Baby Shower Favors

Baby shower party favors are one of those nice touches at the baby shower. Favors do not have to be complicated and can be virtually anything. They can be edible, useful, or sentimental, just be creative as much as you can. The only limitation is your imagination!

I made this bookmark for my sister’s baby shower. The baby stamp is from Stampin’ Up. I printed off the quote and then stamped the image and used colored pencils to decorate. I inserted the bookmarks into a clear plastic sleeve. Guests can add their own bookmarks later and use over and over. I purchased the sleeves here. The tassels are sold separately.

The quote says: "I’m really glad that you could come to my mommy and daddy’s shower. Sit down, relax, enjoy yourself and chat with one another. Sorry I can’t be with you, but you see I’m very busy because I’m growing more each hour. I’ll be arriving shortly. I’m happy as can be, so after I’ve been home a while – please come visit me!"

Other favors I have made include:
Tea Bags – make your own paper wrappers with the words “A Baby is Brewing!” Add the date and name of the mother.

Popcorn – make your own paper wrappers with the saying “Baby (Last Name) is Popping in!”

Candles – make labels for the top of a tin that holds a candle. You can often find these for $1.00 each. Or wrap ribbon/yarn around the outside of the tin. Add a tag with the date and name of the mother.

Seeds – place wildflower seeds in a tiny envelope. Make a label that says, “Please plant these seeds and watch them bloom, just like baby (Last Name) who will be here soon!”

Bookmarks – avid readers always appreciate bookmarks. Print your own with the saying, “This bookmark is given to remember (Mom’s name) new chapter in life. Thank you for sharing in this special day!”

Diaper Cake

A diaper cake is a wonderfully creative gift for an expectant mother. It is a collection of diapers (either disposable or cloth) rolled and stacked together to resemble a traditional tiered cake. There can be 1, 2, 3 or more tiers. The tiers of diaper cakes can also be decorated with baby care items such as bibs, pacifiers, baby socks, bottles, toys, and more.

After seeing all the photos online of diaper cakes, I just had to try and make one.

Here are the directions on how I did it:

Supplies:
50 to 60 diapers
Ribbon at least 2-inches wide
50 to 60 clear, small rubber bands
A sturdy core piece – a heavy cardboard tube, a baby bottle, or lotion bottle
Decorations – silk flowers, baby items such as pacifiers, bottles, bibs, miniature stuffed animals, etc.

A cardboard or plastic cake platter for the base. The base needs to be sturdy. It can be made of cardboard or metal or even glass. It must be strong enough to carry the weight of the cake. You can buy pre-made sizes or cut cardboard to fit. If you are cutting it yourself make sure that you do not use the any box folds in the circle you cut. The fold will not support the weight. You can cut exact size of the finished layers or leave a little extra around it for decorating purposes.

Assembly:
The first thing you need to do is have a way to secure the diapers once they are rolled up. Some people use ribbon, clear rubber bands, or tape; be careful with this so the diapers are still useable. Roll the diapers and put ribbon or clear rubber bands to hold them in place. This will take the most time. The rest of the assembly will go quickly once they are all rolled up.

Roll the diapers in a manner to have any outside edge decoration facing inward. Try to place the rubber bands in the middle of each diaper. The idea is for the rubber bands not to show in the final piece. It will be easier to cover it with ribbon if they are approximately all in the same place.

Putting the cake together:
The bottom of a three tier cake will need 2 layers of diapers around a center focal point. I used a sturdy cardboard tube for the center piece. Tie a ribbon around each layer to make the next layer easier to construct. When you have the center piece and 2 surrounding layers together, tie it with ribbon to keep in one place.

Repeat this with the second and top layers. The top layer will only be 1 circle of diapers. You may need to put an additional center piece in for the top layer if your cardboard tube or bottle is not tall enough.

Decorating:Use ribbon and final materials to give the cake a finishing touch. I prefer the finished piece to look more like a real cake. So I chose silk flowers, ribbon, and tulle as my only decorations. I just tucked the stems of the flowers in between a few of the rubber bands. No glue! You want the mother-to-be to be able to disassemble your gift and actually use it. I used a purchased stuffed animal/blanket combo for the top of the cake.

If you are a visual person like me, watching a video really helps with the construction. I liked this one -- video.

Dried Floral Arrangements

There are several ways to preserve fresh flowers for years without a great deal of work or expense. The easiest and least expensive method is air-drying. This is a wonderful way to preserve those special flowers received as a gift or flowers from your own garden.

Fasten small bunches of fresh flowers together with a rubber band near the cut end of the flowers. Don't use string or wire, as the stems will shrink as they dry, and may fall out of their tie on to the floor. Hang the bundled flowers from a hook or hanger upside down in a clean, dry place out of direct sunlight, such as a closet.

Let the flowers air dry for two to four weeks. When the flowers are ready, they will be dry and crisp to the touch.

Once dry, spray with clear hair spray to preserve the color and stop the petals from dropping.

So now that the flowers are dried, what do you do with them? You can

make a wreath or a dried flower arrangement, perhaps hang your dried roses in a window, make a photo frame box, glue dried petals or buds to letters or menus, or use dried petals in a potpourri.

I dried my wedding anniversary roses and made this arrangement. Everytime I see it, I'm reminded of the special memories of that day.

How to Create Your Own Silk Flower Arrangements

Looking for a floral arrangement to spruce up your room, but don't want to spend a lot of money? Make it yourself! You can often find silk flowers on clearance or at discount stores. Sometimes you have to be patient and wait for the sale or look for coupons. I found several really nice silk tree branches on clearance. I bought them with no particular plan in mind, but they were really nice quality and the price was right. I ended up making two arrangements.


The first one I created in a floor vase (on clearance of course). It had a few dings, but nothing that couldn't be hidden with a little touch-up paint. I put floral foam inside the vase and using floral pins covered it with moss. Then I placed each branch into the foam.























The second one is smaller and for a table top or shelf. I started with a large styrofoam ball. Then I cut the leaves and flowers off the branches, placing each individual stem into the ball until entirely covered. To display, I placed the ball on top of an inexpensive metal container.

Make Your Own Wallpaper Border

What to do with an existing wallpaper border that you don't like? Paint it! Painting borders needs to be well planned. Make sure to put tape around the edges of the border, and make sure it's painter's tape. Many have fallen victim to pulled up paint chips by using scotch tape as a substitute. Does this really work? Yep, I tried it and it worked wonderfully. Our master bathroom has a separate, very small toilet room. The actual wallpaper was o.k. and matched the decor I wanted. BUT, the border was not to my liking. I wanted to save the wallpaper, but ditch the border. There was no way to peel off the border without ruining the wallpaper. So, I carefully taped off the edges of the border and painted right over it. It worked very well. Then, I took extra fabric left from making the bedroom curtains, and cut out the floral designs. I admit this part was a little time consuming (gives you something to do while watching TV). Using liquid starch, I covered each fabric cutout and "pasted" it onto the dried painted border. Now I have a coordinated master bedroom and bathroom, without spending a lot of money. The best part is if I get tired of my new floral border, I can peel it right off without harming the paper underneath and use something else. Below are photos of the matching comforter and curtains -- close up of the border -- and a full length room view.

Leaves x 6 Wall Art

Grouping like things together makes a bigger statement then just hanging one small frame by itself. I used 4x4 stretched canvas frames to make this collection showcasing different kinds of leaves. This is a fairly easy project. The hardest part is hanging them evenly!

Instructions:

1. Paint six 4x4 stretched art canvases with brown textured paint and set aside to dry.

2. Tear handmade white paper (or something that is heavily textured) to fit each frame.

3. Using 6 different types of dried or silk leaves, affix one to each of the white papers.

4. Finish off with various types of buttons, yarn, raffia, and beads.

5. Glue finished collage to center of canvas frame.

More Uses for Scrapbook Supplies

Do you have leftover scrapbook supplies that you'll probably never use? I know I do! Don't throw the items away or let them take up all the room in your supplies folder, use them to decorate other parts of the house.

Here's an example of what I did with a few leftover supplies:

BEFORE PHOTO

I found this wall plaque at a discount store.

The middle is a cermaic plaque that slides out of the frame and came with a printed leaf on it.

I took the cermaic plaque out and glued layers of torn handmade paper to it and, to finish it off, placed a skelton leaf in the middle.

AFTER PHOTO

What can you do with your leftover scrapbook supplies? Here are 12 ideas to get you started:

1. Make handmade cards.

2. Add dimensional texture to your scrapbook borders by layering.

3. Make matchbooks out of your scraps.

4. Use the scraps to frame smaller photos.

5. Use as photo corners.

6. Make gift tags.

7. Make homemade envelopes.

8. Piece together a paper crazy quilt. Adhere your scrap down to your

album page to mke a crazy quilt background. Use your pens to make

fun or fancy 'stitches.'

9. Exchange supplies on a craft forum.

10. Make a mini album.

11. Make fridge magnets. View examples here.

12. Tear up or shred as a gift bag filler.