Fun Baby Showers

These are the little rosettes up close. I made a big loop on one end of the wire in the shape of a lollipop so when I finished taping the flower onto the wire, I would smash the wire inside flat to hold the sock in place. Be sure to tape off the twisted part of the wire. You don't want the wire to snag the socks. I used the whole wire and didn't have to cut them. Just coil the remainder around your index finger and release to make a curly vine. I then used the leftover leaves from the pens and voila! Try them! They're fun to make!

I used a bead reamer to drill the holes through the tops of the pens. Although, hard on the hands after a few, I found this to be the easiest. I thought the pens looked alot better with the flower inserted into the inside of the pen, rather than taped to the side of the pen. I never knew what a bead reamer was, or what it was used for. One of Mom's tools for beadwork. Live and learn, I guess...

I got a couple of batches of various flowers at a dollar store, followed the video and produced a beautiful arrangement from cheap ballpoint pens that no one would steal at work. They would all run off with the good pens. Squirt them with a shot of rose-scented perfume and you're good to go! Boy! Am I glad I saved the pens!

This is my take on the adorable little booties. I got a bag of 52 plastic cups. The guest list was about 40 people but I made extra just in case. I was glad I got cups you can see through because I was able to make a template for cutting, folding and punching holes. As you can imagine... I went to town!

Lacing and tying the ribbon was a little tricky. Use the first one as a guide in determining the length needed. Cut the tips at a deep angle to thread through the punched holes. You need to weigh down the cup when doing this because they're so light, they won't hold still to tie a good knot. I managed to weigh them down with a heavy chip clip that had a magnet in the back. After lacing, clip the edge of the cup opposite the lacing or face of the cup and you should be able to tie it properly. Another good tip is to use a curling ribbon instead of a fabric ribbon. Fabric ribbon will fray easily at the tips and after tying the curling ribbon, you can adjust your loops and smash down the ribbon to keep in place. Something I had to learn the hard way. Curling ribbon is far more inexpensive as well. Instead of buying a small ribbon, I got smart and got a wide roll of ribbon for 77 cents and tore it into four strips. That's the small ribbon times four for the price of one!

Everyone loved them and I was the hit of the show. Coming from someone who isn't crafty, YOU CAN DO THIS!!!

This was the finished product. It's a little overdone, but I'm a grandmother for the first time, so I'm allowed. This was also my first attempt. The whole thing is held together with elastic and ribbon. The instructional videos I watched used tape, glue, and hot glue guns to hold them together. I was afraid it would get messy and baby wouldn't be able to use the diapers, so I used elastic hair bands and ribbon.

To keep the rectangular form of the castle, I cut the sides off of water bottle cartons down to size and placed it inside the outer row of the diapers. I had to wrestle with trying to keep the rectangle on both layers. Elastic just wants to put everything in a circle. For the towers, I carefully inserted wooden dowels to hold them into place.

My niece loved it. So did the little boys at the shower because they got their little cars out and started playing around it! This took two packages of size 1 diapers and of course, was real fun to make. I had a blast.

The little purple and turquoise rosettes were the result of the first video. I wrapped them with tissue paper so as not to get the adhesive from the floral tape onto the socks. They turned out cute!

The new father's side of the family brought some treat bags for the children that came to the baby shower. They called them "Pre-Halloween Treat Bags". I'm glad they included the kids in the shower. I was only thinking about the adults...

I found a real neat site to get lessons on beautiful balloon decorating techniques. I got my copy. Very insightful. I learned alot! Click Here to get yours !!
Oh! And have fun. I am !!!