Diaper Wreath for Baby Grace

My daughter, Jamie Cantrell, and the other Cantrell wives, Amy & Cindy threw a wonderful baby shower for Carmen & Mike Corder last weekend. Here's the expecting couple!

Carmen & Michael Corder

Jamie was made a diaper tiered cake and had lots of diapers left over so to put the remaining diapers to good use I created a Diaper Wreath.  Thus the following adventure began.  Mind you, I've never created anything with diapers before (other than the artful wrapping of a baby's tush)....so bear with me.  I did get the inspiration from Pinterest but added my own little twist.

Supplies:

Diapers
Beacon Adhesives Quick Grip
Beacon Fabric-Tac
Scrap cardboard for wreath base
Westcott Craft Hobby knife
Pencil
Westcott Titanium Bonded Scissors
2" wide ribbon in nursery color
1/4" ribbon in contrasting nursery color
2 1/2" ribbon for bow
Wood letter in a size to fit center
Nursery colors to paint wood letter


Directions:

With a scrap piece of cardboard:
          cut a 24 inch circle with the Westcott Craft Hobby Knife
          measure 4" in from outer circle
You will now have a donut looking piece
Along the back of the cardboard circle, use popsicle sticks to reinforce the structure.
Spray with white spray paint, covering edges & popsicle sticks.

Cut 2" ribbon into 8 inch lengths. Depending on your wreath, you will cut ribbon as you go along.

 

Roll diapers (these are number threes) tightly as shown above.

 

Wrap diaper with ribbon and apply Beacon Fabric adhesive, close ribbon over adhesive, hold for a few seconds, repeat until you have enough rolled diapers to cover the cardboard wreath.

Keep going......make sure both ends of the diapers are tucked neatly. You can see I haven't tucked the green above in yet.

Here you can see the cardboard wreath with all the little rolled up diapers.

Ok, so the directions I read said to cut the wreath 13 1/2" but I strayed thinking it was too small & made it 24 inches.......this makes for a LARGE wreath!  So if you don't need a huge one.......stick with a smaller diameter.  Here these rolled up diapers are lining up well.  Line up the diapers on the wreath and adhere with Beacon's Quick Grip one at a time creating a tight fit.

With the dark pink 1/4" ribbon, adhere end to the back and wrap one way in a diagonal all the away around the wreath from the outside diameter, coming up from the center hole.  When you get to the end, begin wrapping the opposite direction as shown below.

Now the wreath is literally beginning to POP with the contrasting color in place.

Here is the wreath with all the diapers attached, ribbons wrapped and ends tucked in neatly.  I love personalizing just about everything I make, this was no different.  Carmen & Mike have chosen the name "Grace" for their baby, so out to Hobby Lobby I go to get a letter G.  Little did I know that names beginning with a G was in so high a demand!  I found this frilly G hanging on the E peg.......so it went into my buggy in a flash & eyed everyone who got close in case they even thought of taking that G out of my buggy! :-) 

I painted the G with a light pink then using a hot pink to set the edges off and to add further contrast.

I created a bow using 2 1/2 inch sparkly hot pink wired ribbon.  In order to hang the G, Van thought of gluing the ribbon horizontally.  Vertically would have caused a dilemma when hanging......so horizontal it was. I adhered the G on with Quick Grip.  When dried, I carefully cut the ribbon out from the inside area as not to interfere with the beautiful lines of the G.

Here the diaper wreath is completed & hanging on the door at the baby shower. 

The new momma sent me this picture Saturday as it's the first wall decoration in baby Grace's room!

I must say it looks pretty on the wall in the nursery!  I believe the only thing I'd do different next time is to made the wreath smaller.  24 inches was a tad too large......

Of course I had to design a baby card to fit the occasion.....so here's a cute diaper card I found on the internet.  I couldn't resist!

I hope you enjoyed this post.......leave a comment!  I'd love to hear from you!

Letters, Journaling, Expressions

Journaling consists of letters. Letters form words that express wide ranges of emotions. A few of these emotions are: anger, happiness, fear, satisfaction, loneliness, contentment and so on. With letters in mind I took a different spin on the journaling aspect.

I love playing with letters, thus my love of the game "Words with Friends". I am challenged constantly by some really die hard friends who equally love the game. For these special friends who love the daily challenge of forming words, old & new, I created these earrings. The earrings form their first & last initials. Each initial is a wooden tile, hole drilled at the top & bottom, painted with glossy yellow paint, dangle attached, and earring findings finishing the piece
.

My hope is that these earrings will show these women, win or lose, that every game with them is special, exciting and so much fun. Each game produces words never before seen, much less heard of, so it's a constant learning process. The earrings are my little way of saying THANK YOU for challenging me through the process of word play.

Monday, these will go out in the mail to provide a Happy Mail day for these special ladies although if they read this posting, it won't be a surprise!

Now, for a traditional view of journaling!

This journal consist snippets of my family. The cover is a picture of me as a child, one of my favorites. As with most journals, they are always a work in progress. I'm always adding bits of fabrics, ribbons, beads, jewelry pieces, etc. to enhance the pages. This book is a small paper bag book, perfect with pocket pages to hide recipes or family secrets or simply MORE pictures!

Rubber stamp images have been used to add interest as well. On the page below is a picture of my dad in our locksmith business. Here I've used some Sizzix dies and grunge board. Torn pages out of a book lightly tinted with inks makes for a nice background.

My mother is an endless source of beauty for many of my projects. This picture screamed out for the use of antique lace so here ya go! I still need to do some seriously journaling on these pages, but you have to start somewhere! Wonder just what my mother was thinking when this picture was made? Ah, and I know just the person to ask! HER! I will record her answer on this page or in the small pocket just behind this picture.

These small journals are so easy to create & so easy to fill up without being overwhelmed with a large blank page to begin with. Creativity seems to just flow after you BEGIN.

Now, you ready to begin journaling?