DIY Simple & Cute Diaper Cake

I am at that time in my life where everyone around me is either getting married or having babies.  I love giving practical gifts.  One of my favorite gifts to give for baby showers is a diaper cake.  They are so versatile, depending on your budget you can make a really simple diaper cake, or you can make an elaborate one with a ton of stuff on it.  I personally like the more simplistic and clean look similar to the picture above.  The mother to be will have diapers (a hot commodity) and possibly a cute stuffed animal with gift card to Babies R Us or Target.


General Guidelines for DIY Diaper Cake:


Materials: 96 diapers, 4 yards of scrap string/ribbon, decorative ribbon, round tray or plate, adhesive tape, hot glue and decorative elements, toys or gifts to attach

1. Follow tutorial How to Make A Professional Diaper Cake to get your base cake ready
2. Measure ribbon for each layer and add 2 inches for overlap.
3. Lay out decorative elements like stickers, beads, buttons, extra bows that you will add to each layer.
4. Using roll-on adhesive tape attach ribbon to itself snugly onto each layer.
5. Hot glue any decorative elements to the ribbon.

Here is the diaper cake almost completed.  The family was having a baby boy with the last name Lamb, no first name chosen yet.  They also have a passion for basketball so the theme of the baby shower was going to be basketball. The only thing left to add is a topper and gift card.  For this cake, the plan was to add a little baby pair of Air Jordans and a gift card to Babies R Us.

There are two ways that I know of to make diaper cakes.  This was my first time attempting the swirly looking cake.  The other way would be to roll each diaper like the one I made in picture below.  As you can see, it's a little wonky looking, but still cute with only a few decorative elements. If you are interested, here is a great tutorial on how to make it in this style. Both ways are fairly easy, just a bit time consuming.  I think I like the swirly way better and especially now that I know how easy it is to make.

Diaper cake made by rolling each individual diaper.

Diaper cakes are a great gift to attempt if you have a creative side.  You can make them as simple or gaudy as you like.  Try not to agonize over the millions of options and just have fun!

DIY Message Board

Introducing the inaugural craft of the monthly(hopefully) Ladies Craft & Wine Night.  I found the inspiration original message board here.  With Valentine's day around the corner, I thought this would be a very cute gift to make and give.  Not all my friends are in a relationship so it was nice that this craft was versatile enough to make in a non-lovey dovey way. :)  The girls did such a great job letting their creative juices flow!

Supplies and Materials for this craft:
8x10 frame
scrapbook paper
felt
hot glue
scissors

Each lady was to bring their own 8x10 frame and then I provided the rest.  First they each choose one or more scrapbook pieces of paper and cut them to size.  I laid out a couple different versions of sayings to print on the scrapbook paper and the girls got creative with it.  You'll see in the pictures below that not all say, "I love you because...".  Yay for crafty friends!

After the message was printed on the chosen paper and put in the frame, the girls got a quick tutorial from yours truly on how to make felt rosettes.  I learned how from this tutorial. Some of the girls experimented with making ribbon rosettes, I still have not mastered that skill...but I will!

Here are some of the finished products:

 

 

 

Sorry some of them are sideways/upside-down - the uploader is giving me grief, but you get the point with a little head tilt ;)

DIY Wine Glass Charms

My "Ladies Craft & Wine Night" necessitated this DIY project.  I kinda wanted to do something cute to help the ladies differentiate between each others' wine glasses.  I had previously seen wine glass charms in stores and figured they'd be easy enough to attempt on my own.  I went on an internet search and surprisingly didn't find much.  I was hoping for some tutorials or cute ideas for inspiration - nada mucho.  So I attempted it and here they are...

I was able to raid my craft supplies and find a bunch of semi-coordinating beads.  I went to Michael's and purchased the earring wires you see in the picture above.  The pack came with 60 earring wires and was only about $1.50 after using a weekly Michael's coupon 40%.  I made various patterns with the beads so that each wine charm would be different and laid them out.  I strung the beads on the earring wire, then all I had to do was bend the earring wire end 90 degrees (*used a jewelry tool) so that the beads wouldn't fall off and voila!!! So easy!

Finished set, aren't they purdy?

Put them in a jewelry box...

and put a little sign next to them.

Crochet a Chunky Scarf

I really like to crochet when I have some free time.  A perfect time to do it is on road trips or plane rides.  I can really zone out and before I know it the time has passed and my project is finished.

I recently asked a favor of a friend and promised a special surprise in return.  After some time spent in Hobby Lobby in the yarn isle, we ended up deciding on a thick yarn in an eggplant color.  I went searching for patterns that go well with the specific weight of yarn and found a really pretty one.  As a matter of fact when I was done crocheting it, I didn't want to give it up.  Luckily, it was easy and quick enough to work up that I can make one for myself in the near future.

Here are some pics. What do you think?

If you think you might want to give it a try, you can get the scarf pattern from the lion brand website directly.  It is considered an "easy" pattern, a little confusing at first, but if you just go with it, it begins to make more sense.  Even if you're a beginner, I think you'd be able to make this with little or no trouble.  Good luck!

Coffee Cup Coozie

Personally Made Coffee Coozie by Me

It started as a hunt for fun little gifts that I could make my friends and family members for Christmas.  After several engaging hours on pinterest.com, I found a couple different crochet patterns for coffee coozies (and a slew of other things).  Well, pretty much everyone I know loves coffee so how could I go wrong with giving handmade coffee coozies?

I didn't finalize my decision until a trip to Walmart for other Christmas craft supplies (see snowman craft below) had me in the fabric and yarn section.  This beautiful teal yarn caught my eye and it was settled!

It was so easy to make, you should try it too! This cool blog is where I got the pattern from: Hip Chicks Craft Too Blogspot

The Walmart trip was originally intended to buy materials for this cutsie craft :)  It's a great classroom christmas craft for the older kids.

Sock Snowman - Love this Christmas craft!