaving a comment with your idea, suggestions or feedback!
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