Baby Shower Goody Bags/Jars

For a Baby Shower party, what else is cuter and fits in perfect for favors as baby jars with candy! Yes, its that simple. Find baby food jars, ask your mommy friends, or collect them yourself. I have a 9 month old and I use about 2-3 baby food jars a day; so it was easy for me to collect a few jars. I rinsed them, pulled the labels off, then used Goo-Gone to pull the sticky goo off, then lastly I ran them through the dishwasher (lids too). Once they were dry and clean I was able to start the process of putting the labels on them.

I printed out Thank You in different colors, and cut them up. I also took colored paper to match the baby shower colors and cut those just slightly larger then the Thank You squares. I then trimmed it all up.

Next I take the jar and find my front and back. Some of the jars had random black ink marks on them, so I used this chance to place it in the back or put my ribbon over it if I could.

I used a thin ribbon, and just a basic white. Make sure you have enough ribbon!

Take a hot glue gun and glue on side of the ribbon down in the FRONT of your jar.

Wrap the ribbon around and glue it in place next to the other end.

Now turn the jar around so the seam is facing away from you. Set it right next to you.

Grab your colored paper with the Thank You glued on to it, and place it facing down.

Place hot glue on it.

Press the ribbon seam side into the paper (do NOT use your fingers as the glue will be too hot and you might burn yourself). Press the jar into the paper, and roll it from side to side.

Then turn it around and press with your finger to make sure its secure.

Set them aside, and continue on... and finish the rest of your jars.

Grab all the lids off all the jars, and a can of colored spray paint. I used white, but after I sprayed the lids with several coats the expiration date was still noticeable. I would recommend a color that will cover that.

I then laid a box down, place all the lids a few inches apart, and started to spray. Be sure to get the sides too.

If they need to, give them a second coat.

Place the lids back on once they are dry, and start adding the candy (or whatever you want to put in them).

I also did the same labels with a piece of paper that said Rachel's Baby Shower, looped the ribbon around the baby bottles (which I purchased off amazon.) Just glue the ribbon to the sign and drape it over the bottle.

The finished product at the party. The baby bottles are in clear bags with other candy items.

Happy Goody Bag Making,
Sarah

Diaper Cake

Diaper cakes are fun. I have now had a chance to help with one, and make another. I helped make the diaper cake for my baby shower (for my second child) and made this one for my sisters baby shower. I only helped with the one for my shower (the green one), but I made the one for my sisters all on my own (blue colored).

I used this technique:

      You simply lay a few diapers stacked a half inch or so apart, and roll them up. I did about 4-5 diapers at a time and tied them with ribbon (the cheap stuff, almost like twine). I used less as I got closer to the top. I used about 10 or more bundles of the 4-5 diapers for the base, and just took a bundle or two out for each layer I went up.

      I also wrapped loose diapers around each layer on the outside to hide the bundles. You do the same technique as before, layering the diapers, and this time just tie them to the round with some decorative ribbon as you see in the photos. You can use tape or glue to place the two pieces of ribbon together (don't forget to place that in the back).

      I was transporting mine, from one house to the other so I was not using any structural support inside the diaper cake. If you are hanging things or placing stuff from the top to the bottom that you can not do on sight; you can simply purchase wooden rods from any craft store or hardware store and place those on the inside of the diaper layers. Simply slide it into the bottom base (about 3 or so), place your second layer on top making sure the rods slide between the diapers, and then either place new rods or continue stacking, depending on how long your rods are.

The finished product should look something like this:

Just finish it up with some cute toys, candles, rattles, bows, letters, spoons, or even travel size formula!

Heres the diaper cake from my shower, that I helped put together:

Happy Diaper Cake Making,
Sarah

Baby Shower Banner #2

I showed you the first banner I made for my sisters baby shower and how simple it was. I then made a REAL storybook themed banner from a Mother Goose book. I loved reading the Mother Goose rhymes when I was a kid, and still love to read them to my kids now. This banner take a little more time, but can still be done in a day or two.

First you will need to grab the following items:
-glue
-scissors
-pencil/pen
 -old book to cut up
-ribbon (white, 3 inches)
-a Mother Goose book or other book you enjoy for the theme
-colored scrapbook paper (needs to be 12 inches or larger)
-a banner template (the triangle shape), a large one and one just ever so slightly smaller.

1. Color copy the nursery rhymes from the Mother Goose book that you want to use. Make sure you copy enough for the amount of letters and spaces you need in the banner.

2. Cut out, using the template, the large triangle/banner pieces from the colored paper.

3. Cut out, using the smaller template, the triangle/banner pieces from the colored copy pages from the book

4. Lastly cut out of the old book paper the letters you need. You can do this free hand, with a stencil, or a machine.

5. Glue the letters to the colored pages from your themed book. Then glue those triangles to the colored triangles.

6. You now should have something that looks a lot like this:

7. Now you want to get a ribbon large enough to sew or glue the banner onto. I purchased a 3 inch sized white ribbon. I then folded it in half and placed the top of each triangle piece inside the fold. I then stitched along the bottom part of the ribbon, where the paper was.

8. I placed one triangles corner right next to the next triangles corner, barely leaving any gap.

9. Once done your banner should look something like this:

and at the party:

Now Get Started,
Sarah

Diaper Wreath

This another post from my sisters baby shower. If you recall the theme was Classic Storybook Baby Shower.

I saw a few ideas of Diaper Wreaths all over pinterest. However, some were so large that they were just ridiculous, and others were so plain and boring. I wanted something that welcomed guests to the party with a little baby inspired welcome. I didn't want it to be too much, or too heavy either; as I was going to hang mine on the front door. I eventually came up with this wreath:

At one point in time the blue bow at the top center was straight, oh well.

 To start out I made a circle about 12 inches wide. I then made another circle about 10 inches wide inside the 12 inch one, on cardboard. I then cut out around the 12 inch circle, and cut inside the 10 inch circle. The results are a cardboard wreath. You can purchase expensive ones, but this was way cheaper, and I had the cardboard on hand.

Now grab a few diapers. I had left over diapers from my son who recently grew out of size 3. I liked the colored prints on the size 3 diapers, plus they are larger then the newborn diapers, and cover more of the wreath. (Which is the look I was going for. I also used the leftover size 3 diapers in the diaper cake.) If you have a mommy-to-be who is going with cloth, another option is to use burp cloths, which I have a tutorial over HERE that you can check out and make! The Honest Company makes super cute designed diapers that would work great for any themed party!

I then opened the diaper, and placed the center of the diaper around the cardboard wreath cut out.

I had blue embroidery floss on hand (but you can purchase it at a local craft store for near to nothing), and I cut off about a 6-8 inch piece.

I then flattened the diaper, wrapped the blue floss around from the back to the front, double knotted it, and added a bow. You really don't need to, I just had extra floss. (I ended up turning the bow around to the back because I hated how it looked.)

I then added another diaper to the right of the first diaper, overlapping slightly to cover the cardboard, and flattened it.

I then again tied it to the cardboard wreath, using the blue dental floss, and finished it off with a bow.

I then added the last diaper and made sure all gaps or any cardboard was covered and filled in.

Add a long 10-12 inch piece of floss, wrapping around the cardboard wreath, to create a piece of floss to hang the wreath from. You can do this with pretty ribbon as well.

You now should have something like this:

I took a few extra minutes, and grabbed some scrapbook paper, stickers, and some pretty blue ribbon. I then traced out a banner onto the scrap book paper, and carefully cut it out. Finished off the details on the front with a very fine point sharpie. I added some cute baby shower 3-D like stickers, and a small blue ribbon bow on the top. I also turned all the blue floss bows to the back, as I ended up not liking them in the end.

The end result was exactly what I was expecting. Simple, elegant, and sticking to the storybook theme with Sesame Street! The wreath holders can be purchased at a craft store, or even at a hardware store. They usually are at an all time low, in price, right after the holidays. I always suggest grabbing a few different colors (or styles) to have on hand for all year round!

Now Bedazzle Your Door With a Cute Wreath,
Sarah

Craft Idea

I was trying to clean up my craft/sewing room the other day, yes its a disaster. I came across one of those shower curtain pressure mount extension rods. I had purchased a few small skinny ones when we lived in Okinawa, Japan; because we had a small kitchen window that had tile all around it. Anyways, I grabbed the small rod, looked at my ribbon rolls and BAM! I thought, why not just put the ribbon rolls onto the rod, and pressure mount it into my bookcase! Brilliant!

Now I can just slide it off, add new ones, and or take old ones off, and its portable. I can move from this house to another, and I will always have somewhere to put this, because I will always have those bookcases! So, if you don't want to make or purchase some fancy wood box that holds the ribbons, now you can purchase a skinny pressure mount extension rod and your problem is solved! Super cheap, or in my case free, crafty clean up, check! Also, if you don't have a bookcase like mine, you can do this with any space. Just find an area in the closet, or you can purchase a small bookcase at a thrift store or garage sale.

I used one of my smaller shelf areas, so the ribbon wouldn't run away.

Heres the rod up close. It works great.

I did want to point out, in the photo above, you can see the rubber stoppers on the end of the rod... I had to take mine off to get a few of the ribbon rolls onto the rod. So, in other words, make sure the rubber stops come off, or you get a rod small enough to fit over the holes in the ribbon rolls. 

All I need to do now is get a ton more ribbon.

Happy Hunting,
Sarah