A pink and green baby shower

A dear friend of mine, Amy, announced that she was having a THIRD baby... and at that moment my wheels began turning. SHOWER. I wanted to host a baby shower for her! She had 2 boys and we just KNEW she just HAD to have a girl.

18 weeks came and I got the call from Amy (with my joy!) that she was expecting a girl!

Her nursery was done in pink and green and we decided to go with that color scheme for the shower.

It all starts with the invites (pink and green of course!)

The tables were simple. I used nice heavyweight wrapping paper (YES wrapping paper) for a table runner. Mums were in season so I grabbed a few big pots and cut them apart for these little vases running down the center of the tables.

Each guest had a place setting that looked like so. I meant to take a picture of the food! I was too wrapped up in entertaining and running games.

We served chicken crescent rolls (chicken salad inside crescent roll puffed pastry that you bake - it looks like its all wrapped up - so pretty!) Spinach salad with almonds and mandarin oranges and a poppyseed dressing. Homemade organic cranberry sauce. (This was a fall shower). We also had artichoke and cheddar cheese quiche for appetizers.

Edit to say - I found a pic of a group where the food was showing (a little!) Here is the cropped picture. It had been dug into already. You can see the chicken crescent puff and the salad, and the mini quiche. (All homemade!) Pink punch was served w/ limes (pink and green!)

We played several games. Guess the baby animal name game.. the winner won a (cutely wrapped) glass polkadot embossed serving dish. We had 6 winners total!

Guess the number of jelly beans in the bottle (pink and green beans, of course!) The 3rd game was the baby price is right. (guess the cost of the baby items)

I made cookies (my mom had the perfect cookie cutters, of course!) Baby bibs and baby carriages. Pink and green ;-)

Sweet station! I made red velvet cupcakes and I made them more "pink" than red. Adorned the homemade cream cheese frosting with pink and green m&ms.... totally fit the theme!

Makes me want to eat one now!

And of course, being the partyzilla I am, I always HAVE to have a special desert for the guest of honor. Amy got a huge red velvet cake for herself! Note - she did NOT eat the whole thing! HAHA!

Favors - my all time favorite part of the party. Since we did a good number of winner gifts, I decided to do cookies with luggage tags! Each guest had a luggage tag wrapped around their cookies in a cute cellophane bag.

www.andersruff.etsy.com - we sell luggage tag designs. For $15 we will design a cute tag and even customize the front and back of the design (front with name, back with phone number or whatever you want). Kinkos has laminating stations where you can do about 6 per sheet of heavy laminate. ($1.99 per sheet!) Its a GREAT way to personalize a favor and a great keepsake!

Since her shower... she welcomed her perfect little baby girl! Zoe!

We designed her birth announcements. Here they are!

She used our printer for the announcements, so of course we got to create a matching backside (since all printing INCLUDES full color front and back!)

FRONT:

BACK:

Zoe is just the sweetest little girl ever!!!

If you are interested in the announcement style (we can change it for a boy, too) - we have it on our etsy shop. www.andersruff.etsy.com

We also have luggage tag designing for sale (ANY theme or party we can come up with a design):

http://www.etsy.com/shop/andersruff?section_id=6757262

A pink and green baby shower

Roxanne's Adorable Monkey Party

A Monkey Party - Ooo Ooo Ahh Ahh!!

Roxanne recently hired us to do her favor luggage tags for her son's monkey party. She shared pictures with me, and I knew I had to share them with you all! She has some really adorable ideas!

Here are her 2 adorable boys. Just had to share those!


First of all, see how over the top her decorations are? She got a WALL cling to decorate. So cute and it just happens to be her room matches the decor! ;-) Her table looks so YUMMY, too!

She served plantain chips, blue m&ms and yellow candy in small dishes. She even dug into the fruit loops to take all the blue and yellow loops out of the bag for a snack food display. She had cute skewers with strawberries, cheese and chocolate donut holes!


The table is adorned with adorable blue/yellow/brown and polkadot motif everywhere! How cute!


You can see how cute the plates are - Monkeys! Centerpieces had bananas and monkeys!


Adorable pics of her son were matted in matching colors. Check out the cute cups she used! SHE MADE them! Wow- amazing! She shared the instructions with us at:

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/party-decorating-ideas-animal

She filled them with.... you guessed it - BANANA pudding!
The sweetest part.... the cupcakes and cake! Banana runts on top of the cupcakes and look how perfectly the cake matches all of the motif!




Roxanne had us make boy and girl versions of favor tags that double as luggage tags. The girls are shown below.

The front is the child's name and the cute monkey. The back has the mom's name and phone number. These are a great and GREEN way to reuse a favor tag. Pop that little luggage tag onto your child's bookbag, lunch bag, etc and jazz it up while being useful!
Favor Luggage tags make a GREAT favor, or part of a favor. Roxanne did cookies and tied them shut and added the luggage tag to personalize the favors.
And here is the boy version of the tag...tied onto a cute little monkey cookie!


Luggage tags are EASY, too. Here is our listing for the favor tag design.
Easy - 1) purchase the listing on etsy 2) print 3) laminate (kinkos has a laminating station and its CHEAP - like $1.99 for a sheet that you can fit 6-8 tags on), 4) punch a hole and tie onto your favor!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/andersruff?section_id=6757262

The link above takes you to our custom area of the shop. Look for the luggage tag listing. We show a few samples, but can make any design for any theme!

Great job, Roxanne!!!

We LOVE showing party ideas on our blog. You can be featured on our blog - ESPECIALLY if you purchased designs from us, so please share! ;)
andersruff@gmail.com
Thanks!

Roxanne's Adorable Monkey Party

Happy 100th Order! Free Design Giveaway Drawing for Clients who order in the next 24 Hours!

5 PM Pacific Time is when the entry ends...

WINNER IS.... (Drumroll!).... beckymahaney! Congrats Becky!

Happy 100th Order! Free Design Giveaway Drawing for Clients who order in the next 24 Hours!

Jeffrey's 3rd Birthday - A Sport Theme

We went for an all sports themed party for Jeffrey's 3rd Birthday back in 2008. I didn't take as many pictures as I wish I would have! (oh the things I have learned in the past 2 years!)

At our etsy shop, www.andersruff.etsy.com , we just came out with a sports themed party invitation that we think is different than the rest!

Below are a few samples of the style. You pick your motif/sport icon, decide if you want a photo or not, and choose any colors you want and we create a custom invitation to match your theme!

Basketball sample:

Soccer:


Football:


SO many options!
Here are the motifs (If you dont see one that suits your needs, just ask and we will create!)


A client sample:

Here is a sample of a client's entire design for her son's football party:
(info changed)
Football Invite (She had the photo on the football helmet)

We also do custom logos, if you have seen in our previous blog entries. Here is a sample of what we did for this client's address logo:

We also had a custom request for luggage tags that the client could use for her favor tags. We came up with boy and girl versions for her son's "football" themed party.

Here is the girl version (cheerleader!)


and the boy version:

We sell custom luggage tag designs at our etsy site. You choose the theme, we do the design and customize with your guest's names/ mom phone numbers.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/andersruff?section_id=6757262

Its so easy to create a nice looking luggage tag. Here are the steps:

1) Order your design on etsy

2) Send us your customization info (names/#s) and theme request.

3) We put together a proof for you to review and request changes.

4) You get the high resolution file and can print at home or at a local printer (kinkos, etc)

5) Cut out the luggage tags and laminate! Kinkos sells laminating paper for around $1.99 for a sheet that is 8.5x14 (which would fit about 8 luggage tags!)

6) Punch the hole and you are done! Strap it onto a cute cookie or favor and the guests will be sure to rave about them!

Its a GREEN way to use a personalized tag on a favor - and everyone can always use luggage tags for bags, backpacks, lunch boxes, etc!

Back to the party:

Jeffrey's sport party was a HIT! ;-)

Start with the sweet stuff... The fun cakes that I made. 4 Cakes! (Golf ball is not shown here)

Here is the table with the "goodies". I made baseball, tennis ball and basketball shaped cookies and cupcakes. Then I made a golf ball, tennis ball, basketball and tennis ball cake.. all positioned on a football field table cloth. We had plates that were baseballs and footballs.

We had popcorn (like at a ball game!) and served hotdogs in those cute red/white striped trays. I had pennants all over (here it says "Jeffrey is 3")

This was a HOT day.

Outside tables (It was SUPER hot out there!) The bouncy house got hot to the touch and the kiddies couldn't even play on it!

We had the baseball pinata (which was a HIT, no pun intended) under the tent. The kids LOVED it!

Jeffrey takes a hit!

The kids were so hot, the fruit cups were a great way to cool off!

Favors are my favorite part of the party planning!

We had velcro ball mitts for the boys and whiffle ball/baseball bats for the girls!

This would have been a great place to use our party luggage tags for the favors! Also, use a party logo to top the bag of cookies off!

I didn't forget the "sweet spot" ending.... cookies for everyone (Packaging says "good game!") and Big League chew for the adults!

We had Duke and U of Michigan pennants, too! Supporting J and my alma maters!

The colors worked out well - blue and yellow for Michigan (my alma mater!) and blue and white for J (Duke alma mater!). The blue wasn't as dark as I would have liked, but oh well! I learn something new with each party!

I had signs all over (not pictured - why didn't I take more pics!?) - the front door said "batter up!", the back door headed inside said "time out"... and lots of others! So fun!

Overall, his party was a HIT!

Pierson was sleeping the WHOLE party... poor guy wasn't even in our family photo!

Jeffrey's 3rd Birthday - A Sport Theme