Happy Friday! Here’s a little dose of inspiration to start the weekend…
Credit: ‘Margarita Cupcakes’ by Annie’s Eats adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride, who adapted it from Martha Stewart
Credit: Anthropologie summer window displays by Anthropologie via design*sponge
Credit: HipHeart by Lori Ramotar via When I Grow Up
Credit: Mandy Lynne photography and Ruffled
Credit: Birdcages via EssG/Racked Flickr Pool via Racked NY
My best friend got married back in June and I got to plan her Bachelorette party. And because I have a newfound infatuation with all things DIY (and she shares in this fascination), I decided to get pretty craft-tastic in my party planning. Luckily, I have a talented and crafty mother that I could turn to for help on all the projects I had planned.
My mom and I began work on the Bachelorette sash a month prior to the Bachelorette party, while I was home in Wisconsin visiting for the bridal shower. I’m glad we got a head-start, because making the actual sash itself, turned out to be much more difficult than anticipated. It took a lot of trial and error getting the length and angle right. But finally, we succeeded.
I couldn’t have made the sash without my mom – the master sewer. Her stash of scrap fabrics, rolls of ribbon up the whazoo, and buckets and bucket of buttons, didn’t hurt either. She holds onto everything, just like me. In fact, the sash itself was made from remnants of a wedding dress that she had altered awhile back. Fitting right? The black flowers were made from fabric remnants from the bride’s own sister’s bridesmaid dress alterations. And the buttons affixed to the green flowers were pretty vintage ones that used to belong to my Grandmother’s stash of buttons.
Here are the flowers up-close. I made them at home in California ahead of time, and brought them to Wisconsin with me. What you can’t see in any of the photos though, is that I sewed some felt to the back to cover the stitches and added a pin so that each flower would be removable and reusable.
The bride’s one special request was a lollipop bouquet. And not because she wanted to sell the lollipops during our evening out…just because she thought they were cute.
In hindsight, I wish I would have taken some photos of the supplies or the process. Oh well. The completed product turned out really cute. I dreaded the idea of constructing it…but in the end, it ended up being my very favorite project.
For the party guests, I made Bachelorette “Survival Kit” gift bags. I originally saw this idea on 100 Layer Cake and knew I had to replicate it.
My “survival kits” included candy jewelry, lip gloss, gum, hair ties, band-aids, antibacterial moist wipes, and tissues.
Adapted from: Meredith’s Bachelorette Survival Kits via 100 Layer Cake
Oh, and the “survival kits” also included a copy of the “Bachelorette Oath of Secrecy” that I adapted from here and here.
Adapted from: bachelorettepartyfun.com and BachelorPartyTips.com
And finally, the last Bachelorette party DIY project was my gift for the bride. I gave her these Panty Parfaits which I originally saw on Weddingbee. Note for if you try to make these for yourself: The bigger the glass the better.
Adapted from: Mrs. Cheeseburger via Weddingbee
I think the bride liked all her goodies and she sure looks adorable in that sash!
Credit: All photos taken by me.
Here are two cards I made recently.
The first was for my sister. This card accompanied the gift I gave to her at her baby shower.
And in case you’re curious, these are the gifts that the aforementioned card accompanied. I picked up the first outfit at Target (it’s by Carter’s) back in the beginning of my sister’s pregnancy when she was so sure she was having a boy.
When we found out she was having another girl, I found this outfit to be too cute to return. I mean, come on! It has little doggie ears on the hoodie! How cute is that? I just made a few adjustments to make the outfit more suitable for a girl (like removing the tag on the front of the onesie that said, “Tough Guy”) and I made a matching girlie headband too.
The elastic headband base was purchased from Luvable Creations Boutique via Etsy. I made the flower using some ribbon, a needle, thread…and wha-la!
The other outfit I picked up at H&M. How much do I love that they have a children’s section??? The little pants are super cute with hot pink sparkly thread sewn along the black stripes.
For the matching headband to this outfit, I also purchased the elastic headband base from Luvable Creations Boutique via Etsy. The only difference with this flower was that I used wired ribbon instead.
And finally, the second card I made was for my niece Riley. I wanted to send her a card after her new sister was born. She is 3 years old and now becoming a big sister for the very first time. Things sure will be changing for her!
Credit: All photos taken by me.
Happy Friday! Here’s a little dose of inspiration to start the weekend…
Credit: ‘Diversify’ by Thomas Hawk
Credit: Fudge Magazine via Black Eiffel
Credit: Pinch My Salt
Credit: Mary Kate McDevitt and The Blah, Blah, Blahg…
![IMG_0003c_thumb[3]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrx1rvTelKZMDN18OMB4C9TyLugeaq3zcxoq4Mg2YyhZyAwSQPKkDVV6myQjHo3zR3-Wi3bEFZSsL3XI9X3wQO0uWhlx2xsCsWVAM1xt2d4Dm4VbTcWsDlixfZ2MZRMtkKoHbAzLqtEXo/s1600-h/IMG_0003c_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg "IMG_0003c_thumb[3]")
Credit: ‘Chicken and Artichokes with Wine Sauce’ by Proceed With Caution
While I was home in Wisconsin last month, my mom helped me with a handful of Bachelorette party projects. Those pictures are still to come in an upcoming post, by the way. After those projects were done-finished-finito, I got to help her with one she was working on…a diaper cake for my sister’s shower!
I have to say, I was pretty excited when she called saying she wanted my help. It may sound silly, but I have a newfound infatuation with all things DIY, and have been wanting to learn how to make a diaper cake for quite awhile now.
When I arrived, my mom was prepared. She had supplies, tutorial videos to watch, and had already rolled most of the diapers.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
*Be sure to check out the bottom of this post for additional notes.
The whole construction process of a diaper cake is pretty self-explanatory. Start by rolling up all 84 diapers. We rolled from the bottom (of each diaper) to the top. Fasten the rolled diaper with a rubber band.
Once all your diapers are rolled, you can start bunching them up into the necessary circle shape. On a flat surface, put 1 rolled diaper upright. Then gather 7 more diapers around that to form another ring of diapers. Fasten this with one of the extra-long rubber bands. What you have, should look like this (the top tier):
1 + 7 = 8
Onto the middle tier. Once again, on a flat surface, put 1 rolled diaper upright. Then gather 6 more diapers around that to form another ring of diapers. Fasten with an extra-long rubber band. Around that ring, gather 12 more diapers and fasten with an extra-long rubber band. What you have, should look like this:
1 + 6 + 12 = 19
Next is the bottom tier. On your 14-inch tray or cardboard circle, put 1 rolled diaper upright (in the photo below, disregard the bottle in the middle, which we replaced with a diaper). Then gather 6 more diapers around that to form another ring of diapers. Fasten with an extra-long rubber band. Around that ring, gather 11 more diapers and fasten with an extra-long rubber band. Around that ring, gather 17 more diapers and fasten with an extra-long rubber band. And finally, around that ring, gather 22 more diapers and fasten with an extra-long rubber band. What you have, should look like this:
1 + 6 + 11 + 17 + 22 = 57
Stack the middle tier on top of the bottom tier. Then stack the top tier on top of the middle tier. What you have should be starting to resemble a tiered cake. Stick the dowels through the top tier (on either side of the center diaper), down until you hit the base tray/cardboard. This should stabilize the diaper cake and make it much easier to move.
8 + 19 + 57 = 84
Now onto the fun part – DECORATING!!! My mom and I were pretty minimal with our decoration, but you can go all out. We started by adding a rattler/squeaker to the top of the cake, which we squeezed into the diaper at the top-center. Then we followed up by wrapping each layer with ribbon to cover the rubber bands.
For the ribbon, you will want to unroll some and determine exactly how much you need for each tier. Leave a little extra when you cut – maybe half an inch or so. Wrap the length of ribbon around the tier. Position the ribbon so it is covering the rubber bands and pretty straight (does not have to be perfect at this point since you can readjust a little after). Fold one end of the ribbon over so that the edge will be clean, and hot glue to the other end of the ribbon. Be sure it is tight around the tier. When the hot glue cools, you can readjust the ribbon band and make sure it is straight.
Continue the same process with the ribbon on each tier.
My mom and I also made little roses out of baby socks for decoration on each tier. Aren’t they adorable? Click here to see Purplemtn7’s video tutorial via YouTube where my mom found this super cute idea.
We placed the little baby sock rosettes around each tier of the diaper cake and stuffed them into the diapers below to get them to stay put.
Finally, here is the finished product. A diaper cake for a baby girl.
And in action as the table centerpiece at my sister’s baby shower. Complete with cute favors around it that my mom made.
As I mentioned above, my mom also made some cute little favors – baby booties made from styrofoam cups. She found a video here by yoyomax12 via YouTube, but ended up recreating these instead using ribbon and hot glue.
In addition to that, she made a really awesome baby carriage from a watermelon. She found a video here by EatAllAboutIt via YouTube.
NOTES:
Credit: All photos taken by me. Styrofoam baby bootie video by yoyomax12 via YouTube. Stryofoam baby booties via Creative Baby Shower Ideas. Watermelon baby carriage video by EatAllAboutIt via YouTube.
