Diaper Cake -- Round Two!

When I made my first diaper cake last year, an order was placed for the future from my then daughter-in-law to be, for a diaper cake whenever they decided to have a baby!  In fact she asked how I was going to be able to ship it out to them in Indiana!  Well, we didn't have to ship one out to them because they came to California to visit us before little Laila Olivia is born.  Dana, like many of us, loves to peruse Pinterest for ideas.  She had found this idea for a diaper cake and I set about trying my best to recreate it.

Here is a shot of the finished cake.  I changed the idea shown above in the following ways.  I chose to use some hot pink sparkly mesh ribbon as the base on each of the layers and then added the corresponding leopard print or brown and white polka dots ribbons.  I hot glued them on to the mesh and then wrapped that around each layer hot gluing it in the back to give it a finished look.  For the layers I used different sizes of diapers. For the top layer I used newborn diapers, for the middle layer I used size 2 diapers and for the bottom layer I used size 4.  I used the leftover newborn diapers in the center of the bottom layer to finish it out.  I took cake boards and cut circles out of some butterfly scrapbook papers from Susan Winget and KandCompany and covered the boards with that.

The little leopard print slippers I had found at Wal-Mart before I'd seen the cake idea, so they matched perfectly with the ribbon I was able to find at Hobby Lobby. I set those on the sides of the bottom layer.  In addition to the leopard slippers I also found a pair of pink sparkly shoes to set on top along with the pink butterfly headband shown here.  The original idea had a big bow on the top but I liked the idea of the shoes instead.  Can never have to much bling as far as I'm concerned.


I picked the scroll alphabet letter L for the front and thought briefly of painting it a different color but stuck with the white.  I tied it on to the second layer ribbon with a matching piece of thin ribbon threaded through the mesh.  Additionally, I found some soft baby spoons, some baby washcloths, some hair barrettes, some little girls socks, and a couple of pacifiers with little flowers on the buttons. All in different hues of pink!


It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.  I thoroughly enjoyed all of the things I made for the shower, but I do think this cake turned out even better than what I had anticipated.  Of course any chance to buy pink girly things I'm totally on board with cuz there need to be more girls in my family!  Current count is 6 grand kids, 5 boys and 1 girl, so the upcoming birth of Laila is greatly anticipated!  Grandma and Grandpa need some more girls to spoil!

More fun projects to come, including how I dressed up the little hearts on top of the diaper cake shown here in this last picture.  Imagine, Create, Enjoy!

Another Card File

Previously I had made a Dates to Remember card file here.  The idea was originally featured over at Scrappin Cats blog.  I decided my girlfriend also needed one of these handy files for the other part of her birthday gift.  It was fun creating it...I used a K&Company Susan Winget Meadow paper pack.  It is a beautiful garden variety pack of papers I picked up at Michael's on clearance and it has made some wonderful cards and other projects.  I had saved the template I'd previously made for the individual months of dates and once all of the envelopes were covered with the Meadow paper I printed the date lists, inked around the edges and fixed those on each page.  I printed the months of the year on white card stock, used a punch to punch them out and after inking them, affixed them to the flap of each envelope.  I added a little bit of bling, both jewels and pearls under each of the month names.

For the back of the card file I used two cereal boxes cut to 6 x 9" the same size as the envelopes and covered it with white card stock and then matched the rest of the paper in the pack.  I put a two hole punch in the top and put two rings into the card file.  I covered the rings with a variety of yellow and green ribbons from my stash.

For the front of the file I printed the word Celebrations on card stock and then used a star punch to punch the edges of the paper.  I centered the piece in the middle of the front cover.

To complete her gift I added a small supply of hand made cards I had in my stash.

Until next time, Imagine, Create, Enjoy!

Bridal Shower Card

Spring, early summer...the time for Mother's Day, Father's Day, weddings, graduations, babies....it seems like we are experiencing all of them this year.  Last weekend went to my first bridal shower this year.  I wanted to do something special for the card and use my Cricut machine.  I have the Tie the Knot cartridge so figured I could come up with a pretty cute shower card.  Opened up my Cricut Create software and got to work.  The bride to be was registered at two places...Target and Fredrick's of Hollywood!  New, first time bride so this was going to be fun!!!

I decided to go with the lingerie theme for the card and chose the corset for my card.  I chose the outline image and copied it and then flipped it and melded the two pieces together.  That was my card base.  Then I did the layers.  The card is cut to about 5" high.  If you want exact measurements, send me an email!  I had found a You Tube video using this image so I just modified it for the layers and created all of it in a cut file.  The bride's colors are purple and green.  I chose a deep purple for the card base and then a sparkly blue for one layer and finally a piece of scrap from what's left of my Susan Winget Botanical paper pad and cut the overlay.  It is a combination of purples, greens and other floral colors.  I had to play with the corset top layer some to get the exact image size down, but the finished product was definitely worth it. 

After assembling all the pieces together, I added three pearls to the button holes on the front and then added some bling along the top edge of each leg.  The shimmery layer of light blue paper and the little bit of bling made it pop nicely. 

For the inside of the card I used the exact same layer but cut it out of a lighter lavender card stock and layered it on top so I could stamp the sentiment.  I inked up the edges with some purple ink and added the sentiment.  The sentiment says: True love stories never have endings.  Great sentiment for a new bride.  I also added a little stamped duo of hearts on the top right and a little bling on the curly Q at the bottom. 

Turned out quite nicely and the bride was tickled with it too!  That's probably the greatest feeling as a crafter is to have one's work appreciated by the recipient! 

I decided to make a gift tag to match the card.  The Tie the Knot cartridge is set up with a whole tab devoted to tags and they mirror the larger projects.  I could have done a corset tag but decided on the lips cutout.  I cut the tag in the dark purple to match the card base and then layered different colors of purple and even chose a sparkly paper to make the lips look glossy!  This cartridge also has a lovely swirly letter alphabet, so I cut a "T" the bride's new last name and placed it on the bottom of the tag.  I inked up the edges with purple ink and put a grommet in the whole and laced it up with some glittery ribbon.  Sorry the pic is a little blurry.

Thanks for stopping by today...hope you enjoyed today's offering.  I love hearing your comments, so please leave one.  Until next time, Imagine, Create, Enjoy.

Dates to Remember Card File

I have finally finished my card file.  I first saw this idea over here.  Cathy had been inspired by a Pinterest pin and I just lifted that idea.  For my card file I decided to use some pretty floral papers...it will be a gift for a friend.  I used papers from the K&Company Susan Winget collection.  She has some really great papers.  I pretty much used the original ideas as they were, with a few exceptions.  I chose to use my Cricut to cut the word Celebrate in purple and layered green under it for the backdrop.  I had some small sentiment stamps and decided to stamp them on white paper to indicate different occasions for which cards would be needed.  I mounted them on a larger circle of some of the leftover scraps from these pages.  I then scattered them over the front of the file around the word Celebrate. 

Another thing I did a little different from the original is I cut some reinforcement rings using my Cuttlebug tag die.  For these I also used leftover scraps.  I was really successful in using most of the scraps from the papers I had chosen for the project.  After covering each of the envelopes for the twelve months, I also covered the inside and outside of the envelope flaps as well.  I used the two hole punch to punch the holes and then used the reinforcements on each page to add some substance to the ring holes.  It will help with the wear and tear when the file is opened and closed frequently. 

I chose a font in Word and printed the twelve months of the year on white card stock.  I allowed enough room between the months so I could utilize my other Cuttlebug tags die to cut out the month tags.  This die has some ornamental embossing on it so it spiffed them up just a little.  After centering the months on the die and cutting them all out, I chose to ink up the edges with purple ink to make them pop just a little bit more and affixed them to the envelope flap.  Just a note here:  If you ink the edges of the tags, make sure you blot them or they will bleed onto the lined cards that contain the dates for the month. 

For the dates in the month I used Word again and created a two column table and numbered the lines 1 through 16 for the first half of the month and 17 through 31 for the second half of the month.  I printed the tables and cut them down to size to fit on the inside of each envelope.  Each month of the file is one envelope, and the back of each succeeding envelope is the 2nd half of your month.  The way the file is put together you need to have two sides to put the tables of the dates for the halves of the month on each side, because the last month is the last envelope I needed a back to the card file.  I used an old cereal box and cut two 6 x 9 size pieces and fastened them together with my tape runner, the patterned sides facing the middle.  After that I took the remaining piece of 12 x 12 card stock and backed both sides of the card.  This became the back of the card file. 

I used some green colored rings I had picked up at the Scrapbook Expo back in October.  I added some ribbon to them to match the colors of the papers.  I chose not to add dimensional embellishments to the pages or to the cover as I don't know if the recipient will carry it with her while out and about or if she will leave it at home.

I think it would be a great idea if giving this as a gift I was to include a couple of different cards for the recipient, say a baby card, wedding card, or a birthday card. Hope you enjoyed my take on this great project.  Imagine, Create, and Enjoy!

A Different Paperbag Book

I was surfing and saw this video at the Following the Paper Trail blog.  Laura does a wonderful tutorial on a different type of paper bag book.  I was surfing because I was looking for some gift ideas for Christmas and her how to video gave me the idea for the mini book I made for the best friend.  Becky and I have been best friends since high school.  When the idea came to me I wanted to be able to document our lives at different points over the last 35 years.  They would be events of significance and obviously ones of both of us for which I had pictures that I could use for the book.  This is the front of the book.  Becky loves sunflowers so I chose papers from a pad of K&Company papers I had.  Susan Winget is the designer and the paper pack was Spring Blossom.   One of the pages had a bike on it with a basket of flowers where the predominant flowers were sunflowers, just what Becky likes.  By the time I cut down the paper you mostly can just see the basket in the lower left corner and the flowers that cover the front and spine.  I used a matching green leaf patterned paper for the back that coordinated with the background behind the flowers.  I used some Tim Holtz distressed inks to ink up the edges of the pages and give them that shabby chic look.  In the spine I put a grommet to thread through the chain and charms that I added.

For the cover of the book I used the inside of a file folder.  If you have worked in an office you might be familiar with them.  They are red press board file folders with brown cardboard dividers in the middle, typically two or three dividers and are bound with really strong fabric across the spine to endure much handling and many papers in the file.  We were tossing some at work because they were starting to look pretty shabby on the outside, but the inside was still in relatively good shape.  Besides, I was going to cover it all with patterned papers.  I chose to cut the edges of the cardboard insert about 1/4 to 1/2 inch larger than the edges of the paper bags.  This provided about a 1/2 inch or so wide spine to affix the paper bags to.  The pages of the book are paper lunch bags.  I had a number of embellishments, but needed to pick up some others to make the book in its final form. For the front here I used a beautiful yellow butterfly, a metal plate in the upper right corner that says Best Friends and a remember when sticker in the lower left corner.  On the four corners of the book I used some Tim Holtz metal picture corners.  They worked perfectly and will help preserve the corners of the book and keep it from wearing out too quickly.  On the front I added a pretty glass looking button and on the back a grommet through which I tied some thin matching ribbon and affixed a small brass key to the end.  I then wrapped it around the end of the book and looped it around the button to be used as the book closure.

If you visit  Following the Paper Trail you will get the exact directions for how Laura puts together the paper lunch sacks.  I found it to be a very easy tutorial to follow and I made quick work of taping down the bottoms of the bags and attaching them together.  Then I had to choose coordinating papers from the paper pack.  I tried to coordinate colors as it was mostly floral papers that I was using. 

Once I got that done I started pulling pictures.  They start with our high school graduation pictures and proceed through our weddings, baby's, class reunions, trips back and forth, Christmas family photos, and pics of us with our families.  On the inside of the cover is a small envelope with a sentiment on vellum paper.  Our class song...Friends by Elton John was printed on vellum also and mounted to the left of our senior pictures.  The next pages mirror each other with a few pics of our weddings. I tried to mirror the photos, so one of her and her attendants, one of me and my attendants...you get the idea.  You also see ribbons sticking out of the bag pockets.  I put additional pictures on card stock and then put a grommet in the end of each card and looped an organza ribbon through it.

I also found some Jolee's embellishments for graduations, weddings, babies, etc. and added those to the pages as well.  I found that the paper bag bottoms that proved to be the short pages in between the regular sized pages were great for the embellishments or sentiments.  It allowed me to use more photos on the larger pages too.  I also used lots of different stickers and sentiments as well as stamping up and inking other sayings about friends and time and fixing those on the pages.  Additionally I stuck in some bling and more butterflies, because what flower garden is complete without butterflies.  The final two pages and the last pocket were mostly pics of Becky and me through the years.  Talk about a walk down memory lane...and boy the hairstyle and clothing changes in 35 years!  Good for lots of laughs for sure.  Great memories as well!  I hope she enjoyed receiving it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

Until next time...Imagine, Create, Enjoy!   



Gift Sets

Earlier this spring my co-worker Tamara asked me to make her a prayer journal gift set for the ladies retreat at her church.  She wanted to give it as a raffle gift at the retreat.  She wanted a really pretty prayer journal so we set off on a lunch hour for a Jo Ann's supply run.  She found this beautiful set of papers from KandCompany, their Susan Winget Botanical Speciality Paper Pad. I found the matching stickers and other dimensional embellishments so we were all set!  The first picture is the Prayer Journal.  I pulled two of the beautiful floral papers from this pad and trimmed them down to fit the journal.  On the top I added some of dimensional stickers including one of the word Faith.  I had some pretty pink satin ribbon in my stash and for the tag on the front I cut an oval shape on my Cricut.  I believe it was from Merry Tags cartridge.

I printed on an off-white piece of card stock the words Prayer Journal, cut it in a smaller oval shape using my Creative Memories oval shape cutter and mounted that on the pink tag and added some more of the dimensional stickers along with some pearl bling.  I then hooked a small heart clip through the tag opening and tied it on in a bow with the ribbon that was tied around the front cover of the prayer journal.
Since this was for a raffle gift I wanted to make a complete package so with the scraps I had left I made the small matching notebook that you see here.  I used the same matching satin ribbon and I punched a heart tag with my Creative Memories heart punch.  I punched a grommet hole and added a pink grommet, threaded it with white cotton cord, stamped the word notes and glittered it up.  I added a small butterfly sticker to mirror the one on the notebook and three pink pearls above the word notes.  I also added a little dimensional sticker to the bottom of the notebook.

And finally, with the remaining scraps from the two original 12 x 12 papers that I started with, I made some clothes pin magnets.  I originally saw this idea over at Scrappin Cat's blog here.  I loved the fact that it was such a great way to use up scraps from your paper projects.  In this instance it worked perfectly to complete this gift set. The embellishments I had for this project had some great small ones, butterflies and dragonflies that were the perfect size to fit on the magnets.  To showcase the magnets and keep them all together, I copied Cathy's idea of mounting them on card stock.  I used plain white for the background and embossed the paper with a pretty swirls Cuttlebug embossing folder.  I then used some of the remaining scraps from the project and made a topper and the band that the pins are anchored on.  I then enclosed the whole thing in a cellophane envelope.  Here they are.

And finally, the complete set ready for the raffle. 

Hope to see you again soon!  Until then, Imagine, Create, Enjoy!