Baby Shower Invitation Re-do

My mother is hosting a baby shower for our DDIL, and I offered to take care of the invitations.  Now it's 'round the corner, and due to unforeseen circumstances the invitations were not ordered.  

Creativity to the rescue!

(I think the guys refer to it as 

time to punt, or something like that.)

{And since we don't know the baby's gender, this post, and the shower, will be all about

PINK and BLUE.}

I went to several stores, looking for something refined and appropriate, though not necessarily baby, and I 
found this pretty starting point:

by Gartner Studios.
But where's the PINK?  I NEED PINK!

Well, I'll just hand-color one of the hydrangea heads!

Using my trusty watercolor pencils, I went to work.

(But first print them out with the invitation wording, so nothing that you do to embellish the invitation prevents it from going through the printer.)

The wonderful thing about these pencils is that you don't have to be real specific--it's not like coloring in our coloring books where we had to stay in the lines.  I'm no painter, so I followed the artist's shadings and loosely filled in the petals.

Then using the teeniest, tiniest bit of water on an old, {clean} lipstick brush, I dabbed the pencil markings, making sure to not over-work it to not lose the detail and highlights.

Next, I used a Martha Stewart punch to make a lacy, filigree design across the top.

And now here they are...the finished product, fit for BABY BOYor  BABY GIRL.

(You might be able to see that as I final touch I added a tiny pearl to each head.)

Oh, and the best part??  When I chose this invitation I had completely forgotten that my mother

is planning on using hydrangeas for the centerpiece.

Pure, happy, coincidence!

Have you bought ready-made invitation "blanks" as a shortcut?  How did you embellish them?  Have you ever used watercolors?  And lastly, what do you think?  Do they fill the bill?

Thanks for stopping by.  Please leave me a comment to let me know you were here—I read every single one of them!  They encourage me and inspire me.  And if you like what you see a lot J, maybe you’d like to +1 this post too!  Thank you!

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Wishing you a happy St. Patrick’s Day,

from my Chickadee Nest to yours~

    Zuni