Invite: The party decor and invitation used shades of greens and pinks. I created the invitation on Photoshop with cactus images I found for free online. I love that they look like watercolor, and they are soft colors. Seemed perfect for the arrival of a little baby girl.
Decor: I made this easy cactus banner with my Cricut. I just taped the cactus onto a pink ribbon. I switched out the "O" of my HOME sign with a ceramic cactus I found at Michaels.
I had some fun creating the centerpiece for this party because I don't own any cactus plants (real or artificial), and large cactus are a bit too expensive to purchase, so I made them myself.
I started with a diaper cake made to look like a cactus. This was quite a challenge to figure out how to do, but I think it turned out cute. I rolled 4 diapers for each section and put a skewer in the middle to keep all the sections together and in a straight line. The green ribbon hid the rubber bands I used to keep each bundle together. I stuck a skewer in each side and slid a single diaper (rolled up) for the arms of the cactus. The homemade pink fabric flowers are attached to hair clips, so they can definitely be used for baby Cora in the future.
Next I made cacti out of cardstock. I used my Cricut to make two types of cacti and pink flower pots for them. I filled a small bowl with tissue paper and topped it with rocks for the inside. I also made the sign with the cute saying on Photoshop to add to the table decor.
For placecards, I made these rock cactus flower pots. I bought the pots and the rocks at the dollar store. The pots were 3 for $1. I painted them white and then painted the larger rocks three different shades of green. Once they were dry, I added the white paint. The name card I designed to look like the invitation.
For the napkins I cut out a cactus and pink flowers and just set it in on each folded napkin.
Wine labels are always fun for me to design. It was a little hard to come up with ideas to combine cactus, babies, and wine. These are the best I could come up with, but they made me smile.
For wine charms, I cut various types of cactus out of cardstock and lightly glued them onto my wine stem. Simple and cute.
Menu: We started with chips and salsa. I bought a cactus cookie cutter and cut green tortillas into cactus shapes before baking them to make some cactus-shaped chips to place along with the black tortilla chips.
The mom-to-be is a on a special diet with gestational diabetes, so the main dishes needed to be something she could eat. After asking her husband for suggestions, I found out that my friend had been craving lettuce wrapped tacos, so that is what I decided to serve. We served this dish buffet-style, so guests could put whatever toppings they personally wanted on their tacos.
I roasted some peppers and green beans to serve as a side, and heated some black beans for those guests that could have them.
My friend's husband also said she had been craving cheesecake. I looked up several recipes for cheesecake that was Keto friendly (no carb). I decided to make these, but I made them without the sauce and only a strawberry cut like a flower on top. I didn't do the sauce because I put them into these cupcake wrappers. I printed the cactus pattern on green cardstock and then cut them out and assembled them. I used a cardstock stand to hold them up high, and I knew it would be too messy with the sauce, so I just left that out. The guests really liked them. Just a tip if you are planning to make these...use cupcake liners. I didn't the first time as it wasn't mentioned in the recipe, and I couldn't get them out of the pan! I had to make a second batch with cupcake liners.
Favor: I originally ordered cactus candles to give as a parting gift, but they were too small for the dollar store pots, so I went to my local nursery and bought live cactus plants. They were a bit more expensive that I normally spend, but a cute party favor. I planted them in the dollar store pots I painted light pink.
It was fun to come up with the sayings that matched for the cactus/baby theme as I wanted each one to be different. My favorite was "Sometimes I wet my plants" and "I will never desert you."
What a great time we had showering Maria and her baby with a little love. Can't wait to meet Cora!
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