Generations Of Treasures

Kitchen Shower Part 2

We played several games at Kristin's  Shower. As a mingler we handed each guest a card with an ingredient on it. They had to talk to other ladies and come up with a recipe having no more than six ingredients. The ladies were amazing and it was difficult to pick a winning team, but in the end Shrimp Scampi won. For another game, we covered spices bought at Dollar Tree with scrapbook paper to hide the labels and then numbered them. The spices were passed around and the ladies had to identify the spices by sight and smell. The guests who had the most correct answers won a prize. The bride was then given the spices to stock her pantry. Another game had the ladies try to name a selection of oddball vintage kitchen gadgets.

A collection of vintage kitchen gadgets

The favorite game was the toilet paper wedding dress game. Usually, the bride or a person from each team is dressed in a toilet paper dress. I wanted to give our ladies more time, so I decided to use mannequins. I found the mannequins on Craigslist. They were black and in rough shape, so I spray painted them pastel colors to match our theme. We provided 24 double rolls of toilet paper, tape, needles, thread and scissors. I was impressed with the dresses our teams made!

This dress had shoes, a veil and bouquet

Toilet paper chic

The winning dress

Notice the rosebud detail down the back

Because I had so many games, it meant I needed a lot of prizes. My budget was tight, so most of our prizes were dollar store items dressed up. The magnetic chalkboards were Dollar Tree silver trays painted with chalkboard paint. We glued ribbons to the back with hot glue then covered the entire back with felt. The magnets and felt were on sale at Jo-Ann's and the pearl and silver buttons I used for the magnets were 25¢ each at SAS. This brought my total for the chalkboards to about $1.75 each. The chalkboards are great to keep in the kitchen for messages or to write down grocery items as you run out.

I wanted all our friends to look lovely while they are doing the dishes.

My husband made the custom tags which I paired with Dollar Tree treat bags

I made a variety of colors and patterns

The glam gloves started with Dollar Tree rubber gloves. We lucked out because they actually had a good array of colors. The fabric I used came from Goodwill (some in the form of sheets), and my ever growing fabric stash. The only other cost was the grosgrain ribbon, which I bought half-off at Michael's (and it was also used on the coordinating towels). I opted to pleat the cuffs because I think it looks nicer than gathering. If I have time before Christmas, I will post a tutorial because they make GREAT gifts and cost about $1.50 to make.

The ruffled dish towels were made from flour sack towels I bought at Walmart for $5.00. When I opened them, they were double the width I needed so I cut them in half, hemmed them, and ended up with 10 towels for the price of five! I ironed, hemmed, and gathered three strips of fabric for each towel, added a band of ribbon and a bow, and came up with what I think is a darling towel for about 75¢ each.

Keeping with the kitchen theme, my sister embellished Dollar Tree coupon organizers (for beginners) with ribbon and rhinestones. I think they were adorable.

We filled the rest of the basket (also on an earlier bog) with dollar store kitchen items for a total of 65 prizes at about $65.00.

Maybe it seems excessive, but on several of the games we had a possibility of 24 winners per game. I think being a good hostess requires sometimes having too much, but never not enough.

We finished the night with the die-hards (it was a 13 hour party) with more pictures and a Bridal Pictionary game my darling daughter Mary Kate put together. She was my graphic designer for all the party games and she did an amazing job, especially considering it was mid-terms and she's an honors student! For Pictionary, we used a chalkboard I made with an old gold frame, 1/4-inch ply, and custom chalkboard paint in dark pink.

You can make chalkboard paint in any color by mixing 1 cup of latex paint with 2 Tbsp of grout. I used a foam roller to paint the plywood, but you could use any roller to transform a wall into a chalkboard. It's great for a child's room. 

I'll be back soon with more DIY's from the shower and wedding!