I know gender reveals are a newer idea…our parents were lucky to know if it was a boy or girl before delivery! When my husband and I were pregnant with our first we wanted to do some kind of gender reveal for our families. To us, it seemed like a good excuse to throw a party, invite our friends and family to celebrate!
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Our First Gender Reveal
For our first baby, I was finishing up nursing school right when we found out so we had a small party at my parents’ house. Jordan and I found out together at the ultrasound, I called a bakery and had them make a blue cake with frosting, did a countdown and lifted up a cut piece of cake for all to see! It was simple, easy, cute, fun and most of all we were just so thrilled to share the moment with our families.
Second Time Around
For baby #2, the gender reveal went out with a bang…Literally. My husband had seen a video of a tannerite gender reveal long before we were pregnant and we both thought it was epic but it never crossed our minds to actually do one ourselves.
That is, till one Saturday morning when we were both searching for gender reveal ideas and tannerite came back up. Pretty much after watching one video, we were both sold. Since Jordan’s parents have an acreage we had the perfect location too!
What is a Tannerite Gender Reveal?
For those who haven’t heard of a tannerite gender reveal, its where you place colored chalk in a cardboard box with tannerite (a mini explosion). Then you shoot the tannerite and it blows the colored chalk SKY HIGH.
After we decided to do the tannerite we also decided to find out with both of our families instead of at the ultrasound. This added a whole new level of excitement for us, more so than I ever thought. And, to top it all off, there hadn’t been a baby girl on either side for 25 years so…let’s just say there was definitely a desire for some pink.
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How to do a Tannerite Gender Reveal
This is what we used for our tannerite gender reveal and it worked perfectly!
What You’ll Need:
- 2lbs of tannerite (find at your local outdoor store)
- 5lbs of colored pink chalk
- 5lbs of colored blue chalk
- A cardboard box
- A .308 full-metal-jacket round (ballistic tip trial was a FAIL) *Total gun mumbo, jumbo but important if you want to do one too!
Two days before Mother’s Day (the day the party was planned), we had our ultrasound and the little baby was kicking and everything look healthy! We looked down while the tech checked if our munchkin was a boy or girl. She printed the picture out with the words of what our little baby was on the picture and put it in a sealed envelope.
Look at those lips!
Party Time
At the party, we had two tables, blue and pink, with matching drinks and cupcakes for each. A cute chalkboard sign and LOTS of food.
We also had asked a friend ahead of time if he would mind being the one to open the envelope in secret and place the right colored chalk in the box.
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Getting Ready for the BOOM
Once everyone had arrived, we passed out ear protection (it was going to be LOUD) and Jordan got the gun all set up for our CRAZY gender reveal. But first, we had to grab a picture of us BEFORE we found out what baby was…
Our friend went down to the tannerite box and put the right colored chalk in and we gathered everyone outside on the deck. We all covered our ears…and waited (Jordan did not want to miss!). I remember I could hear my heart pounding through my plugged ears…
Finally….BOOM!
IT’S A GIRL!
It was the best Mother’s Day gift. All our family and friends were gathered together and we have a little GIRL on the way!!
Did you do a Gender Reveal? What did YOU do?
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My husband and I plan on doing this for our gender reveal and we are very excited!!!! Just wondering how you set up the chalk inside the box. Did you just place it behind the tannerite keeping it in its own bag??
That is SO EXCITING, Jessica! We had too much fun doing this. We set the chalk right on top of the tannerite to help it go as high as possible and we did keep it in its own bag. I’m sure your reveal will be awesome!! Good luck and congrats on your little baby!
Hi! This is awesome! My husband and I really want to do something similar, except with a bow and arrow. Would the same set up work? Thanks!
Hi! Thanks, it was so much fun. The tannerite needs a firearm to go off I believe plus you have to be at least 100 yards back from the blast as well. I wonder if you could do a huge black balloon filled with the chalk and blown up and then shoot that with the bow and arrow? There are so many good ideas on pinterest too!
We are going to try this as well!! Did you feel that 5 lbs was enough powder for a nice explosion? I was going to order 15 but it is so expensive!
That is SO fun, Christy! Yes, we definitely did. If you watch the video of our explosion, you can see how big it was to kind of get reference for what you are hoping for. But, we were definitely pleased by the size of the explosion. Congrats!!
Just curious about how much damage the explosion did to the area around the set up. I really want to do this, but if it blows up the ground around it or anything like that, I can’t do it.
Hey Courtney, good question! Since you can’t do the explosion inside city limits, we did ours at my in-law’s acreage. They had a spot that was already mostly dirt so it didn’t damage their yard any. However, it will do some damage to the ground underneath it so definitely be careful where you choose to have the explosion go off. Hope this helps!
Did you stand the tannerite tube up or lay it down? Also did you keep the top of the box loose? Im trying to figure out how to set it up for our reveal on sunday. Thank you!!
Sorry, my reply might be a little late, Catherine! We did stand the tannerite up and just lightly sealed the top with a piece of tape. Hope your reveal was AMAZING!
Wondering what kind of box you used? And if you sealed the top?
We used an old cardboard box just in the garage and lightly sealed the top with just a light piece of tape. Hope that helps!
How/where do I put the tannerite and the powder at inside the box? Our reveal is sunday and I have no idea how to set it up! 😂
Hi MacKenzie! We put the tannerite right inside the box and then put the powder on top of the tannerite so it would explode up! If you have lots of powder, you can also put it on the sides of the tannerite too. I hope your reveal is amazing. Congrats!
How did Jordan know where to shoot??? Did you line up the tannerite inside with a little crosshair on the outside of the box? Lol
Yes! He drew crosshairs on the outside of the box right where he placed the tannerite so he would know where to aim! It worked like a charm!
What distance were you from the explosion?
Hey Katie, we were a little over 100 yards away from the blast. Nothing came even close because we made sure the explosion was just in a huge pile of soft dirt too. I hope that helps!
This may be a dumb question but do you leave the chalk in the bag when it’s placed in the box with the tannerite? I’m going to assume yes but do not want to be the one to mess up the reveal by doing it wrong.
Hi Tadam,
Not a dumb question at all lol I was confused when we did it the first time too. But yes, leave the chalk in the bag and (depending on how many bags of chalk you have) place the bag on top of the tannerite or on top and on the sides. Congrats!
Do you have to do anything to the tannarite or just put it in the box straight like it came from the store?
You have to follow the instructions on your tannerite container on how to “arm” the tannerite so it’s ready to go off once it’s shot. This differs a little bit per brand so just look on your tannerite box/bottle and it will tell you how to get it ready to go. Then set it into the box 🙂