A Magenta and Gold Baby Sprinkle

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently had the pleasure of planning a good friend’s baby shower. This is Amy’s second child, so technically this is a baby sprinkle. I teamed up with Christina of the Crooked Twig, and we had a blast feeding off each other’s creativity. I focused on food and decorations, while Christina did invites, graphic design, and activities. We both did a little bit of everything though. Christina pitched in with decor and food, and I added some input on activities. It was a great collaboration.

The first decision that we made was color. Christina suggested magenta since powder pink is WAY overused for baby girls. Magenta would be an exciting twist while still looking girly. I suggested gold since everything goes with gold, and honestly, I’m just obsessed with it. And thus became our magenta and gold color scheme. We accented these colors with touches of coral and ivory. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I always use secondary accent colors. I just think they make for a more sophisticated color scheme.

For decorations, in many of my past events, I would use tissue paper pom poms as the main decorative element. Well I got tired of making them and I wanted to try something new this time. I decided to do a balloon garland with streamer tendrils hanging off of it. It feels really fresh to me and those clean circles of color look so bold and fun. Not to mention it was just way easier to put together than those pom poms. We were also lucky that Amy has such a beautifully designed kitchen. The clean whites with marble (actually quartz) made a perfect backdrop for these bright colors.

Forked flags as banners and cake toppers were incorporated throughout as well.

After cutting the forked ends out of the little flags, I had all these little triangles of scrap paper left over. It made for some really awesome confetti!

Also, this was my first attempt at making butter cream from scratch. I tried to keep it less sugary and added rose water for a light floral flavor. I was actually shocked that it was successful since I pretty much never bake. Gold foil paper cup cake cups add to the color scheme.

The floral arrangements were DIYed from inexpensive bodega flowers.

I just love it when food matches the decor at events like these. I tried my best to pick out foods that would match, but magenta doesn’t really happen naturally all that often. I made a beet salad and purple cabbage coleslaw, but all the fruit and berries ended up looking more red.

Christina made these AMAZING Vietnamese pork meat balls and I have to remember to bug her for the recipe sometime.

Our drink station had the party favors that I talked about in my last post. We made mocktails that could be spiked with champagne (and that match the colors scheme!) My only complaint is that the paper straws started to disintegrate in the liquid after using them for a little while. I really wish they made wax coated or plastic straws that were as cute.

We also tried to insert a “sprinkle” theme into the party. We had a rain cloud guest book which was framed at the end of the night. We also made a pom pom rain cloud that decorated the area where the guests dropped off their gifts. It wasn’t intentional, but looking back, the balloon garland with the hanging streamers almost look raincloud-esque too! As our “head of graphic design and party identity,” Christina made all of the signage that you see in the photos below (including the design for the Kidecals stickers on the party favor jars). Its no wonder she has her own paper goods shop! PS, aren’t Christina’s diaper babies the most adorable things you’ve ever seen?

And what would a shower be without shower games?

My favorite activity was the bib and hat decorating station. Christina taught us all a great cheater method for “screen printing.” If you cut a shape into freezer paper, you can iron it onto the fabric (shiny side down) and use it as a stencil! Just apply screen printing ink then peel off the stencil.

Fun was had by all! I’m very proud of how well this baby sprinkle came together =)