A close friend and her very sweet husband are due soon. A + A are waiting to find out the gender, and have a neutral color palate safari themed nursery waiting for baby. They not only traveled to Africa on a safari excursion within the last couple of years, but actually lived in South Africa right around the time they got married. They are very adventurous people, and I have no doubt that they will make amazing parents! I contacted the father to be and had him send me photos from their safari trip to use as inspiration, and loved them! I really wanted a color to accent with the beige/tan/white and one day, while wandering through my favorite store, Hobby Lobby, I found this guy. How perfect is he? Gender neutral? I thought so. 
We had the shower on Friday afternoon in Chicago, at one of my friend’s aunt and uncle’s bar. (George Street Pub) It was so fun to have a full service bar on hand- and the food was delicious!
Main pieces:
-store bought elephant (hobby lobby)
-paper mache lion and rhino (target) craft paint to match elephant (hobby lobby)
-wooden animal pieces for “BABY” sign (hobby lobby)
-“BABY” letters- already owned, leftover from Etsy shop days (hobby lobby)
-various picture frames (dollar tree + spray paint)
-white tissue pom garland (dollar tree)
-wooden sign “watering hole” (already owned from Etsy shop days)
-matching teal straws (target clearance!)
-neutral scrapbook paper and brown cardstock (HL)
-8×10 canvases (already owned, from HL)
-favors: animal cracker bags with stretching elastic hair ties as bows (christmas tree shops and HL)
-photo prop supplies (hobby lobby)
First, I spray painted the “BABY” letters and dollar store frames white. Then I traced the letters on the neutral scrapbook paper and mod podged the paper over the white letters. The little wooden animals from Hobby Lobby were the opposite of gender neutral, but a few coats of teal paint and they fit right in.
I printed “The watering hole” using my home printer on scrapbook paper and traced the outline of the wooden sign it would go on. They I painted the sign teal, waited for it to dry and then mod-podged the scrapbook paper on it.
I made little advice cards using my home printer as well. Yes, I could have bought them on Etsy, but who wants to spend the money? I typed them up in a word document and printed them on scrap book paper. Then I cut them out, and glue sticked them onto a sturdier card stock. I liked how they turned out.
The safari photos: I had some 8×10 canvases on hand already. I use them constantly to print new 8×10 photos using walgreens.com and then I mod-podge them directly onto the canvas, giving it a more expensive look. I wanted to incorporate the scrapbook paper as well, so first I mod-podged the scrapbook paper onto the canvas, and then I mod podged the photos as I wanted them. I did have trouble with air getting trapped underneath the photos. I think the scrapbook paper might have been too thin to go under the photos, so some of the photos did not quite lay flat. Solution? I took a tiny needle and punctured a little hole to try to get the air out. It did help, but was it perfection? No. Still cute and usable? Yes.
For favors, I went for the most cost effective. I originally wanted to do an idea found on Pinterest, with animal crackers in little glass jars, but I think these did the trick too. I found the animal crackers at Christmas Tree Shops and already had the little favor bags on hand. The stretchy elastic hair tie ribbon can be purchased at… you guessed it, HL. The rolls are 2.99, but if you get them when ribbon is 50% off, super affordable. I have this in a ton of colors and make my own headbands and hair ties with it! I went with a teal, and glittery champagne color and tied the bags with them. All you have to do when you untie them is fold the ribbon in half, and tie a knot at the end. And then you’ve got yourself two hair ties!
Congrats on your new adventure, A + A!! Can’t wait to meet your little one!
