{Part 2} Nautical Baby Shower Invitation and Games

Front

The theme and invitations were the first detail we put together. Even before my sister knew her baby was a boy I had already created the invite in Photoshop and had started to gather pins on my Nautical Party Pinterest board. You can imagine how elated I was when we confirmed it was a boy and that my sister OK the theme. 

Back

The invitation was a  3" square with two sides and included an insert business card size. The front of the insert was in English and the back in Spanish. I printed them through Pro Digital Photo. They are awesome, great quality, and fast turnaround. 

Diaper Insert 

If you have never checked out Paper Mart you are missing out. It is my go to site for packaging and other party related needs. I decided to box the invites in a 3.5x3.5 red jewelry box (product number 4563033) added some yellow shred  and finished them off with a white cording (469931010) from Paper Mart as well.

All dolled up.

 I also ordered these cards which we made into scratchers. We followed a Pinterest tutorial to make the scratcher "paint" I don't know what else to call it. Its a 2:1 ratio of Silver Metallic Paint and Dawn liquid soap.

We played the Guessing game in which we also filled a giant baby bottle we picked up at JoAnn's and filled it with 274 Swedish Fish candy. I couldn't find it in bulk so I bought 18 of the movie size candy boxes to fill it. (I wish I had pictures of it but with all the things I had to do it slipped my mind) The guests recorded their guesses on these cards that I printed. Again the cards were in both English and Spanish. 

Games 

Guessing Game- Guess the number of Swedish Fish in Giant Baby Bottle.

Scratcher- Who ever had the word Baby Eli won.

Feeding Game- 3 pairs compete to see who can finish a baby food jar the fastest. Feeder is blind folded.

Pour it up Pour it up- That's what I called it because I like Rihanna's song ;) You take 3 bottles and fill them up with juice or another drink and whoever is the first to drink it all wins. I used the medicine cups that have the bottle nipple attached to them, which I purchased at the 99 cent store. 

Dress the Baby- I bought three huge babies at Walmart (11 dollars each) and purchased three sets of clothes at the 99 cents store. A baby hat, socks, onesies, and diapers. Whoever dresses the baby first wins. 

Guess Mommy's Tummy- E

ach guest cut a piece of string the size they though my sister's tummy was. The closest without going over wins.

Bingo- Created Bingo cards in Photoshop and used these cute pencils to check off the boxes. I ordered the pencils from a this seller on Ebay. She is amazing! Fast shipping and great quality. 

Bingo Cards

Golf Pencils Jeremiah 1:5 Yup, just  Tim Tebowed it ;)

We handed out the Nautical Boutineer pins to each of our guests. I LOVE this ribbon also from Paper Mart (5828072). I cut 14" long strips, folded in half, tied a nautical knot and hot glued a pin to the back to attach. 

Phewwww that was a long post. Hope you enjoyed some of the details. I will be posting the tablescape details soon so please stay tuned!

{Part 1} Nautical Baby Shower Dessert Table

I know my blog is about baking and awesome cakes but I have to share the events that I am am so blessed to host. My sister is having her second baby and its a boy! My sister has a gorgeous daughter who is soon to be 5 years old so it was a long time coming for their second bundle of joy.

All images were taken by me with my Canon Rebel T4i and using the 50 mm 1.8. Today I am going to give you a closer look at the dessert table. I tend to go overboard but we had limited space and ended up going with some simple items. Some of the items are store bought since I was extremely busy with the cake and hosting the whole event. 

On the dessert table we had yellow and navy blue chocolate cake pops on swirl straws by moi. My sister Nadine, she is my brave soldier and in this battlefield of cake, made the chocolate covered marshmallows and rice crispie treats. The lemon little cakes were store bought as well as all the candy. We had lemon heads, sugary strips, peach flavored gummies, red vines, and mint lifesavers. We even had cute little bags for guests to take their goodies in. 

The cake that I designed was the centerpiece of the dessert table. My sister came to me with different ideas and I love the way it came out. I feel like I am progressively getting better and each cake I make challenges my skills. Some of my favorite details is the mini sailor baby, the ship wheel, and the sail boat. Everything on the cake is completely edible.

Two of my favorite details were the onesie cookies my niece decorated for her baby brother Eli. The look great alongside the anchor, sailboat, and onesie cookies that I made.

Well that is is for the dessert details stay tuned for the tablescape pictures and other details.

Halloween?

This past Halloween I made some cupcake toppers for a party of one of my friends. This was the first time I had ever done anything Halloween related. I hope you enjoyed this flashback to October 2011 ;)

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 :)

It's My Time and a Safari Birthday Cake

Hi everyone! I want to share some special news! I was chosen to participate in the Citi Bank's, "It's Your Time: An Entrepreneurial Training Series for Women who are partnered with the Inland Empire Women's Business Center. The purpose of the program is to acquire the necessary knowledge to put together a business plan. I have to go through a series of workshops and webinars. I have also been taking my little sister Nadine. Hopefully once we complete Culinary School (Pastry Chef Program). We have gotten the necessary skills to go operational. Plus there's the little pesky problem of FINANCING. Our business plan will be build upon the idea of creating a cake design studio, preferably somewhere in my area. Since for now it will be a fictional business we are thinking of Redlands. This little dream of ours has to be developed and it will take some time, and by that I mean several years. But all dreams start somewhere and well here we GO!

Now lets talk cakes. This cake took me forever! But I loved it. It was for my sister's best friend's son. Sorry for the blurry pics this was my phone :( I forgot my camera. The cake also look glossy because it started to rain and the cake was initially outside. 

The tree had the mommy's inital and her son's carved into the tree. I wish you could see it. The money and lion were the easiest to create. I used fondant and tylose to accelerate the drying process. There are a few tutorials that you can look at on YouTube that deal with gumpaste/fondant animals. 

Thanks for reading :)

Pink and Brown Baptism Cake

This cake was for a little girl named Jayleen. I love all the little details such as the banner, stripes and the  roses a la Colette Peters, Check out the video below :) for a tutorial. I rolled out some fondant and used a lace mold to get the lace effect on the cross. 

Thanks for reading! 

Baby Shower Cakes

I haven't been posting for a while. I need to finally put some effort into this blog. I love baking and there is no reason why I shouldn't share my creations for all of you. I am going back into my files to find pictures of cakes I have been doing. I hope that you are able to see my progression in skills and also in photography. I have to learn to take better pictures of my stuff!

I get a lot of requests for baby shower cakes. I particularly like designing for the little girls but lately the boys have grown on me ;) I hope you enjoy the images!

I made this cake for one of my friends who plans parties. The theme of the cake come from this website it is from a collection called Modern Baby Girl Caucasian (this name is a little weird if you ask me). The baby on top is made of rice crispy treats and fondant. some of the accents also have pink luster dust to add some sparkle and contrast in the pinks. I also hand rolled all of those yummy soft edible pearls. 

My dear friend from church and my sister's sister in law, had her baby shower not to long ago. She requested a Cherry Blossom Theme. Besides baking I love to plan parties and this is one of the parties I planned. The dessert table was so cute. It had cupcakes, some old fashion suckers, and and assortment of cookies and candy. 

The cake was a a two tiered vanilla cake with strawberry filling. I used the Wilton's Cherry Blossom silicone mold. 

The baby bums have been very popular and I have had several requests. The diaper part was made with half of the ball pan from Wilton. The legs are rice crispy treats covered in fondant. 

This one is a single tiered and only blue and pink.

 This one is two tiers blue and brown. 

Thanks for reading!