For my friends’ second baby, we picked a date for the shower last minute so I didn’t have too much time to put it together. So I focused on making a few special things they could keep if they wanted and some decorations to brighten up the space (our summer rental home). For the theme I was inspired by their son Eli who is super into puzzles these days - I wanted to make sure he had fun at the party.
For the decor I aimed to use supplies I already had leftover from other projects or something already around the house. To make this puzzle garland I cut out shapes from foam core that I’ve been hoarding and used my stash of craft paint to add the color and letters. The cord is a neon one from Studio Carta and it’s on sale! I hung a diamond shaped paper garland I’d made for a previous shower inside the house and used drop cloths as tablecloths. I probably should have ironed them!
Since our rental house doesn’t have any vases, I used a favorite technique of mine: making a decorative paper sleeve to fit over a plastic water bottle. You can use this technique to make a “vase” basically any shape you want. I cut out two of each puzzle shape and then used thin cardboard in 3” wide stripes, glueing around the edges of the puzzle pieces to slide over a bottle. I glued them together with hot glue and painted them in the same palette as the garland.
I always have a bin of random balloons and had some plastic dinos leftover from a recent Parents shoot so I turned these into decor for our windowsills. Instead of using helium I attached the balloons to a piece of white floral wire so they stood up. Eli really likes dinos too so he was into these.
I painted an illustration of their family for the invite, with them on the beach on Shelter Island where they spend every summer.
Instead of a guestbook I bought a big blank puzzle and painted the portrait on there as well. Then I put some markers out so guests could write the new baby a “piece of advice” on any puzzle piece they wanted. Eli went for the puzzle right away which was very cute. I got them a bin for the puzzle so they could keep it as a memory from the shower.
I used my digital cutter to cut out some puzzle shaped cards to use for tags, games, and food labels. I pulled the palette for the papers from the family portrait, using papers I had on hand. For a party favor I had a bunch of cute erasers also leftover from a shoot and I just stapled a puzzle tag on to close them in a striped paper bag.
At the time of the shower they didn’t have a name decided for the new baby, calling him Katani as a placeholder (I think it means “little one” in Hebrew), so we came up with a game to help them pick one. We provided some funny prompts for the name and had the parents choose a letter. Then guests wrote down a name for each prompt beginning with that letter. Everyone read out their answers and I wrote them on a puzzle shaped card to put in a bowl for Eli to pick the winners.
My friend Jo made a delicious chocolate peanut butter cake - here it is with the winning name Eli picked out for Katani: Joosbox Dunno. A great option for his parents to consider.
I’m definitely not a food stylist but I am extremely proud of how photogenic these potato “totkes” turned out. We made them by smushing two tater tots into one little tiny crispy plate and topping with creme fraiche, smoked salmon, and dill. My friend Eddie coined the name and executed this concept brilliantly. For the other food we made tasty mini snacks like lobster sliders, empanadas, and caprese skewers.
Hope you’re inspired to try some of these ideas!