"PEAS IN A POD" (Part 5)

Prizes and Favors, Oh My!


These are the pails that used as my prizes for my best friend Julie's baby shower. I created over 30 of these little pails -- I wanted to have enough for one for each of my guests, just in case. And it was a good thing that I did, as I only had a couple left by the end of the shower! (I gave away a lot of prizes during Baby Gift Bingo...)

Luckily they were super-easy to create. I purchased the pails from Target's wedding favor section (on clearance - Yay!). I printed out my sentiments on yellow cardstock and used two different size punches to create my circles. Then it was simply a matter of punching a hole through each tin with my handy-dandy Crop-A-Dile (so easy -- just watch out for flying metal pieces!) and attaching my circles with a piece of ribbon.

I filled each pail with a combination of kiwi and green apple jelly beans or light and dark green M&M's, to give my guests a choice of candies. I also used food-safe plastic bags to hold my candy, as I could not be sure that the pails themselves were food-grade quality.


These were the "Two Peas in a Pod" favors that I gave to each of my guests. Sorry for the glare -- I probably should have taken at least one of them out of its bag... The "peas" are actually Lindt truffles wrapped in green foil. I created the "pea pods" using light and dark green crepe paper and green twist-ties. I got this wonderful idea from Amy's "good to be girl" blog. Thanks Amy!

For my bag toppers, I used the same graphics and fonts that I used on my game cards. For added interest, I had the "stem" of my "pea pod" extend beyond the fold. I simply trimmed that small section with my craft knife before scoring and folding my cardstock. I then inserted my "pea pod" into a candy bag, stapled my bag topper (back only) to the bag, and used some adhesive to hold down the front of the bag topper to the bag. I did this to avoid seeing the staples on the front.

"PEAS IN A POD" (Part 4)

Games, Games and More Games!


Here are the game cards that I designed for my best friend Julie's baby shower. I planned a few activities for the event. The first one was a jelly bean count. I filled two inexpensive baby bottles with jelly beans and allowed my guests to fill out their entries throughout the shower. I then gave away the bottles of jelly beans as the prizes. For the cards themselves, I again used the same graphic that I used for my shower invitations, however I decided to make it more three-dimensional with some shading that I added in Photoshop.


I got the idea for my second game from Scrapbook Trends Magazine's Babies publication. In this game, I instructed my guests to rank 10 activities based on how they thought the mom-to-be would rank them. I then gave a prize to the person with the most matches. For consistency, I used the same graphics and fonts on all three of my games cards.


My final activity was Baby Gift Bingo. Each guest received a game card and a pen. Then, as Julie opened each gift, the guests crossed off squares if the gift matched. In order to win, a guest would have to mark off five squares across, down or diagonal. (Tip: If you plan on hosting a similar game at your shower, have plenty of small prizes as I had many winners with this activity!)