Cloth Diaper Cake Tutorial

This has been a week full of baby stuff! How fun...and I don't even have a baby! Today, I'm going to show how I made this gorgeous baby shower diaper cake out of all cloth baby necessities. It is very eco-friendly and any friend who is a mom-to-be would love it as a gift...I know I would have when I was expecting my babies.

 

Here is what you need to make your own eco-friendly cloth diaper cake:

- Muslin Cloths, Baby Bath Towels, Burp Cloths, Baby Wash Cloths, Baby Prefolds (Cloth Diapers)

- Ribbon (I replaced the one in this picture with a prettier ribbon when I made the cake)

- Scissors

- Chopsticks or something similar

- Cake Stand or another base on which to display your cake

- Baby Bibs

Here is how you make a cloth diaper cake:

1. Place baby bibs on cake stand.

2. Fold baby bath towels to the desired width that will end up being the height of the first layer (I folded the baby bath towels in thirds lengthwise). Roll them up. Carefully wrap muslins or prefolds or burp cloths around the outside of the rolled towels. This is the bottom layer of the cake.

3. Tie a decorative ribbon around the rolled bath towels to hold them together. Some people use a rubber band to hold everything together. I used my hands and legs and carefully tied the ribbon. I didn't want an ugly rubber band to show through since my ribbon was transparent.

4. Stick a couple of chopsticks between the gaps in your rolled towels. Be very careful and gentle so that you don't accidentally snag the towels.

5. Roll burp cloths, muslins, prefolds the same way you did the towels, but make the width of the roll slightly smaller. This is the middle layer of the cake. Again, tie a ribbon around the roll to hold it together.

6. Very carefully, place the second layer on the bottom layer so that the chopsticks stick up into the gaps of the rolled cloths. The chopsticks will hold your second layer in place.

7. Roll washcloths or burpcloths, muslins, etc. in a similar way as the other two layers. I overlapped the washcloths in a line on the floor and then rolled them. This helped create a nice, even roll. Tie a ribbon around the roll. This is the top layer. You can end here or continue with a muslin rose on top.

8. Follow my tutorial to make a muslin rose. Then carefully and gently place a chopstick through the rose so that the rose is at the top like a lollipop.

9. Gently stick the chopstick into the center of the top layer until the rose is resting on top.

You now have a gorgeous cake that will make a lovely gift for any mum-to-be.

Besides making a lovely gift, they add a special touch to the decor at a baby shower. Here is mine on the food table among a tasty assortment of snacks and sweets...

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I'm linking up to some of these fabulous parties.

How to Make a Muslin Cloth Rose

If you follow along, you have probably seen the recent post about my homemade cloth diaper cake that was part of my friend's baby shower decor. This is a closer look at one part of the cake: the muslin cloth rose. I'm going to show how you can make your own muslin rose, which is a beautiful addition to a diaper cake. You could also arrange a few of these into a muslin rose bouquet or to top a wrapped gift.

There are only two things you need to make your own muslin cloth rose:

1. Baby Muslin Cloth (like these)

2. Ribbon

I obviously used baby muslins but you could also use any type of thin, soft, flexible fabric if you do not intend for them to be used by a mom-to-be.

1. Lay out the cloth and fold it in approximate thirds.

2-4. Again fold muslin in thirds, creating a long, narrow folded piece.

5-6: Roll from one side until you have about a third of the length remaining unrolled.

7. Pick up the roll and fold top edge down toward you at an angle (diagonal).

8-9. Continue to bring the unrolled length around, holding it in place as you carefully bring it around.

10. Your unrolled length will eventually end up back at the diagonal from number 7.

11. Tuck the amount of remaining length into the space under the folded diagonal. This will hold the rose together.

12. Admire your cloth rose.

Tie a ribbon around the rose to hold it securely in place. 

Here is a look at the muslin rose I used to top the cloth diaper cake...

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I'm linking up to some of these fabulous parties.

Baby Shower Decor

I helped organize a baby shower for a friend last week. We did not want to go overboard with games and decorations, but still wanted it to have a special feel. So, we kept to simple baby shower decorations that included gifts for the mom-to-be to take home!

This one is a oldie but goodie. I love the look of the onesies hanging from a clothesline...I probably should have ironed them. Oh, well. To make it a bit prettier, we used sheer, slightly sparkly ribbon instead of an actual clothesline. 

We used the same ribbon to tie balloons to the "throne" and to hang these adorable wool diaper wraps from the chandelier.

I made the wool wraps from felted charity shop sweaters and Katrina's Sew Quick Soaker Pattern. I forgot to take more pictures of them before hanging them at the party, so this is the best you get to see. Hopefully, I'll be making some more for her soon.

Along with the onesie clothesline and soaker chandelier, we decided to have a "diaper cake." This was a bit tricky because the mom-to-be is going to use cloth nappies (diapers). Instead of using my own brain, I first tried to find an online tutorial for how to make one - impossible! So, I set my laptop aside, and used my own creativity to figure it out. Easy.

I will have a full tutorial on how to make a cloth diaper cake in the next few days in case anyone else out there ever needs a little guidance. In summary, I used baby bath towels, muslins, burp cloths, and lots of waschcloths to make the beautiful cake. So, I guess it isn't technically a diaper cake, but I actually think it is much prettier with the cloth instead of the disposables.

Click here to learn how to fold your own muslin cloth rose. Besides using them to top the cake, you could also use them in a bouquet or to decorate a wrapped gift.

In a few days, I'll put up the tutorial for the cloth diaper cake!

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I'm linking up to some of these fabulous parties.

Watercolor Valentines

Today we finished our Valentine's Day cards. I recently saw this tutorial for watercolor resist cards on Grow Creative that shows how to make homemade Valentine's Day cards. My kids loved it, even my little guy who isn't usually that interested in the creative projects I plan for him and his sister. Now we have another way to make homemade Valentines for my kids to give their friends, teachers, and loved ones!

I usually do involved projects like this in stages with my kids. So, on Friday the kids used white crayons and stencils to create a variety of designs. Today, Saturday, we pulled out the paints and they added beautiful colors to the cards.

After painting the first few Valentines, we started to wonder why the crayons weren't resisting the paint as much as they should. We could barely see the hearts on the one above...or the sun and kitten in the other. At first I thought our crayons weren't quality enough, but then we tried using the crayon on a new card and painting it right after.

This worked much better! So I strained to see the shapes and designs on the unpainted-but-already-designed-cards and traced over the work my children had done the day before.

I love the effect. I love that my kids didn't stick with only the traditional hearts for their Valentine's Day cards, but used a variety of shapes from our stencils...circles, stars, squiggles, even a Christmas holly leaf to make a shooting star!

They did some Valentine hearts, too. This one looks like a bleeding heart...unintentional, of course.

My kids really enjoyed watching the colors mix, watching the shapes emerge, and making the Valentines special for each person!

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I'm linking up to these fabulous parties!

Pinned It & Did It : Frozen Balloons

This edition of "Pinned It & Did It" makes me laugh when I think about it because unlike the gnome hats, this was pretty much a complete failure. I pinned this idea months ago via my sister...

Source: Uploaded by user via Jessica on Pinterest

The title of the pin reads is as follows: "Fill balloons with water, freeze and use and reuse them instead of ice! Good idea for birthday parties!" 

How clever, right? 

I was waiting and waiting to have a party that I could use the idea. The day of the fairy party was perfect - not too hot, not too cold, not too sunny, but not too grey either. So we needed cold drinks. I asked King Damascus (read About Me to find out who he is) to fill the balloons and freeze them. Easy. Ten fit in our freezer...plenty for our small party. Before the guests arrived, King Damascus cleaned a wheelbarrow that I thought would be cute to hold the drinks in the garden. Then we added the frozen balloons...

Snap...crackle...pop!

The balloons popped. All of them.

What a contrast to the festive idea that was pinned. I just made myself laugh because I realised there is a contrast in our beverages as well. Ha. At least we had some really large ice cubes to keep the drinks cold!

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Update:

I've linked up to these fabulous parties!