Frogs with Frills

As I've mentioned before, I love classic baby themes, so I was excited to receive another order for a frog cake. This one, however, had a twist. Rather than being the typical gender neutral frog cake, this request was for a girl frog cake. In addition, I was asked to make some baby candy to go along with it for added decorations.

I was excited to find at the time of the order that there was actually some girl frog items available so I grabbed them up and they became the inspiration for the overall cake. I found some pink washcloths with frogs on them and then I found some adorable ribbon with frogs and flowers and I was off.

This cake was a "naked" cake starting with my standard boutique spiral design. Three layers of ribbons were added to the tiers finishing with the frog patterned ribbon. Washcloths, teethers, and a handmade bow added decoration to the cake and a super soft plush frog was added as a topper. To finish the cake, I added some precious frog and bow die cuts to bring it all together.

The next challenge was finding a way to make the washcloth candy and diaper cake a cohesive set. To achieve this, I opted to create candy in both styles - roll and spiral. I used green and two shades of pink and wrapped all the candy with the same frog and flower ribbon I used on the cake. These made a precious matching addition to the overall cake and created a great accent as table scatter for the shower.

This set turned out beautifully. I was so excited to see how it all came together. My customer was pleased with the final product which is all I can really ask for.

In the Jungle...

I can't believe it's been over a year since posting a blog about the creation of one of my diaper cakes. Time gets away from us so fast! I'm going to try to get caught up again on my blog posts and give my awesome fans some more behind the scenes looks at my creations.

I was thrilled when I received a request for a Lion King set. There are so many adorable Lion King baby items and some great possibilities when it comes to accents that when I received the order request, I instantly started having ideas. I was even more excited that this order was the largest one to date. My customer not only wanted a large 4-tier cake, but she also wanted a coordinating buggy. I was pumped!

One of the pitfalls to doing licensed items on baby gifts is balancing costs. While these themes are so fun to work with, the costs can add up quickly. Like the previous LSU cake I had done, I had to consider the budget I was working with and make sure to include enough accents to ensure a uniform and identifiable theme while keeping costs down with coordinating, but not necessarily licensed baby items.

For this cake, I opted to create a more neutral base that was reminiscent of the Lion King baby items that were widely available. I kept with browns and greens and used these awesome blankets that had leaf patterns on them. They worked great with the leaf accents seen so frequently on Lion King paraphernalia. I also incorporated some giraffe ribbon which again was a common print seen with Lion King baby products.

Of course, I included plenty of Lion King officially licensed goodies including teethers, pacifiers, a soft book, and of course an adorable plush Simba for the cake topper. I also included a few additional washcloths, just to match the colors.

As final accents for the cake, I added some additional Lion King badges and leaf die cuts.

For the buggy which was made to coordinate, I used a matching blanket and the same ribbons I used on the cake. I included color coordinated washcloths as well. My favorite part was an adorable Simba lovey, that when positioned just right, made it look as though Simba was tucked into the buggy. I loved the effect it had! I also finished the buggy off with the same Simba badges and leaf die cuts so the two pieces were a complete unit.

Just like all my other gifts, this set became my new favorite. I love the opportunity to make the larger cakes because there is so much to work with. This cake had tons of items and visual appeal without going overboard and costing a fortune. My customer loved it, which is, as always, the best part of what I do.

Two New Projects, a Cake, and a Huge Challenge

Of all the challenges I've had in the past, this one takes the cake. No pun intended. Ok, maybe it was. In any case, I thought that I had received some pretty difficult diaper cake concepts, but since the Geek Chic cake, nothing has stumped me this badly. And the difficulty with this one was not at easily overcome as the geek cake. And that wasn't easy.

When I first spoke with my customer and she described the preferences of the expectant mom, I was very excited. She wanted to stay away from the typical baby themes, booties, and cute animals. She preferred more to stick with a pattern in a particular color scheme. The pattern chosen was the inspiration she used for the baby's nursery: argyle with white, blue, and grey. We looked at several diaper cakes discussing things she liked such as, a large letter at the top for the baby's initial, argyle ribbon, plenty of baby items included on the cake, etc. I was set. All I needed to do was collect the baby items and start construction.

That's easier said than done, I discovered as soon as I began my search for argyle baby items. Argyle items were tough to come by on their own. Finding them in the correct color combination was near impossible. Even finding ribbon to coordinate was difficult. I began to stress about whether or not this was possible. Fortunately, I did have some breaks. I was able to find some ribbon, then some baby items that would work.  I still felt like I was struggling, but I began working on the diaper cake. This cake was a 3-tier "naked" cake. It came together nicely after I managed to collect enough items for the cake. Though, I have to admit, construction of this cake took a lot longer than most, simply because I didn't have all the items all at once and I was in constant brainstorm mode on how to complete the cake and what details I needed to add.

As I neared completion, I still felt the cake needed something else. I came up with an idea to make a pacifier tether. I contemplated a simple ribbon one, but I didn't want it to get lost among the ribbons already on the cake. I decided to hand knot one in an argyle pattern. This worked beautifully, though it was time consuming. I may even make more of these in the future.

After the cake was completed, I added extra details such as decorating the cake board. This was a special request of my customer. She wanted something that made the cake board look better than just the white base they typically have. I was unable to find anything decorative, fancy fabric, baby item, etc. As a way to dress up the cake board, I painted it to match the initial "T" on top of the cake and added grey and white diamonds decorated to resemble an argyle pattern. The cake was finally done.

My customer was also interested in a diaper wreath. I was hesitant to make one at first. I don't like how some styles manipulate the diapers and risks the integrity and possible future use of them (when diapers are opened, the inside is more susceptible to moisture in the air which it absorbs and becomes crunchy). That being said, I wanted to help keep uniformity among the diaper decorations for my customer's shower, so I agreed to create my first one. The wreath was far more difficult than I anticipated, but it came together eventually. I used the rolled style that is often seen as opposed to the style where the diapers wrap around the frame. I added ribbon that coordinated with the diaper cake and a "T" initial that was a smaller version of the one that topped the cake. My customer did request a different pair of shoes than the ones I originally had on the wreath, but otherwise, she was thrilled with it.

I have to say, I am very proud that I have once again met the challenge presented me. All projects turned out beautifully and my customer loved them. I am happy to have another impressive challenge under my belt, and I'm ready for the next one that presents itself.

Shower Sets

One fantastic thing about baby diaper gifts is the ability to make many different items. This versatility lends itself to so many incredible options. Because of those options, it becomes possible to decorate for a shower using several different types of diaper and baby gifts that can be coordinated to match almost any theme imaginable and give a unified look to your shower as well as providing the mom to be with some baby essentials.

I was recently approached for my second shower set (the first being my Paris set that can be seen here and here). For this set, the request was for items in various shades of blue. Fortunately, the expectant mom registered for a number of items that could be coordinated and included in the set. This set contained a bouquet, baby candy, and a diaper cake.

The bouquet was a mini bouquet. It was formed of washcloths into roses of various blues to match the color scheme requested. Six "flowers" were arranged in a small dark basket, the presentation selected by my customer.

Washcloth candy was also part of the set. For this collection, my customer requested a combination of roll and disc candy. She receive one of each shape in four different colors also matching the overall scheme.

The 3-tier diaper cake was built of diapers in my newer spiral style. Hooded towels adorned with trains created the outer decoration for the bottom and middle tiers. Coordinating burp cloths were then used to cover the top tier and add additional decorations. Also included on this cake, were pacifiers, washcloths, socks and a teether toy. As mentioned previously, many of the items included on the cake were from the expectant mom's registry which make for a great gift since she selected the items. The cake was finished with ribbons and paper shred in various shades of blue and white.

The full set had a unified look with coordinating colors in shades of blue with white and green as accent colors. I truly loved the opportunity to create a group of matched gifts and I hope in the future to receive more orders such as this where my gifts are used as decorations for different areas of a shower.

My First Order (Part II)

So, now that I've kept you guessing, I can continue on with pictures and more information on the building of my first order (especially now that the sip 'n' see has passed and everyone that was there has hopefully now seen the diaper cakes).

I'll start with the bouquet. The bouquet created a bit of a challenge as I found that the materials I had did not in fact provide a lot of lavender to go along with the colors chosen for the sip 'n' see. I had black, white, and lavender tissue paper for decorating around the bouquet and created a lavender bow to decorate the vase. The "flowers" however, needed a bit of tweaking to go with the color scheme. I solved the problem adding lavender ribbon to the wash cloths and diapers to bring in the extra color so all but one of the flowers was not white. These all came together nicely in the beautiful vase I had selected. The bouquet included 2 wash cloths, 2 diapers, and 2 body suits.

As usual, the cakes started with hand-rolled diapers. Size 3 diapers were selected for this cake since the baby had been born and this provided the mom with some larger size diapers when the baby grew into them. The layers were sacked and the blankets and sheets were wrapped around the layers. The added bulk of the crib sheets meant that to give a better varied layered look, I had to remove some diapers from the top tier, but I left as many as I could so as not to sacrifice the value of the diapers in the diaper cake.

Adding the extra decorations proved a little bit difficult. First, the cakes needed to match. Second, since the cakes were going to be used as centerpieces, possibly at a table where people would be sitting, I needed to decorate them all the way around. While the other cakes I had made were decorated only on the front and immediate sides, this one needed more added touches. Add in the lack of lavender and white items I was able to find and it proved to be quite a challenge.

I improvised a bit and created my first ever hair clips to add to the decorations. These were made with ribbon that coordinated with the diaper cakes. I made four hair clips. 2 each of white ribbon with lavender flowers, and 2 each of black and white striped ribbon. They made a perfect addition to the cakes, allowed me to match the cakes and added to the other decorations.

Another decoration I selected for these cakes was wash cloths. I had seen the technique used on diaper cakes before, but only in pictures and never on an actual cake. The effect turned out quite nice, and I'm likely to use it again in the future. For these cakes, I used two rolled wash cloths which were strategically placed along the seam of the receiving blankets on the lower cake layers. This is how I was able to provide attractive views not matter the angle the party guests were coming from.

I added yet another new decoration to the cake. This one included sock "roses" that adorned the bottom and top layers of the cake. One sock from each pair was used on each cake so the cakes matched. Together, the new mom had a total of 8 pairs of socks. 7 were used as sock roses and the 8th pair was used as additional decorations on the sides of the cakes (one sock per cake). I had used sock roses before in one of the bouquets I had made, but never as a decoration on a cake, but I like the effect it provided.

The cake toppers stumped me since the party was a France/Paris theme, I really wanted to do Eiffel Towers on the tops, but I didn't know how I'd be able to pull it off. Finding Eiffel Tower figurines is not terribly difficult, but most would be too big or heavy to act as the toppers. I also considered doing a small bouquet of sock roses, but I had difficulty arranging them so they looked right. I finally found some paper art that could be printed out and put together and thus, I was able to create the toppers I wanted. It provided and economical and attractive addition to the cakes. I printed it out on card stock so it would be sturdy and then built them up for two 3-dimensional towers. I used a longer dowel rod in the center of the cake than I normally would for a 2-tier cake, but it provided the support for the toppers and with the help of some lavender tissue paper, the wooden rod was hidden from view.

As you can see in the sneak peak from my previous post (as well as here to the side) I also included some extra embellishments in the form of plastic decorative pacifiers on the bows. I typically like to use mostly usable items to decorate the diaper cakes, but used in moderation, these types of additions can really add to the "wow factor". Since I'm constantly trying to add more aesthetic value to my cakes, I am likely to continue using some of these types of small additions in the future.

I used so many new decorations and embellishments on these diaper cakes, that I almost feel like I've reached the end of my creative rope, but I'm hoping that is not the case. I like to think I'm just building my skills for newer projects and improving on what I've done in the past. In the end I was very proud of how the whole project turned out and the friend of mine that ordered them seemed to really like what I had done. I asked for some pictures of the cakes at the event so with any luck, I can post some to see how they worked in with all the other party decorations. I hope they were well received by the guests and especially the new mom.

Here is the entire "collection" - the two cakes and the bouquet.