How to Throw the Best Baby Shower: Decoration Ideas

     Now that I'm in the stage of adulthood where my friends and family members are adding to their families, I've found myself throwing a few baby showers.  The best but most difficult part of shower planning for me has been the decorations.  This article will hopefully provide a little inspiration for those of you who have to plan a shower but also have difficulty with decorating ideas. 

Diaper Cakes

     One decoration I now consider to be an essential item for all baby showers is the diaper cake.  Whether using disposable or cloth diapers, new mommies love to have a little help financially in diapering their babies.  A diaper cake provides this help but also makes the perfect centerpiece for the gifts table.  There are many ways to make these cakes, but here is the method I typically use:  

1.  For a disposable diaper cake, I buy two packages of size 1 or 2 diapers.  I roll them up and tie them individually with a ribbon.  For a cloth diaper cake, I use inserts, prefolds, or white onesies/t-shirts.  I roll them up similarly and tie them with a ribbon.  These will form the "cake" layers.  

2.  Using a display board for a base, I glue a big cardboard tube or stack cylindrical containers up the center to put my "cake layers" around.  I usually make my cake 3 to 4 layers, depending on how many diapers I have or whether my cake is using cloth or disposable diapers.  Use your little diaper rolls to stack around the cylinder and form layers.  Tie each layer with a big colorful ribbon as you finish.  With cloth diaper cakes, I wrap a colorful diaper around a cylindrical container of the right width to form one or two complete alternating layers.  

3.  I usually put a toy or diapering accessories around the cake and on the top as a cake topper.

Here are a few pictures of diaper cakes I have done and that were done for me in the past:

 This diaper cake was done slightly differently, with the diapers unrolled.  They are wrapped around the inner cylinder (either formed by a rolled up diaper or a paper towel tube).  

 This is a cloth diaper cake, with the cloth diapers wrapped around cottage cheese and cool whip containers.  

 This was a six-layer cake, with layers wide enough to stick toys and accessories on each layer.  A marker board made up the base for this cake. 

Shower Themes

When decorating for a shower, I usually plan around a theme.  I plan table centerpieces, the gift table centerpiece (diaper cake), the cake for eating, and sometimes wall decorations or balloons.  Here are a few ideas for themes:

1.  "Noah's Ark":  You could use stuffed animals as table centerpieces, and have the ark and animals on the cake.  Colors for this theme could vary, and balloons could be tied to the animals or placed separately elsewhere.  

2.  "Baby Booties" or "Baby Blocks":  Use booties or blocks as centerpieces on the table and to decorate the cake.  Stuff booties with candy for an edible centerpiece.  Balloons could also be tied to the filled booties or blocks.  

3.  "Bun in the Oven":  For table centerpieces, have bowls with cinnamon rolls or some kind of sweet rolls as actual edible centerpieces.  Or you could use cinnamon-flavored candles.  The cake could be circular like a cinnamon roll or could be rectangular and have a picture of an oven door, or a doctor pulling a pan of rolls out of the oven.  

4.  Sometimes I just use the nursery colors or nursery theme to go with my shower decoration ideas.  If it's not meant to be a surprise, you can borrow some accessories from the mommie's nursery to decorate the tables.  

Here are a few pictures to give you inspiration:  

This last is a picture of an invitation.  Often you can get ideas for decorations based on your invitations as well.