Gender Reveal

My sister is having her first baby. It is an exciting time as we await Baby Villanueva! My sister’s husband is in the Army and he was coming home one last time before his deployment to Afghanistan. Since it was too early to tell via ultrasound the gender of the baby we decided to try www.tellmepinkorblue.com, (as seen on Copper Anderson) a site where you can order a blood test to determine gender. The theme of the gender reveal party came from the name of the company: Pink or Blue. 

Centerpieces: I wrapped paper mache letters in pink and blue yarn. The BOY was wrapped in blue and the GIRL letters in pink. I also used two wooden boxes that I picked up at JoAnn’s for flowers. Each box took 2 dz. pink carnations. The picks in the centerpieces were designed by me. Milk glass vases also held some yarn pom-poms and pinwheels in pink and blue.

Favors: I made the whoopie pies with pink and blue filling and set them at each place setting. The boxes came from Etsy's PoshBoxCouture.

Desserts: Consisted of cake pops, cheesecake jell-o, cupcakes, pink and blue chocolate lollipops, sugar cookies, macaroons, and cotton candy. The cake was two tiered vanilla with strawberry buttercream, accented with blue pinwheels. All desserts were made by me www.sisterlylovebakeshop.com ;) The backdrop was made up of three foam boards taped and covered by pink felt, and two individual foam boards wrapped with blue wrapping paper. The banner was designed by me as well. Stripped straws for cotton candy and cupcake wrappers came from Etsy's isakayboutique. The chandelier cakestand came from Amazon.com by LampsPlus. 

Food & Drinks: Strawberry water made by me and my mom made Tamales.

I also purchased buttons from an Etsy store called cheapestbuttonsnet  that read TEAM PINK and TEAM BLUE.

Invite: Bunting clip art to design the invite came from Etsy's LillyBimble. 

Throughout the whole process I was the only one that knew the gender of the baby. To reveal the gender I purchased a 24x24 in box and filled it with balloons according to the gender. Then wrapped it like a present. Both my sister and brother in-law opened it at the same time to reveal a burst of pink balloons. IT’S A GIRL!!! We are overjoyed and cannot wait to meet baby Genesis Villanueva!

We recorded the box opening..my brother in-law's reaction is priceless...he was SURE he was having a boy. I will post it as soon as I find it :)

Pink/Brown Baby Shower

I was honored to be the host of one of my dear friends and co-workers. This was her first baby and I wanted to make the event beautiful and memorable. She had no idea what she wanted or what theme she should have. We came up with pink and brown for colors and we also wanted to incorporate baby feet into the theme. As soon as I had some direction I searched everywhere for inspiration and this is the end result.

I made paper chains using pink, brown, and white card stock. I created the It's A Girl hanging circles at the ends of the chains. I hung them from the ceiling all over the room. (I had to take out all of my furniture to accommodate for all the guests, and when I say we I mean my dad and brother). I also hung a set from Party City that included the pink streamers and the ball in the center of the room. I customized the ball and streamers by replacing the hanging circle from the ball, it was yellow, green, and pink , to one of the ones I made. Some tables had pink tablecloths with a brown runner and vice versa. Plates, forks, cups, and napkins were all pink or brown. A sweet baby foot cookie was at each place setting.

I also put together a candy buffet station. The "Sweets" banner that I made in Photoshop matched the invitations. All the candy was and cookies were pink and brown with a hint of white. I had malt balls, animal cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, Dove's Bliss Chocolates, and some pink and brown Mexican candy. The pink candy bags were personalized with a label and some of the jars had labels also. The baby feet pretzel rods were done using a Wilton Mold. I also used the mold to make the toppers for the cupcakes.

The centerpieces were created using pink and white carnations, baby's breath, and hot pink roses. The bubble vases were purchased at the dollar store and adorned with pink and brown ribbon. I set two vases per table for a total of 12 vases.

I made two cakes one left and one right baby foot. The cakes were made with the paisley Wilton Pan Set. One cake was filled with strawberries and the other with peaches. It was covered with PuraWhip. The baby foot designed was free handed and not too difficult to achieve. I decorated the cupcake stand with dangling crystal ribbon. The cupcakes were the mother-to-be's favorite, Pillsbury Funfetti. I used Purawhip to ice the cakes and topped them with baby feet made out of chocolate using a mold. I love how the balloons served as a backdrop and the ultrasound of Baby Mia made it just perfect. I scattered several frames of Baby Mia throughout the room.

Another item that item that is just too cute is this Pin the Pacifier on the Baby game. The baby and pacifier images were obtained online (cannot remember where) and i enlarged it in Photoshop and mounted in onto the pink foam board. Each pacifier had a number and a piece of double sided tape. This game was a hit!

All of these goodies I created in Photoshop. Some of the brushes I made using clip art and others I found free online. The invitation was one of the first things I made and everything else soon followed. The invite insert was one of my favorites. It asked each guest to bring diapers and wipes for a chance to enter a drawing for a cool prize. Then the raffle ticket was created to write down the name of each guest who participated. The candy bag labels were printed on sticker paper and punched with a scallop paper punch. The thank you tags for the cookies were also cut out with the scallop punch. The napkin wraps were used to wrap a pink and brown napkin and a fork. The candy buffet labels were printed on card stock and cut by hand, as well as the paper chain hanging decorations. I used Boring Showers font for every item from the baby shower.

Baby Shower Rattle Cake

This rattle cake was a last minute order. It was for a baby girl. I decided to go with a pale pink and bright yellow. Despite the time crunch it was a very cute cake.




1. The first step is to bake the cake and level it. I baked a 12 in and 6 in cakes.

2. In an electric mixer I whip the PuraWhip I use for almoslt all my cakes. (I love this because its light and the perfect sweetness to it) I pick this up at Smart&Final for about 3 dollars.

3. I wrapped a Wilton stacking tube with yellow ribbon and set it aside.

4. I sliced about 4 pints of strawberries..it was a pretty big cake.

5. Mix all your strawberries with about 4 cups of the whipped cream you just whipped.

6. Fill the cakes with the strawberry and whipped cream mixture. Not to the edges leave about 1/4 of an edge..that way when you frost it you dont get any strawberries spilling out. When you frost it then fill in the gap :)

7. Color your icing the desired color...this case pale pink. I used Wilton Rose Color.

8. Frost the cake...I use a piping bag 16-18 in ones from Wilton. I also use a large tip No. 789
to frost the cake...also a turntable is a must!

Finishing touches

Smooth it out..as much as you can. I added a shell border at the bottom and a star border on top. I also used a round tip to write It's a Girl! I also used edible pink pearls that I had to put on every star I made on the top. I also added them to the letters. I inserted the middle rod and tied a pink ribbon to finish it off.

Baby Shower

I recently helped my uncle plan his wife’s baby shower. I was in charge of the cake, invitations, and the decorations. I had several ideas and craft projects in mind for the shower and was delighted that he gave me all the creative freedom. I had to pull off all the projects on a very tight budget. Originally, the budget was $100.00, which had to be bumped up to $140.00. I know that it sounds impossible and it nearly was but lucky for me I had many of the materials already on hand.

The baby shower was a small event and it was co-ed. My uncle and his wife are expecting a baby girl, however she did not want an all pink baby shower. I had purchased some thank you cards in a shape of a baby’s bottle. These would be perfect. They have polka dots in yellow, green, pink, and purple. The invitation set the theme for the shower. It would be a baby bottle theme. They invitations are so cute but I had to think of something to cover up the thank you.

To make the invitations I used the Baby Bottle Thank You cards purchased at Wal-Mart. They are blank in the inside. I used a round 1 ¼” circle whole punch and a 2” scalloped circle punch to cut out circles in the matching colors of yellow, green, pink, and purple. I then took the 1 ¼” circle I whole punched and punched it again with a Martha Stewart safety pin punch. I really loved the way they came out. To jazz it up a little bit I added a self-adhesive pearl.

Since the cards are blank I printed the invite information on vellum paper and affixed it to the inside with brads in coordinating colors.

The inside read:
A Baby Girl is On Her Way,

Join us for her Mommy's Special Day!
Date:

Time:

Address:

The centerpieces were also part of the bottle theme. I bought size 1 Pampers Swaddler's the big box with 92 diapers. I used every single last one and if money wasn't tight I would have used two. I just liked how the diaper bottles looked with more diapers to a layer. I also bought washcloths at Wal-Mart. and used those to cover the diaper on top that makes the pacifier and also to make a the the cap for the bottle. There is three layers each with six diapers rolled up and rubber banned together. To cover the rubber bands I used ribbon in coordinating colors that I bought at Michael's. I made five of these in about 30 minutes very easy to make.

The Wreaths:

I used 14 diapers and a floral wreath that I bought at the Dollar Tree :). I fastened them with rubber bands and cover the rubber bands with bows of ribbon. I also attached huge pacifiers and rattles that I had used for my sisters baby shower almost a year ago. I'm so glad I had some of her stuff still to use because it saved on the budget. I used tulle to make a bow on top and also to add something to hang it by. I made two wreaths to hang on two huge trees that framed the outdoor space where the shower took place.

For each guests that arrived we would pin with these beauties. I bought the bottles, clothespins and safety pins from Michael's, the rattles I already had as well as the baby feet and baby hands. I used a glue gun to affix the pin to the back of the feet and hands. I also used a glue gun to attach the bows i made and then to attach the bottles, rattles, and safety pins to the bows. These are my favorite craft items that i made for this shower. They were so cute and everyone loved them.

For the Mommy to be I made this ribbon..Well I actually finished it. My sister was originally the one who was suppose to wear the pin but since i was busy with all the details of her shower I never finished it. I stamped a piece of paper with the mommy silhouette and also a Mommy To Be stamp I had purchased at Michael's at the Dollar Bins. I had purchased the buttons on orientaltrading.com. For the little sister I made a special button as well. I added confetti hands and feet stamped a scalloped piece of paper with a stamp of a bottle and added a sticker that said Sister. I embellished them with some of the items I had purchased at Michael's.

Now for the cake. This cake is my first attempt at carving and by far the biggest cake I have ever done. It took lots of batter, strawberries, lemonade cans (concentrate juice), and whipped cream (stabilized from Smart and Final). I baked about 8 10" cakes and 3 6" cakes. The 6" cakes were for the pacifier and the bottle cap parts. I cut all cakes in half and stacked them on their sides with strawberries and whipped cream for the middle. The cake was DELICIOUS. It has been the best cake I have ever made!!! It was lemon which got its flavor from the concentrate juice I replaced it for some of the water. I finished the cake with polka dots, just like the invitation. I wanted to recreate the invitation and I think I succeed the cake was a hit at the shower.

Another element that was inspired by the invitations was the baby bottle cookies. They are my usual sugar cookies. Iced with white Royal Icing for the bottle part, the cap was in iced in green, and the pacifier in a "ivoryish" color. Once the cookies dried (about 2 hours) I added the polka dots in the same colors as the invitation. I then wrapped them up and added a cute bow. I used these pails I bought at Target. I love Target they always have some great stuff. The cookies were also a hit!

The planning of this shower was a little stressful because of the budget and I only had a couple of weeks for planning, but it was also fun to plan and I am very pleased with how everything came out. I have s couple of baby showers coming up so keep on reading for some new ideas and fun stuff.