baby - Make It Beautiful! Make It Fabulous! Decorating Ideas for Your Baby Shower

Creating an atmosphere for the baby shower is another factor that makes a big difference between simply having people gather together and creating a fantastic celebration! Your decorations should of course stay consistent with your theme, including baby-related visuals, and at the very least include enhancements to your home that show your gathering is something special. This can be simple touches such as fresh flowers, nice table linens, and dishes and glassware that are not for everyday use. The following gives a list of ideas for enhancing any setting to make it creatively decorated for the special day of the baby shower. These ideas can be modified or enhanced to fit any budget. Home Based Baby Shower When you are able to hold a shower in someone's home, it naturally has a warm and inviting feeling. Try adding some of these decorative touches to transform a living room into a party room: 1. Add fresh flowers throughout the room. 2. Light votive candles for fragrance and soft lighting. 3. Set your buffet table with your best silver, china and crystal. 4. Set up a special "guest of honor" chair for the expectant mom to sit in while opening gifts. It can be enhanced by draping a baby quilt over the arms or back that can be given as a gift to the new baby. Showers Away From Home Unfortunately few people have homes with rooms large enough to gather more than a few dozen people. If your invitation list is larger than that, you'll need to consider another location. Sometimes church activity halls or other function rooms can be stark and unattractive, especially if they are usually used for other things like sports activities or dances. To make these types of rooms more festive and sophisticated try some of these tips: 1. Lower the ceiling with a false ceiling of white lights strung horizontally from one wall to the other about 9-12 feet from the floor. This can also be done with streamers or balloons. With the balloons, you would add just enough weight onto longs ribbons to have them float at that 9 foot ceiling level. Decorative baby items or those matching your theme can be added to the ends. 2. You want to ring the room into a cozy-room size for the number of guests you will have. Otherwise the enry of the party will not fill the room and it may have the celebration feel a little flat. By adding partitions (in addition to something to sort of lower the ceiling) that are decorated in your theme, you can turn a large activity hall into a large yet cozy room. 3. Use lamp light. Most large halls and function rooms have florescent lighting that is harsh and non-adjustable. Bring in lamps on end tables to create mood lighting that matches the activity. The end tables will also provide a place to put out appetizers around the room. 4. Use foliage. Potted green plants in varying heights can create a false wall to close in an extra large space. Intersperse them easels holding pictures for your games, or a poster with the fabric and paint swatches and theme of the baby's nursery for everyone to see. Some plants can be strung with white lights giving added lighting options. Decorating Ideas for Different Themes: Each theme beyond "baby" will lend itself to additional decorating ideas suited just for that theme. Location, time of day, and who is invited will also dictate what will work and what won't. I am just going to thorw out a few themes here, there are many others out there. 1. Mexican: Use sombreros to hang on the walls and as centerpieces for food tables. Lighting can be achieved with hot pepper shaped lights often found at stores during the summer months to use on a deck or patio. 2. Nursery Rhymes: Mother Goose can be the centerpiece for food tables, with favorite characters from the nursery rhymes, either in stuffed animal or picture form placed around the room. A book stand with a nice hard-cover edition of the nursery rhyme book can be placed on a table next to the seat of honor. The book then also becomes a gift for the new baby. 3. Ice Cream Sundae: An old fashioned ice-cream maker makes a nice centerpiece for a table with all the toppings laid out. With this theme, the baby items can be interspersed with the food theme of a sundae party. Tools for Creating Atmosphere We have already address how to create some atmosphere in a home or function hall, but there are several other products and tools in addition to plants, lighting and balloons that can help create a fun and inviting space for the baby shower. 1. Many computer software programs can create banners to decorate a wall in the room. You can also have them printed up at your local copy or quick print shop. They can handle larger sizes than a home computer, and will save you the cost of ink and paper that printing a banner can really eat up. 2. These same computer programs offer templates and clip art to create several baby-related printed products, including banners, invitations, thank you notes and gift tags. 3. Baskets are another great item for creating a decorative touch. They can have a sprig of silk flowers matching your color theme added to the handle, and they instantly become a place to hold gift cards, napkins and utensils, or anything else that needs to be gathered neatly. They also make decorative chip or bread bowls and filled with a green plant, a nice centerpiece for the gift table. Just relax, combine all the talents of the people around you, and be prepared. Don't wait until the last minute and everything should be fine. Need more tips to plan your fabulous baby shower? Stop by http://www.babynamesandyou.com for ideas on games, decorations, themes, food menus and more! Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Terri_Holland baby - Preparing for a Baby Shower Theme With any party event requires meticulous preparation. A baby shower is no exception. First and foremost, you should determine the theme of the party. Choose a theme that is fun and fits the parent's interests and personality. The more creative you get the more original the shower will be. You can choose from a favorite Disney character/movie to a nautical theme, religious, brunch theme or historical event. Theme ideas are endless and you should choose one that is appropriate. With a theme in place, it will be easier to choose the invitations, decorations, food, party favors and even games. When you choose a theme, stick with it. Changing a theme in the middle of the planning could prove to be costly. I've heard too many times, hosts changing the overall baby shower theme and to only find their costs doubling and are left with useless party supplies because they no longer fit the new theme. Decorations Once you decide on a theme for the baby shower, choosing decorations will be much easier. Decorations do not need to be over done. Depending on your theme, some common decorations used are balloons, streamers, banner signs and flowers. Decorations do not need to be expensive and with careful shopping, you can find some inexpensive decorations by creating them yourself, buying them in bulk or going to your local discount stores. If your on a budget and can't afford all decorations mentioned, than I highly suggest going with balloons. You can get a large number of inexpensive latex balloons inflated with helium. Balloons are excellent to adding color and filling up a room. Food Any good party doesn't go well without food. You have many food choices out there and you should choose foods that fit the shower theme if possible. You can serve anything from finger foods, chips, sandwiches, pizzas, pastas or any dish imaginable. Don't forget the sodas, punch, wine and desserts. Invitations Well, a party isn't a party without people. One of the most common ways to invite guests to a party is with invitations. You can send your invitations by mail give them in person or use the ever-growing Internet to send or make your invitations. Whichever method you use, you should send or give the invitations out at least one month prior to the party. This way, you allow your guests time to arrange their schedules and to select a gift for the party. There are many venues you can choose to make your invitations. You can go to your local party supply store and select one of their template designs. Remember the theme of the party while choosing a design. Add the party information and they'll send it off to their printer. If you're creative, you can design your own invitation or acquire the help of a graphic designer. Then have a printer print them or print them out on your home computer. Personally, invitations printed from a home computer usually looks cheap and unappealing. If it's in the budget, have the professional printer to print them. Favors Party favors are small gifts given to your guests showing your appreciation for participating in your event. Favors can be anything from chocolates and candles in the shape of baby bottles rattles and bears. Decorative boxes or sachet bags with gift items are also popular as well as, soaps, picture frames and figurines to name a few. Favors can range from a few cents to several dollars apiece. What ever your budget is, keep in mind there are many options for favors within various price ranges. Do your research and shop around. Games If you're going to have a party, then you will want your guests to have fun. Providing different game activities throughout the party are one of the best ways to get some laughs. There are many baby shower games out there and it is only limited by your imagination. Go to a search engine (Google, Yahoo, MSN) and type in "Baby Shower Games". You'll pull up many baby shower game ideas. Choose games that are appropriate and fun for your guests. It's always a good idea to give out little gifts to the winners of each game.