She’s About to Pop!

Well, the day finally came. My friend Kortney was feeling better and ready for her shower. The official date ended up being on the same weekend as my yard sale, so it was a little crazy at my house for a couple of days. Fortunately for me, my adorable thirteen-year-old niece Ashtyn was able to stay with us and help. Thank God for summer break! Having my niece out of school and available to watch the girls and stay up into the wee hours baking with me is great. And we’re making memories; even if I am slave-driving her to frost cupcakes and hot glue till her fingers blister. But I do have to say; What is it with these teenage girls? I remember trying to stay up all night with my girlfriends when I was their age, my nieces are wiped out by 11:30 pm. Seriously? Apparently you’ve got to be tough to hang with Aunt Jenny.

The shower was set for Sunday afternoon and the weather cooperated perfectly. Because it had to be rescheduled a couple of times, half of the party guests couldn’t make it. But when it was all said and done, we had a great time. Even if Kortney had lost her voice the night before and couldn’t talk. No joke.

My friend and her husband are one of “those” couples who don’t find out the sex of their babies. It kills me! Five months of suspense is all I can handle, and I couldn’t imagine having to wait till the baby was actually born. I am so grateful for advances in modern technology and ultrasounds, because I don’t know what I would do if I HAD to wait ten months! I can handle surprises, but this isn’t one of them. So with the baby a mystery, I had to go with a theme that wasn’t girl or boy centered. After a little research online, I found some inspiration and a great shower was in the making. The theme I went with was “She’s About to Pop,” and that meant that all things would be literally “POPPING,” from the decor to the food.

Here was my first source of inspiration:

This great blog called Glorious Treats had all the goods, down to the fine details. I loved that she made labels for all of the food and drinks to really make the theme cohesive. Bright colors that were fun and a little bit feminine too. Check out her blog, there are a lot of great pics. And by the way, her name is Glory. How cool is that?

My number two was Eight Crazy, the Blog. I fell for her starburst design and wanted to incorporate that into the baby shower labels.

And here is another blog I found. This is Pen n’ Paper Flowers,

Jess did a bubble theme to go with her shower. I really loved her dessert table and again with the labels. I don’t know what it is about using labels, but the extra effort just makes everything look so refined.

After playing around on Publisher, this is what I came up with:

I used several fonts, including a handwriting font for the food titles, and for the POP!, I found the greatest FREE font online from www.1001freefonts.com. It’s called Chipperfield and Bailey. I love it! It is fun and circus-y. And yes, I did do a similar starburst design using images from the publisher clip art. I layered several flowers in different colors and made one long skinny sideways triangle to do the tag line. Loved it!

Jess’s pop theme challenged me to find some fun treats that “Pop.” She made fun Jello poppers, mini pop shots with pumpkin mousse, and the list goes on. After I researched how much it would cost to buy a bunch of shot glasses (a small fortune and WAY over my budget), I had to rethink things. Plus, what do you do with 50 shot glasses after the party? Don’t answer that. I even tried the dollar store for plastic shooters and all they had were neon tiki shot glasses on necklaces and test tubes. I was thinking more along the lines of “Welcome, little baby,” not “Hey guys, we’re going streaking at the quad” (name that movie). Scratch the shot glass idea.
I did like that they all served popcorn. I planned to have several flavors and when I ran my idea passed Kortney’s mom who was helping, she said, “Well, my husband and I make kettle corn. We have a business.”

Can you say PERFECT?

So, for the menu I planned to serve:

*Flavored POPcorn
*Rice Crispy treats (snap, crackle, POP!)
*POPcorn cupcakes, I found this recipe just in time from Kraft, Yay!
*Flavored Soda POP (the Cost Plus kind, yum)
*Mini tart thingys that I love and make for every occasion. They’re small and POPpable (maybe a little stretch).
*I also served Cheese bread with green chilis since I had so many sweet treats. And Kortney’s mom made her favorite dessert,
*Angel food cake with Strawberries. Quite a spread for the little party.

With the food planning out of the way, it was time to work my magic. I LOVE to decorate! In fact, I LIVE to decorate.

I wanted decorations with lots of color that popped. Since I wasn’t going with bubbles, I opted for a flowery, “bursting” look. I started by making a ton of medallions out of scrapbook paper in all different sizes and color combinations. I used tulle and ribbon too, they added extra dimension and really helped them to POP! These are super trendy right now and easy to make, maybe I’ll do a tutorial…hmmm. I used them everywhere. Tables, walls, chairs, food. Everywhere.

I also made a diaper cake and embellished it with the medallions. I had always wanted to try one and this was perfect timing. Guess what? They are super easy to make. I found this gogle video tutorial. It shows you how to arrange the diapers using a fan method instead of individually rolling and assembling each diaper. CAKE. Literally.

I really enjoyed making all the decorations and was so pleased with how they turned out. Here are a few pics:

They stripey fabric on the table is a curtain panel that I bought for the girls’ room a few months back that I haven’t hung up yet. I love it when that happens.

I used my Cricut to make the letters on the banner. And the circles: Paper plates. I bought extra to use for mounting the letters. They worked great.

Can I tantalize your taste buds with a few treats?

My niece worked tirelessly cutting and assembling mini marshmallows for the popcorn effect on the cupcakes. She gets the credit for the cupcake picks too.

I made paper cones out of six-inch squares in all colors to house the popcorn. Three flavors. I bought bagged popcorn at Cost Plus and this was way too easy for how cute it turned out. Kettle corn too!

Snap, Crackle, and POP!

Here are the mini tart things. It is a variation of this recipe. Again, another winner from Kraft. I first used this Firecracker recipe on the 4th of July. Instead of Nilla wafers, I make a graham cracker crust and press them into mini muffin tins. Decadent. It is so rich and creamy. I don’t know if I like the Pistachio or vanilla best. Yes I do; pistachio all the way! You could always shove a Nilla wafer into the bottom of a mini cupcake wrapper and top with the filling if you are short on time. It’s pretty much a tool to get the filling into your mouth anyway.