Earlier this year, one of my favorite charities – Operation Shower – asked me to design a tablescape for their Sunshine Safari event that was to be held at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego. Of course I said YES in hearbeat! Eleven different designers participated in the event, and every single table was amazingly creative – and also inspiring… just like the military moms that enjoyed them!

DESIGN GUIDELINES

The event guidelines stipulated that we needed to incorporate 2 things into our table:
1) the super cute Sunshine Safari Printables by paper & cake
2) elements from Pottery Barn Kids, one of the main sponsors of the event.

So armed with these guidelines and LOTS OF YARN (hello there, big sunshine!), here’s how my table turned out. Hope you can find some inspiration here for your own sunshine-y safari baby shower or birthday party!

CREATIVE HIGHLIGHTS:

Here are some of the creative highlights of the table. If you have a specific question that isn’t answered below, please feel free to ask me in the comments section…

CENTERPIECE

• Toy animal figurines were painted with craft paint (several coats!) and embellished with yarn.
• A giant yellow “sun” centerpiece was fashioned from a ring of styrofoam + wooden dowel rods, all completely covered in yarn. My assistant now has this “safari sun” as part of her apartment decor. ;)
• I made matching trees and clouds to go next to the sun – 4 yarn balls were grouped together for each of the “tree tops” and “clouds” (I used toothpicks and hot glue to secure them). Check out a yarn ball tutorial here.
• The base of the centerpiece was actually two wood containers filled with foam and placed side by side. The sun, tree, and cloud centerpieces were inserted into the foam, then the foam was covered with muslin fabric and the painted animals
• Wire elephants from PBK were embellished with yellow ric-rack trim

PLACE SETTINGS:

• Inexpensive acrylic chargers were spray painted golden yellow then embellished with a contrasting color of yarn that was criss-crossed and zig-zagged all the way around.
• Playful animals from the Sunshine Safari printable collection were cut out by hand and placed front and center on each plate.
• I used canvas trim to turn glass baby bottles from PBK into playful “canteens”.
• Wine glasses were embellished with a paper circle under the stem. (A 3″ craft punch works perfectly for these.)
• Chairs were embellished with burlap, yarn, and kiddie utensils that matched the printables perfectly.
• Wire elephants from Pottery Barn Kids, embellished with rick-rack ribbon