Adventures in Diaper Wreaths

I love an excuse to be crafty and make things. My sister-in-law's baby shower is this weekend, and I am bringing decorations. So, I decided to make diaper wreaths! I had the "brilliant" idea to make a guitar-shaped diaper wreath, but it just didn't turn out as planned. When I hung different little gifts on it, they concealed the shape of the wreath. It looked like a weird, hanging blob. So, I made a regular diaper wreath as well and hung all the little goodies on that one!

I'll start with the round diaper wreath. I based mine from a tutorial from Homemade Gifts Made Easy. I changed a few of the steps based on what I had at home.

1) I used a large dinner plate to measure out a circle on a piece of cardboard I had on hand (from a large shipping box). I made a large circle around that so I could cut out a ring.

2) I used a wire hanger on the back of the ring, which I thought made it sturdier and easier to hang. I used packing tape to secure it.

                                   

3) I used wrapping paper I had on hand to wrap the cardboard and hanger. You can see how I cut strips to be able to wrap along the curve.

4) I followed the instructions from the tutorial on hot gluing the ribbon around the diapers and securing each one to the wrapped cardboard ring.

5) I criss-crossed some thin green ribbon around the diapers, and then I tied some little toys and gifts to the diaper wreath. I finished it off with a big bow on top. I love the way it turned out!

To make the guitar-shaped diaper wreath, I began by shaping a wire hanger into the shape of a guitar.

I started out by folding the diapers around the frame, but I lost the shape of the guitar:

So, I tried a different method and actually wrapped the diapers around the wire frame. I wrapped twine around as I went in order to hold the diapers in place. 

Here's what it looked like when I finished wrapping the diapers around:

I worried it didn't look distinctly like a guitar. I ended up sewing some tan-colored construction paper onto the frame using twine. I printed out a picture of the bridge of the guitar and glued at onto the front, along with a black circle for the hole in the guitar. This is what it looked like from the back as I worked:

I made a little striped sweater and rolled that up to kind of look like the neck of the guitar. I secured it with a bow. Voila! I was just happy it looked like a guitar when I was done!

Guitar Diaper Cake

My sister is helping a friend plan a baby shower for my brother and sister-in-law, and she asked me if I'd help with some decorations. I love the chance to be creative! The theme is kind of a doo-wop/rock-in-roll kind of thing. I found a lot of great ideas online by searching under a Rock-a-Bye Baby Shower.

One of my favorite ideas came from Pinterest (where else?). I love diaper cakes because, I figure, if I'm going to spend money on decorations, I'd like the decorations to be something they can use for the baby! Someone pinned a stunning diaper cake by litmeevents.com that includes a stuffed animal playing a drum set with a guitar, all made out of diapers and other baby items. Here's a link to that pin, which will take you to the website to check it out. It's $165, and while I think that is a fair price for the work and all the stuff included, I wanted to figure out how to make something similar for less.

I searched the internet and found a guitar diaper cake tutorial on YouTube by Thom's Crafts and Treats. It's a great resource to check out if you want to make this diaper cake. I made a few changes because I wanted to incorporate a few more baby items. For example, instead of pipe cleaners, I used baby spoons for the tuners.

For the guitar I made, here are the supplies I used:

1 34-pack of newborn diapers
1 pack of onesies - I used a 5 pack of white Gerber onesies
1 baby blanket
1 pack of baby spoons

1 car window shade for baby (I wanted to choose something off their registry that was in a long and narrow box to support the guitar neck, and this item fit the bill! You can use something else in a similar-shaped box). - OPTIONAL

Rubber bands

1 roll of fabric ribbon 1-2" wide 

1 roll of decorative masking tape - I found this in Target's business supply section

Wrapping paper
Clear tape
Yarn or thin ribbon
Cardboard

I started out following the instructions from Thom's Crafts and Treats. I used a cake pan as my mold, and I used 20 newborn diapers for the first part.

It took a little bit of work to figure out how to get the diapers in a good spiral! I used 3 rubber bands to secure it, and then I removed the cake pan mold.

I'd gotten a 5 pack of onesies. I used 0-3 month since that was listed on their registry, but you could use larger.

Hmmm. I kind of tucked and folded the onesie down, and then used more rubber bands to hold its shape.

I then made another, smaller circle using the remaining 14 diapers.

Then I tucked both of those circles into another onesie. At this stage, I'd used all 34 diapers, a ton of rubber bands, and 3 of the 5 onesies:

I then tucked the arms down and taped around the whole "cake" using the decorative masking tape (I really liked this stuff). The sides don't have to look perfect at this stage. There will be a blanket going around the edges. Mostly, I just wanted to keep the shape of the guitar.

Here's the blanket I'd picked up from their registry. Super soft!

The newborn diapers I used weren't that tall. In order to fold the blanket to the proper width, I had to fold it in half, and then into thirds.

I wrapped the blanket around the guitar and secured it with tape along the sides and a rubber band in the middle to help create its shape. If your blanket doesn't go all the way around, that's OK. The neck of the guitar will hide any gap at the top.

For the neck of the guitar, Thom cut out a piece of cardboard, wrapped it in a receiving blanket, and then used ribbon to create the frets. I thought it would be more fun to pick out a gift for the baby instead of using cardboard, so I went through their registry to find something with a long shape. I ended up going with this window shade.

Instead of using a receiving blanket, I thought it would be fun to make some leg warmers with guitar frets, since I crochet and have plenty of extra yarn. Here's the pattern to those guitar fret leg warmers.

When I finished the leg warmers, I realized they wouldn't fit over the window shade. Grrrr. I felt a little frustrated that my idea of using the window shade didn't work, and I ended up sliding the leg warmers over a plain piece of plain cardboard anyway. I wrapped the window shade in wrapping paper and secured the leg warmers to the top of that package. So, I didn't really need the shade at all, but it added a little more support to the neck and made it easier to attach the head and tuners to the guitar neck.

Next, I wanted  to work on the sound hole. Thom used a piece of black foam board for the sound hole. I ended up using the black plastic lid to my coffee can. Upcycle! I cut two slits in the circle, wide enough for my ribbon to go through.

Then, I started work on the strings. I cut 6 pieces of gray yarn for the strings. I decided to tape them directly to the "guitar" using the decorative masking tape for the bridge of the guitar. Each gray yarn string ran from the tape up the guitar neck, and then I taped them to the cardboard that was inside the leg warmers.

Then came the head and tuners. I wrapped a piece of cardboard with my wrapping paper. Then, I opened the baby spoons and arranged them like the tuners and taped them into place. I probably should have gotten a package of 6 spoons, but oh well.

I taped the head of the guitar with the spoons to the window shade package that I'd wrapped. I secured that to the neck of the guitar. I wrapped my ribbon around the guitar body, hiding the rubber band, and then I wove it into the slits I cut in my coffee-lid sound hole. I tied as pretty of a bow as I could and secured it with tape. I tied a second bow where the neck of the guitar met the head in order to hide all of the tape I had to use! I needed a little more support for the area where the neck met the body of the guitar, so I wrapped up the remaining 2 onesies in a long box, and used that package for added support. Here's a picture that shows the guitar pieced together:

And here it is, all finished and ready to go! My kids keep asking me if the baby gets to open it. ;-)

Jo + Cat

For a few days now, Jo's been playing her toy guitar and singing the same song over & over. It's really clever & cute:

                       

Yesterday, we finally figured out what she's singing: the into to "Peg + Cat!" Once we figured it out, it made her song that much funnier. She does such a good job! My favorite is how she takes the guitar and holds it at her side when she's done.

Here's the link to the YouTube video intro of "Peg + Cat":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhhI6gNPgJg

Oliver was about the same age when he started mimicking videos he watched. I think this age is just the funniest, cutest age ever (minus some of the tantrums, of course!).