Because the idea of the party is to shower the new mother with gifts, crafts made at a baby shower should be made with an expectant mother's needs in mind. Keepsake and daily use items are the intended purpose of these projects.
Here are some craft ideas to consider:
Scrapbook Pages: In this wonderful project, large numbers of shower guests can participate in creating a fill-in-the-blank kind of scrapbook. Have each guest construct a unique page by supplying the title of the page, specialty papers, glue, clipart, and embellishments. Provide guidelines for your guests by asking that they leave a space on their page for photos and comments. Place all of the pages in a scrapbook and have the guests write a personal note on the back of their page. The result is a nearly finished scrapbook for the mother-to-be.
Homemade Books: This project requires little more than a creative mind and an acid-free pen. Give each guest a page of heavy vellum paper, on which you have typewritten a story prompt such as: "Hi, my name is?", with an added clipart image of an animal. Encourage your guests to write a creative story using their own name as the animal's name in the story. Bind the pages in a decorated notebook and present as a gift at the end of the party.
Canvas Storage Cubes: These come in several colors and sizes, and can be used to store everything from pencils to stuffed pandas. New mothers will find multiple uses for these items, and a craft project involving the decorating of these cubes with rubber stamps, fabric paints, colorful ribbons, and embellishments is a fun project that will yield creative storage for the baby's changing table and play area.
Burp Cloths: Using traditional cloth diapers, rubber stamps, fabric paints, and pens have your guests decorate these clean-up cloths. Drawings or advice for the new mother are always fun and appreciated.
Photo Boxes: Purchase acid-free photo boxes at a craft store and use ribbons, fabric, dried flowers, wrapped candies, seashells, or other items to decorate these multi-use boxes.
Quilt Squares: Cut out 12"x12" squares of cotton and polyester blend fabric, then wash and iron them prior to the baby shower. Using downloaded clipart images that you have reproduced into iron-on transfers, have your guests choose which image they want to use and then have them iron it onto their square. Have them use fabric paints and pens, and rubber stamps to personalize their square. Then have someone who is handy with a sewing machine put it all together and present it to the guest of honor in the form of a completed quilt.
Flower Pots: Provide terra-cotta pots in various sizes, and have your guests bring a flowering plant of their choice to repot into their creations. By using paints, glue, a plant of their choice and embellishments, your guests will create a colorful array of new growth to welcome the new baby.
You never know the crafting skill level of your guests. Be sure to choose a simple project with lots of room for creativity. Allow approximately one hour for your project, and time it to take place after any shower games and before food is served. This will allow your guests time to get to know each other and still give the craft paints and glue adequate time to dry. Consider having the guest of honor open her gifts during your project, to give everyone something to do with their hands.
Have a space set-up specifically for your craft project. If paints and glues are to be used, provide lightweight surgical gloves for your guests to protect their manicures and jewelry, along with aprons or craft smocks to protect their clothing.
The space needs to be well lit, and if your guests might need to use magnifying glasses, have them available. All the supplies for your project should be at arms length for your guests to use, with typewritten sheets of instructions at the table and someone available to give hands-on direction if needed.
After your guests have created their one-of-a-kind projects, take a photograph of the group with their creations. If you cannot immediately print the photo and put it into a frame, have a special frame ready to receive the photo so that you can give both the crafts and the picture to the new mother for her baby's nursery.