Lori's Baby Shower

My sister had been thinking of a baby shower ever since she got married (three years ago). Since she didn't exactly get the wedding she wanted (due to some cultural customs and superstitions on behalf of her in-laws), the baby shower was going to be big.

The guest list was about 80 people. I'd say that's pretty big.

Their wedding was pretty small (it started out as family only, and then eventually got bumped up to include some close friends), so for the baby shower, my sister wanted to invite everyone she couldn't invite to the wedding. It started off being simple... and then escalated into quite an ordeal! I will spare the details of the "OMG what is going on?" parts of the baby shower, and focus on the invitations at this point. Because I'd like to leave some events of that day locked back into that day.

I started doing some invite mock-ups for my sister in November and after some back and forth, we ended up combining various elements to form this:

My sister is all into the pinks,  browns and polka dots (good thing she was having a girl!) so after finally getting confirmation of the location of the event (it was supposed to be at their house, but in the end, it was held across the street at the church/school where my brother-in-law's nephews all attend, which ended up being much easier...!), 45 invitations had to be created and sent off by the end of the week. We went with a chocolate brown folder with a scalloped edge on the front and a pink with white polka-dots ribbon to break up the flatness of the brown... and adorned with a cute little silver charm with baby feet stamped into it (bought at Michael's). Adorable!

The invitation itself was printed onto white cardstock (actually I used sheets of Bristol paper) where I created various sized (and shades of pink) polka dots for the background. And then... more scalloped edges. And then the white sheet was double-sided taped onto a brown backing (same paper as the folder). I also made a smaller version to accompany the invite stating where they were registered. Yes, the phone number is blurred out, for their privacy.

The invitation and folder fit into an A6 envelope. Or maybe it was A7. Something like that.

And then for Thank You cards, I used some leftover pink wedding paper from Sherri's wedding, and cut into small 4-bar sized cards. And more scalloping. You'd think I'd be tired of scalloping with a pair of scissors. But I just couldn't help it. 

On it, I taped a piece of brown ribbon (from Michael's 3 for $1.00 sale) and with a Fiskar's "seal" punch, punched out little flowers from leftover brown paper. I found a random pack of old diskette labels in my drawer (yes, DISKETTES), and assuming I will never have use for them ever again, printed little "Thank You" on the same pink polka dot motif from the invites onto the diskette labels, and punched them out using a 1" circle punch. Then I peeled back the handy dandy sticky-backs and taped them onto the brown "flowers", and double-sided taped them all to the card.

After making around 80 or so of these cards, I then realized I should have made them as folded cards so my sister could write on the inside instead of the front. Oh well. She got free cards, couldn't argue with that!

*Apologies for the lighting in the photos... I do most of my work at night at my computer desk where my only source of light is this 10-year old desk lamp.