Update Diaper Boxes

I found this amazing idea on Pinterest and just couldn't wait to try it out. I am a high school teacher and my students have journals they write in every day so I thought making these would be great for holding their journals and add a little design and color to my otherwise gray and boring classroom.



Materials needed: Diaper boxes (I used 108 count diaper boxes, they were just the right size)
                             Fabric of your choice.3 Yards made 5 boxes and 2 Bulletin boards (pictures to come)
                             Spray Adhesive

Measure your diaper box and cut fabric accordingly

It helps to have an extra hand, spray your box using the spray adhesive. Do it one side at a time. Flatten it out to make sure their are no creases.

Fold the ends on the bottoms like you would wrapping a box. I forgot to take pictures of this step.

Here are the boxes without the embelishments.

I added ribbon and some tags using my cricut. Cricut cartridges used were Simply Sweet for font and Jubilee for the tag. 

And here they are in my classroom.

Pistachio Cupcakes with Homemade Buttercream

I recently made these pistachio cupcakes for a baby shower and let me tell you, they were AHHmazing!! So easy to make and so flavorful. Do you ever notice how most desserts are left over. Like no one ever eats all the cupcakes. Well not this time, I had one measly cupcake left over that I hoarded for myself. They were so delicious. Everyone commented on how tasty they were and how the buttercream was the best.

Using a simple cake box mix. Needs to be white or vanilla. 

Add in the pistachio mix dry, do not make the pudding just add the dry ingredients to the dry cake mix. Now follow along with the box directions. The cupcakes come out with a hint of green. You could add a few green food coloring drops to make a prettier green. I would have if I had thought of it. 

For the frosting:

Homemade buttercream frosting: recipe from food network.

Ingredients

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream

Directions

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.

I used this site to learn how to frost cupcakes. I think I did a pretty good job at my first time attempting pretty frosting. I used a wilton 2D tip and a coupler, starting from the outside make a swirl into the middle. I finished off with sugar pearls, I purchased these at Joann's.

Polka Dot Baby Shower

This past Saturday, I hosted a baby shower for my dear friend. 

I made a diaper wreath, that I had hanging on my door. Welcome sign was made with my Cricut and Simply Sweet cartridge. I will post directions on how to make this on a upcoming post.

A long with games, I also had a scrap booking station, where the girls could make a page for Caitlyn's scrapbook. I had embellishments, paper cut according to size, pens, glue and scissors ready for their use.

I had put a baby picture of Caitlyn, Ethan and the upcoming baby in frames for decoration. Cubes were made for cake pops, which ended up not happening. Will post on that later as well.

Diaper cake I had made to go with the theme. Stay tuned for a how to on this diaper cake.

I had hung lanterns in the corresponding colors over my island. The lanterns were purchased at the Paper Lantern Store. 

A shot of the food. Fruit salad (purchased at Costco), Strawberry Spinach Walnut Salad (recipe calls for pecans, I used walnuts), Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwiches (also purchased at Costco, just needed a little putting together), deviled eggs, and Pistachio Cupcakes (and mmm were they yummy, got so many compliments on them, made with homemade Butter Cream Frosting. 

A closer shot of the cupcakes, I added just a hint of blue food coloring to give them that pretty pale blue color, and topped them off with some sugar pearls. 

Here is a shot of the glasses I had made. Will post how to on an upcoming post. 

Paper straws were bought at Sofie's Big Day on Etsy, really the only place I could find light blue striped straws for a good price. 

I served Lemonade and a 7-up, Lime Sherbet Punch.

It's a Boy banner made using my Cricut and Simply Sweet cartridge. 

Close up of the Lime Punch, I love how green it is.

How to make cute baby shower utensils

I wanted to add some more decor to the baby shower I was planning. What a better way to do so then by making something you already have a little more decorative. 

These plastic utensils are from Wal-mart and are super cheap at about a dollar.

I found these amazingly cute polka dot napkins at Target.

Put the napkin in a diamond shape.

Put the utensils stacked on top of each other.

Start rolling.

When rolling is completed, secure with some curling ribbon and curl the ribbon. 

Put in a cute container and wah lah! I found this polka-dot container at Michaels for 70% off. Michaels is having a huge summer clearance sale going on now. 

Father's Day Cards

Father's Day is coming up, have you made your Dad a card? My friend Monica came over and we both made our Dad's a card, using my Cricut. 

Here is my card, the owls are from Create-a-Critter, the Happy Father's Day is from Simply Charmed. 

Here is Monica's wonderful dinosaur card. From Create-a-Critter and Simply Charmed as well.

I think they came out cute. Hope our pops' like them!

Bachelorette Scavenger Hunt

I threw my sister a bachelorette party. I wanted to do something a little more fun and unique. So I had the girls participate in a scavenger hunt. 

I surprised Tracy, telling her we were going to dinner with Monica (one of the bridesmaids). All while I enlisted the help of another bridesmaid, giving her the materials to go to the restaurant early and they graciously set the table how I had asked.  The party was a hit. Afterwards, I had surprised her with booking a very nice hotel room, completely decked out with pink balloons and champagne. Afterwards, the girls and I went down to the bar and partied, while the bridesmaids played their scavenger hunt.

Inside favor bags were either 27 dresses or Bride Wars which were both on sale at Target for cheap. A bachelorette disposable camera which I also got at Target in the dollar section. A scavenger hunt checklist which will I upload separately and a pen.

Armed with their cameras. The ladies were given the following:

Your mission if you choose to accept is to complete the following in the fastest time or the most points win.

 Please have a stranger sign off on your sheet for each challenge that is completed.

1. The Bride-to-be needs some ideas in the bedroom for the Wedding Night!! Take photos showing her 3 new ideas. 10 points for each photo. 20 if the photo involves a guy.

2. One of the Brides favorite wedding traditions is being carried over the threshold, but she needs some ideas on how to do it. Take a picture of you being carried over a threshold and make sure to give it your own unique spin. 20 points for each photo.

3. The Bride is SO excited for the Wedding Night that she feels like every where she looks she sees a reminder of the Grooms "macho". Take pictures of phallic objects to show her she's NOT seeing things! Earn 10 points for each photo . . . 20 points for each photo that contains a hot guy.

4. Confront a guy from a group and tell him you've been looking all over for him and call him "Chad". 10 points

5. Ask a guy to practice walking down the aisle with you. 10 points

6. Meet a guy with the same name as the groom-to-be and get the bride-to-be's picture taken with him. 10 points

7. Find a guy with an out-of-state Drivers License. Who knows if it's a fake ID or not . . your only purpose is to find someone who isn't a townie! 10 points

8. Buy an ugly guy a drink. 5 points

9. Buy a cute guy a drink. 5 points

10. Sing I'm a little Teapot with all the actions. 10 points

11. Get a guy to serenade the Bride. 10 points

12. Get a hug from a bald guy. 5 points

13. Find a guy with pretty eyes. 5 points

14. Get the cutest guy in the bar to take a picture of the party. 10 points. 

Baby Shower Inspiration

As you may now know, I am throwing a baby shower for a close friend of mine. Here are some of the things I am using for my inspiration. Most, I have found on Pinterest if you don't know what it is, you better get on it. Pinterest is wonderfully addicting.

How cute is this cake from Rouvelee's Creations', I seriously need to take a cake decorating class A.S.A.P. 

Here is a cake that is much more manageable for me. So, cute. I think I might do a light green buttercream. Since I am doing green and white polka dots and blue and white stripes. This adorable polka dot cake is from Country Living.

I absolutely adore the paper straws and striped ribbon around mason jars for the drinks. I have already purchased some light blue striped straws from Sofies Big Day, they came in so fast and they are so cute. This inspiration comes from Hostess Blog, which was featured on Tip Junkie. 

Here is another shot of this wonderfully cute bow-tie party. While, I am not doing a bow tie theme; I do love the colors. 

I love these polka dot balloons. Which they have at Party City. I will obviously be getting them in the parties colors, blue and green. So cute. 

I absolutely love these cake pops, so precious. I am thinking of making some blue and green ones for the favors for guests. These adorable cake pops come from The Peas Are Hollow.

Lime Sherbet Punch for the beautiful mason jars. Will also be having lemonade as an option. Now only if they made blue lemonade, it would be right on track with my theme. The recipe for this refreshing drink comes from Paula Deen. 

I think this next ideas is so cute for a guest book. Have guests sign and write a little something for the baby in a children's book. Every time the child picks up the book to be read to, he or she will see all the comments guests wrote. I am sure the inquisitive child to be will be asking all about them. This idea comes from Oh Baby! Shower Decor. 

I love this polka-dot back drop from Celebrations at Home, so adorable and easy to do. I found the directions on making a polka-dot Modern Day Moms. There is also a tutorial where you sew the polka dots, which gives more of the illusional look like above; Gabriel's Good Tidings.

Hopefully, you can kind of see the direction the baby shower is going in. I can't wait for the party and to post all of the pictures from it. 

Baby Shower Invitation Directions

Directions on Baby Invites

I promised I would show the directions to the baby shower invites I posted last week. Here they are. Because I had to make so many invitations, I ran out of the blue paper shown above. So I ended up doing half like the above and half green stripes with blue overlay. Which doesn't bother me, saves me a trip to the store and no one is one the wiser.

I love using these little shapes, I am not sure what you would call them. They come from the Create-a-Critter cartridge for the Cricut. I cut these out at 3.5 inches. 

I cut out the bottom layer at 4.5 by 5.5

Using the above stamps I then proceeded to emboss the invitiations. The She's Expecting stamp came from the dollar bin stamps at Michaels. (Gosh I love those stamps) The Your'e invited stamp came from Hobby Lobby for 7.99 and I used a 40% off coupon of course.

Using the silver embossing powder from Michaels and the Martha Stewart embossing pad. I embossed the invitations. I didn't take a picture of the process but here is the tool I used. You simply take the desired stamp, stamp it on the embossing pad, just like you would a regular stamp pad. You then stamp down on the paper. Then taking your powder you sprinkle over the area you stamped. I always do this on sheet of paper as seen above. That way I can funnel the left overs back in to the container. Once you remove the excess powder you turn on the embossing tool and dry the area just like a blow dryer, which I hear could also work. 

Here is what you come up with. I love the silver and how it turns out, so pretty!

Next I took some polka dot ribbon, found at Joann's. 

Whole punched the bottom layer, inserted the ribbon and tied a bow.

 Using an adhesive runner, which I believe holds the best (especially if you are mailing them), I glued the layers together. This adhesive runner is from Michaels. All that is left is to fill in the required information and ship those bad boys out and you are done.