Baby Shower Garlands

Today, some friends and I are celebrating two soon-to-be-born babes and their mommas, Carla from Small & Friendly and Lacy from Living on Love. Because our residences are spread throughout the country and abroad, our celebration has to be virtual. Luckily, we are all pretty handy with a camera and html. And even though we cannot be together in person, our love, care and joy bridges the gap and makes it seem like we are near. We love you Carla and Lacy!

For my part, I chose to sew up some paper garlands for our baby shower. I love making garlands. You know that. I went through the make it tab and I have a section just for garlands I have made so many. Now to be honest, while I’m in the middle of it all, the prepping, the sorting, the sewing, I do question my sanity and resolve, especially with the itsy bitsy ones. But then, when I string them up, I fall hopelessly in love with them again.

It’s nearly impossible not to.

For the babes and mommas we are celebrating, we settled on a celestial theme. From that, I chose stars, clouds and the waxing and waning moon, plus dots, because I just love them and they work all the time.

Very light pink, aqua and white for Lacy and her baby girl.

A variety of blues and silver for Carla and her baby boy.

I’ve explained and reexplained how to make garlands a number of times (see tab and section link above). But, just to refresh your memory, here are a few tidbits:

-I used both my Cricut and a paper punch to get the shapes – Cricut for the stars, moons and clouds and a circle punch for the dots.

-I use a demin needle to sew the paper together. It’s stronger and holds up to the paper better.

-Sometimes I use contrasting thread, sometimes I don’t.

-When sewing together shapes I want to hang in a certain way (the moons and the clouds), I make sure the line of stitching is across the top third of the shape, not the center.

-The waxing and waning moons were the most challenging. To make it easier (read, possible) to make the garland, I used washi tape and stuck the moons on at the widths and angles I needed them. Then, to cover the space between the shapes, instead of starting and stopping my machine each time, I laid strips of wax paper. It worked well because it stuck to the washi tape. The wax paper provided something for the machine to stitch between the shapes and it pulled away fairly easily afterwards. Much easier than feeding each piece through separately.

Then, I spray painted the shapes with a flatter silver color and then spritzed it with a shinier paint to give it the crater look.

I love how they all turned out and even though I really want to keep them all, I am so excited to get these in the hands of our creative mamas in time for the arrival of the babes. Love you so Carla and Lacy!

There is more than just me at this party! Here are my participating friends!

imagine gnats / Casa CraftyMade / With Moxie / Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!
petit a petit and family / Rajovilla / Kids Stuff World / Elsie Marley / Buzzmills
A Golden Afternoon / My Life at Playtime / Salsa Pie / this heart of mine

Check out their posts here!