Making Easy Centerpiece Decorations for a Baby Shower

Use baby bottles the parents will later use daily to create a fun and easy centerpiece for their baby shower.

Creating fun centerpieces for a baby shower can be easy and helpful to the mother- and father-to-be. Your investment in items for the centerpiece will assist the parents once the baby arrives if you create the centerpieces with bottles, bibs and accessories that the parents can later use on a daily basis. Match the parents' desired theme or colors to tie the centerpiece together with your party and the thought is even more appropriate.

Things You'll Need

• 3 baby bottles per table
• Tissue paper
• Decorative ribbon
• Baby bibs or burping cloths
• Decorative wire garland
• Baby footies, pacifiers, rattles, etc.
• Card stock
• Computer and printer, or markers
• Single hole punch

Instructions

Make the base of the centerpiece with bibs, bottles and tissue paper.

1. Place the bibs or burping cloths on the center of the table. If placing on a rectangular or square table, determine how the bibs look best, parallel to the edges of the table or at an angle.

2. Place the three bottles next to each other on the bib. Forming a triangle, with one bottle at the head of the arrangement and two bottles at the bottom, will help to create visual interest and to later hold a spray of wire garland.

3. Fold one piece of tissue paper as if you were placing in a gift bag, first folding opposite corner beside the opposite corner. Next, fold the remaining corners to lie beside these points. When finished, you should see a fanned triangle with four points on the widest width side.

4. Insert the thinnest, bottom point of your tissue paper triangle fan into the mouth of the bottle. Push the point into the bottle, until you have the desired height.

5. Fill the next two bottles with tissue paper by repeating step 3 - folding the tissue paper, and step 4 - inserting the tissue paper triangle fan into the baby bottles. Create varied heights of tissue paper for visual interest.

Add accessories to the centerpiece for the final touches

1. Cut close to a yard of ribbon by measuring from your fingertips to your shoulder. Wrap this ribbon as many times as you can around your bottles, leaving room to tie a bow later. Tie a loose knot to keep in place.

2. Cut three or more wire garland pieces taller than your bottles and at various heights to add visual interest. Grab the bottom of one of the wires in your spray and wrap it around all of your wires to hold them together. Insert a wire garland spray into the center hole created between all three bottles.

3. Design a tag, printed on cardstock from a computer word processing program or drawn with markers, to personalize the centerpiece. Use statements incorporating the family's name such as "Welcoming the future Smith Baby" or "Anna's Baby Shower." Trim to the desired size and punch a hole in the bottom corner of the tag.

4. Add the personalized tag to the wire garland by wrapping an end of the garland through the punched hole, and secure it by creating a garland loop and twisting it closed.

5. 

   Attach a final item such as a pacifier, footie, or rattle by tying the ribbon around it and creating a bow. Your centerpiece is complete; repeat the steps for all additional tables.

Tips & Warnings

• Use bottles with a pattern that match the parent's theme or tops that match the room colors.

• Use bibs with a repeating pattern or a design in one corner, so that it will be visible under the bottles.

• Use a variety of tissue paper colors. Choose pastel tones; colors that match the parents desired theme, or baby's room colors; or pinks and yellows if the parents know the baby is a girl, blues and greens if they know the baby is a boy.

References

• Example of tissue paper folded
• Example of blue baby shower wire garland
• Tips for throwing a baby shower