DIAPER MOTORCYCLE TUTORIALS AND A NEW CAKE

This past weekend I was lucky to attend a baby shower for my soon to be great-great nephew!!!! That makes me the equivalent of a great-grandparent.

Next weekend I get to attend another one for another great-great baby to come. That one’s gender is a surprise so the cake is more generic in color.

I have made the cakes before and you can see my tutorials here and here.

This time I tried a new project. A diaper motorcycle. Too cute of course and super easy to make.

Here is what you will need:

34 diapers (17 for each tire)
A couple large rubber bands
2 bibs (or onesies)
2 receiving blankets
1 pair of mittens or socks
1 baby bottle
1 washcloth
1 chain link baby toy
ribbon in your choice of pattern/color
1 stuffed animal of your choice no bigger than 20 inches

Start with a container of some sort to help hold the diapers. A bowl, a low pan, hunt through your kitchen.

 Take half the diapers and spread them into a circle inside the container. Play with them to space them out evenly. Don’t fuss too much just yet.

Put a rubber band around the diapers or tie them with some string quite tightly. Now fuss with them some more to space them out evenly.

Make a second tire and keep the diapers facing the same way.

Take some ribbon and wrap it around the centre of the tires. I staple mine nice and tight. No one will see the staples if you make that the bottom of the tires.

Now you take one of the receiving blankets and fold it in half, long edge to long edge. Roll the blanket up starting with the open edge so you end up with a long tube.

You can tack the ends together with a few stitches if you like.

Place the rolled up blanket through the front tire and then through the back tire where you will crisscross it tightly. 

Remember to keep any staples in your ribbon at the bottom of the tires.

I overlapped my blanket and tucked the ends back inside the wheel.

Again a few stitches will hold it together but make sure not to puncture the diapers or you may be the one holding baby on that leaky day.

Roll up the second receiving blanket the same as the first and pull it through the front wheel even on both sides. This will make the handlebars.

If you are using bibs lay one over the wheel like a fender. If using a onesie then fold the arms in and tuck it down between the wheels.

Wrap the baby bottle with a washcloth and lay this over the front “fender”. This is now the headlight.

Pull up the second receiving blanket over the headlight and slide a chain toy down over the ends of the receiving blanket and tighten it right down to the headlight.

You can tuck some cardboard into the ends of the handlebars for stability before you tuck them into the socks or mittens.

You can see that the stuffie’s arms weigh down the handlebars so you should probably not lean them on the bars.

You can find the link for the instructions for the cake at the top of this post.

A WATERCOLOR COMPLIMENT

After my last post Diane from Lydia's Post commented on what a nice painting on of my photos would make. I told her to go ahead and do it and she did. 

This is my photo.  

Click Here to go to her blog to see the watercolor she did of this scene.

BOOKMARKS

There is still time to enter to win a copy of the My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking program.
It is so much more than a photo scrapbooking program. How about making bookmarks. Just pop a personalized one into a book and you will have great gift.
I would cover the page with a sheet of plastic laminate on both sides before cutting into individual bookmarks. Use a hole punch and add a nice ribbon at the top

.

You can enter to win a copy for yourself here or if you want to buy your own copy use this code to get a discount on your purchase of the My Memories Suite

  
USE CODE STMMMS68194 FOR A DISCOUNT ON YOUR ORDER OF MEMORY SUITE VER. 3

A WONDERLAND OF FAERIE FOLK & FRIENDS

I have been introduced to an artist who does something completely different. His beautiful artwork takes you to a world of wonder and imagination. You can’t just glance at these pictures. You need to take your time and look through them for the tiny ant or the face in the background looking in on the faeries.

Since a young lad Bill Oliver has had an interest in the unusual and arcane. A few years back he started to create that which he only imagined prior. Although his art covers all aspects of the paranormal including vampires, monsters,zombies and other darker side entities, it is his love for The Wee Ones,Sprites and The Fae where his true passion lies.
After receiving a 1st place prize in a Christmas art contest judged by best selling author Brad Steiger the two went on to  work together with Oliver's art being featured in several of Brad's books. "I hope my art has a lasting impression with those who view it and allow the viewer to slip away into the magic for a moment or two".

Bill Oliver resides in Vancouver,BC and is currently in the midst of a massive project called"The Wee Ones" 

You may contact him at eastender@telus.net. His website is at  http://www.boysoblue.com

He is happy to create custom work for those who wish..

When the winds of March are wakening the crocuses and crickets,
Did you ever find a fairy near some budding little thickets,...
And when she sees you creeping up to get a closer peek
She tumbles through the daffodils, a playing hide and seek.
~Marjorie Barrows

Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.
~William Butler Yeats, "The Land of Heart's Desire," 1894

Princess Edane... heard a voice singing on a May Eve like this, and followed half awake and half asleep, until she came into the Land of Faery, where nobody gets old and godly and grave, where nobody gets old and crafty and wise, where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue.  ~William Butler Yeats, "The Land of Heart's Desire," 1894

The Realm of Fairy is a strange shadow land, lying just beyond the fields we know.  ~Author Unknown

Fairies are invisible and inaudible like angels.  But their magic sparkles in nature.  ~Lynn Holland

A lady, with whom I was riding in the forest, said to me, that the woods always seemed to her to wait, as if the genii who inhabit them suspended their deeds until the wayfarer has passed onward: a thought which poetry has celebrated in the dance of the fairies, which breaks off on the approach of human feet.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "History"

The Realm of Fairy is a strange shadow land, lying just beyond the fields we know.  ~Author Unknown

You can contact Bill Oliver at:

eastender@telus.net. His website is at  http://www.boysoblue.com

He is happy to create custom work. Imagine what a special gift this would make.

JUNK ART

This stuff is amazing. Some people are so creative.
Junk Auto Parts~Art

SOME BUNNY LOVES YOU

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL OF YOU.

Isn't this an adorable picture. There are plenty of other wonderful badges over at Rose Petals from Heaven.

IT'S A GIRL - DIAPER CAKE

One of my nieces is having a baby girl in May. I am going to her baby shower in April and am bringing a diaper cake. This time knowing it is a girl I opted for the pink. You can see the last one I made here along with more complete instructions. 

 I collected some decorative items. Note the Scotch brand double sided tape. That is going back to the store. I tried for half an hour to separate the plastic covering from the sticky with no luck. What good is that. $6.00 and it is going right back. 

Collect some pretty ribbons and some silk flowers.

Find a big container to build around. Last time I used a peanut butter jar but I was out so this time I used my brown sugar container. It doesn't matter as this is a temporary item.

I put this on a large round aluminum tray normally used for veggie platters or something. They are light weight and work perfectly. Line up about 48 diapers around the container. Don't fuss, that comes later. 

Tie it tightly with string, (use your son's finger to hold the string while you tie the knot. Don't have a son? I'll send mine.) remove the container and roll up about 8 diapers to fill the hole tightly. Now you can fuss with the placement. Make them nice and even.

Take some tulle and a needle and thread and run a stitch along the top edge gently sliding the tulle down the length of thread to make like a ballerina skirt. The tulle look very pink on the roll but loses most of its color when you have a single layer of it. I would go the darker hot pink shade to get a more visible skirt. When you have enough of it done so it will hang out over the top of this cake layer secure the ends together and fan out the skirt. 

Wrap some of your pretty ribbon around the string so you can't see it and secure it to itself with some double sided tape. Don't stick anything to the diapers themselves or you will ruin them. 

Make the next layer the same way but use a smaller container for the center and use about 28 diapers this time and then fill in the center with 4 or 5 rolled diapers. 

It helps to have lots of cans around to guide the diapers into a circle. 
Remember not to fuss as you will tweek it once it is tied securely. 

 Put this layer on top and stick a wooden chopstick down the center to help keep them together. Don't poke any holes or you will have leaky diapers and it may be you holding the baby that day. 
Make another ballerina skirt with the tulle and put it between the second and third layers. 

 Top this with a third layer made from 14 diapers with 2 or 3 more in the center. One more chopstick through the middle. I topped this with a big pink bow. It had long white ribbon ties for wrapping it around a gift so I pulled them down through the middle and out between the first and second layers and then curled the ribbon with some scissors. 

Add in some silk flowers gently placing them between the layers. 

Continue to adjust so that the cake layers are not uneven. 

If you want a bit more detail click here for my 1st. diaper cake tutorial.