Giving Back

In between orders, I'm constantly looking for new projects to work on and opportunities to fine-tune my skills. When I got wind of a local non-profit seeking items for a silent auction that would be held at the city's annual Independence Day festival, I thought it would be a great opportunity to not only help the group, but to see if I could get my name out a bit more. Of course, I have to admit, I have a soft spot for this non-profit, the Smart Mommies Education Foundation, because it is a new organization that came about from a humble beginning of breastfeeding support meetings that grew into general mom support meetings which I've been attending since my oldest was just under 6 mo old. I jumped at the opportunity to give back.

For this project, I wanted to put together a larger cake. Most of the cakes I've sold have been 2-tier cakes. It's been a while since I built a 3-tier cake and I wanted to go all out for this one. After a poll of my Facebook fans, I chose to create a green and white frog themed cake. I found some adorable frog receiving blankets which gave the foundation of the theme. The structure of the cake was of course diapers; and this cake was my first official spiral style cake. I stacked the tiers, wrapping a receiving blanket around each one. On the bottom tier a constructed a new way to display washcloths and a pair of baby mittens in the front of the cake. A decorative bow was placed in the middle tier and a second pair of mittens on the top tier balanced it out. on the sides of the cake, I positioned three pairs of socks - two on the bottom tier and one on the top tier. The middle tier held two coordinating pacifiers. Since I wanted this cake to have appeal all the way around, I also placed two matching hats on the bottom and middle tier on the back of the cake. Crinkle paper was added to each of the tiers. The crowning glory of this cake? An adorable 10" plush frog that I couldn't resist.

I absolutely love this cake and it's now among my favorites that I've created. It's the biggest cake I've made standing taller and including more diapers than usual. It has more baby items than I traditionally add as well. I don't know at this point how well it did in the silent auction, but I hope it did well and was able to bring in some money for the group. I had so much fun creating this cake and I can't wait until my next opportunity to work on a similar project.

The Next "Big" Holiday Cake

Since I set the precedent of making holiday themed cakes, I couldn't very well ignore Independence Day, so I set out to make another of my mini display cakes. This one proved a little more difficult since I use things I have around to create these cakes. They are, after all, intended to inspire ideas and show off the wide variety of things that can be done with diaper cakes.

This holiday cake actually started out with the topper - an American flag pinwheel my father-in-law had gotten for my oldest son. With that inspiration, I set out to make the cake. I had a Red, White, and Blue baby bodysuit in a larger size (18 mo) that actually fit quite well around the top tier of the mini cake. I used two prefold diapers/burp cloths for the bottom tier and added a blue washcloth for a splash of color. Coordinating ribbons decorated the tiers and with a bit of crinkle paper, the cake was complete.

This cake certainly doesn't have the quantity of baby items that I typically add, but I'll be honest, the cake didn't quite get the same attention that I've given some other display cakes since I felt in a bit of a rush for the holiday. I like that the bodysuit fit well around that top tier and it gives me yet another option for future cakes. The only drawback with this is that the bodysuit was a larger size and most diaper cakes focus on very young babies. That's not to say that it's not an option and two smaller bodysuits could certainly be used instead. The "fan" I created with the washcloth is also a new idea and I like the effect, but I may change up a bit how I do it to give it a cleaner look if I incorporate a washcloth in this manner in a future cake.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Independence Day! I'll be sure to keep up with the cakes. The holiday ones provide a challenging springboard for my creativity!

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

Here I go again, recreating things I've done. While most my previous recreations are adapting things to a smaller size, I now have up-sized. Biggie sized. Super sized. And we are done with the fast food references... This time, it's the cupcakes that get the attention.

At the beginning of this year, I decided to add baby cupcakes to my product line introducing a cute little way to present washcloths and other baby items. To get the right effect, the baby gift needs to be presented in a cupcake wrapper. The first ones I did were great and with a little tweaking, I figured out how I wanted them to look. The regular sized wrappers presented a bit of a problem though. Their size limited what baby items could be used. For a bigger or bulkier item, a larger cake wrapper would be needed.

Introducing, the Large Cupcake. With the assistance of a larger cupcake wrapper, I was able to create a cupcake with a baby bodysuit and a coordinating washcloth. With a few more embellishments like a "cherry" on top and final wrapping, this can be a modest gift or several could be placed around a shower location as sweet little decorations later to be sent home with the expectant mom.

I was very pleased with this addition to my product line and would have stopped there if I hadn't seen the stack of coffee filters in the pantry. Coffee filters look strangely like giant cupcake wrappers, so I had to keep going and create the Jumbo Cupcake! With this cupcake, I could incorporate even more baby items and larger items for yet another gift. This first one I created included four washcloths and two terry burp cloths. This too will need some mild tweaking in the form of a "cherry" on top and the final packaging. Again, these could be given as a modest gift or several could be placed around a shower as decorations.

I am very excited about these two new items and have since updated the product catalog that I keep (a binder with individual pages for each type of gift with a description, pricing, and pictures to give examples of each item). Now, since I started all this, I need to see if a mini-cupcake is in my future. I'm not too sure since those wrappers are awfully tiny, but you never know!

On the go and on a roll...

I recently felt like I was losing momentum because I had tried so many new things in the past month and added so many new things to my product line. May 2011 has been an exciting month! In my attempt to maintain the same "super drive" I've been on, I sought out some new projects.

My goal this time was to see if I could master the elusive motorcycle cake. These I've seen before in a few places. While there seem to be hundreds of companies or individuals that make diaper cakes in just as many styles and variations, only a handful of them make the motorcycle diaper cakes. Along with those, you can also find tricycles and with even less frequency, a four-wheeler. I've always been intrigued by these. I've always seemed to have difficulty figuring out how they were put together. I really thought that it would be rather difficult and before I'd been very hesitant to try.

I have to admit I was really surprised at how cute my first attempt at making a motorcycle turned out. The wheels of the bike are made from diapers arranged similarly to how they would be done in a spiral style cake. Receiving blankets are used to create a sort of frame and handle bars. Many people that make these "cakes" will use bibs for other components of the motorcycle, but since I didn't have any handy, I substituted prefold diapers/burp cloths which worked nicely. A small bottle was placed below the handle bars to act as a headlight for the motorcycle. For a final touch, a stuffed rabbit (my own stuffed animal) was seated on the bike as a rider.

After taking several pictures from different angles of the motorcycle, I wanted to try my hand at the tricycle. Many of the components of the tricycle are very similar to that of the motorcycle, the main difference being that there are two wheels in the rear that are smaller than the larger front wheel. For this vehicle, I used the same pieces from the motorcycle and built up a tricycle. I may make a few adjustments for future tricycles by adding more pieces, and by that I mean more baby items. I also noticed that pictures don't really do it justice since it's hard to see the detail on this "cake" which is a bit frustrating.

Because these first trials came out so well, I will go ahead and consider these part of my product line to offer more options for customers. I'm very excited about this since I was so hesitant to try it out before. I'm going to try to consider other options of unique or less frequently seen diaper "cakes" so I have not only more options but I can offer gifts that people may not have seen before or something that may tie in closer to a set theme for a shower or nursery. If nothing else, I suppose I set a precedence of experimenting with new things as well as expanding my product line, so I suppose I need to see if I can keep up the pace in June and beyond.

Cloth Diaper Diaper Cakes Reaching New Heights

I've done it again. While participating in the discussion on the diaper cake forum I joined recently, some participants were musing about the multiple tiered diaper cakes made with cloth diapers. Before realizing what I was saying, I added that, "Of course it's possible." After posting the response, I realized that I probably should "put my money where my mouth is" and stop acting like I knew what I was talking about without any proof. I didn't doubt that it could be done, but I wanted to make sure that my assessment of the ease and the final outcome would be not only doable, but also something that potential customers were actually interested in.

The biggest challenge was making the diaper cake with non-prefold diapers. The previous cloth diaper diaper cakes I had made were formed with prefolds which rolled as easily as disposables (maybe a bit less compact) or  could be formed in a spiral as neatly as disposables. I felt I needed to see how it would look over all if cloth diapers were used to make a multiple tier cake and see how it would come together if an alternate variety of diapers was used. Of course, part of me was also challenged and I had to see if I could do it.

Because the cost of cloth diapers can be quite an investment - when not using prefolds or flat fold diapers, that is - I wasn't bold enough to order new diapers for my experiment, but being a cloth diapering mom myself, I decided that for experimentation purposes, I could use my own diapers to see how it all would look. I use fitted diapers which are shaped like a regular diaper and are stretchy so the can be worn close to the body. My diapers are also one-size diapers which can be folded and snapped down for use on the baby early on and can be unfolded and used at different snap settings for older/larger babies. For the diaper cake, I also included the additional liners that can be used with the diapers for extra absorption. I used 12 diapers and 6 liners which is the amount that is found in one of the package deals from the company. I formed the diapers into a spiral configuration for this cake. Although rolling the diapers would have made the diapers more "solid" giving additional stability to the overall cake, many diaper cake makers are making spiral cakes, preferring them over the rolled variety, so I used that style for my experiment. 7 diapers made the main part of the bottom tier with one liner filling in the middle. 5 diapers were used for the middle tier and the remaining 5 liners were used to form the top tier. I secured the tiers with scrap ribbon and added decorative ribbon and crinkle paper to emulate the final presentation one might see in a cake for purchase.

A cake like this might benefit from stabilizers added to it. Also a firmer ribbon or wrapping around the tiers would hold the diapers in a bit better and keep them tighter. Of course, most of my diaper cakes use blankets or similar baby items around the tiers which would add more structure if used. Because the diapers are cloth, there is significant weight with each of the tiers that is not seen with disposable diapers. In a cake built for a customer, I'd most likely add baby items as decorations. Also, in the case of fitted diapers like these or contours, prefolds, or flats I'd also likely add diaper covers either as decorations or integrated in the structure as they would be required for use of those types of diapers.

The biggest drawback to a cake like this is the cost. A smaller cake with fewer diapers (maybe two narrower tiers) could be made to help with this issue or alternately more basic diapers like prefolds, for example, are always an option.  Certainly, a cloth diaper diaper cake would require some extra planning to ensure the diapers are the kind the parents-to-be want to use, as they have much more of a permanent presence than disposables have. In any case, I'm happy to have made this type of cake so I have a better idea of tweaks that may need to be employed in the event that a cake like this is ordered.

Candy, Candy, Candy!

Once again, as I was developing new concepts and reworking others, I put together another item that got very little attention since I first made it almost a year ago: Baby Candy. I decided that I would work a bit on the presentation and see if I could improve on what I had done before.

My initial set of baby candy was relatively large. Not too big, just an additional option for this gift/favor/decoration. I included disk candy and rolled candy. I incorporated diapers, washcloths, and teethers wrapped in cellophane for the candy effect. At the time, I was primarily working on concepts for presentation or display and something that would make the photograph appealing. I tried different layouts with a serving bowl and an aluminum tin to see what would work best and how it might be used in practice. I included a photograph in my product catalog binder, but I didn't go much further beyond that and didn't even post a picture on Facebook until recently when I "reinvented" the candy.

This time around, I think I did a better job with the candy. Both the disk and rolled candy were made with washcloths and I think they came out cleaner. I also used tulle to wrap the candy rather than cellophane and I'm not sure which one I like better. This candy was also much smaller than the first candy I made and I decided I would offer a small and large option for the candy. This set included 8 pieces of candy - 4 disks and 4 rolls. When packaging, I'm trying to decide if I want to offer the candy in sets of 6 or 8, but I'm leaning toward 6. With this smaller candy, I have more options when it comes to presentation/packaging and can use a smaller jar or container to package the candy or I can simply offer it in a treat bag.

I'm excited to finally and officially add this item to my product line. Along with the lollipops I've recently made, I'm on my way to offering a larger adorable assortment of other sweets and treats for customers. All I have left to do is work out the details on quantities, pricing, and packaging which won't take long and I feel confident about offering them for sale now.

The Newest Addition to the Product Line!

I'm excited to add another gift option to my product line! This particular gift has been in the works for over a year, believe it or not. I'm glad to finally have it put together in a way I can be proud of. What is this gift? Without further ado, I present, the baby bottle.

This picture is mildly embarrassing, but
here is my original bottle concept.

In March 2010, only a few months after I started making diaper cakes, I started to experiment with some other ideas for gifts. Among those ideas were the baby buggies (which you've probably seen) and baby bottles. I liked how the early experiments with the buggies came out and they were added to the product line fairly early on. The baby bottle and other ideas (which may or may not be further developed) weren't up to par and I decided to put those ideas aside for a while. My original concept for the baby bottle contained several stacked uniform tiers that I wrapped in a receiving blanket. Washcloths were used to create the nipple effect. I felt that the overall look of the bottle was lacking and the gift might not be recognized as a bottle.

After seeing several large bottle shaped diaper cakes available through Etsy and Ebay, I decided to revisit the project. Rather than create a large gift (around 30 diapers) as I had seen before, I wanted to make a smaller gift. I may create a larger one in the future, but for now, I like the size I chose. For this bottle, I used 7 diapers for the basic shape. A burp cloth was added and a washcloth for the nipple. Pink ribbon creates the rim for the nipple. The ribbon on these gifts can be various colors to match themes, color schemes, or the gender of the expected baby. I think this configuration is much more identifiable as a bottle and the size I chose means that this adorable gift is available at a very affordable price. I will likely add an embellishment or two to orders. Similar to my other gifts, the bottle will be presented on a cake board and wrapped for gifting. I'm excited about this new addition and can't wait to start making them for expectant moms!