Twice the blessing, Twice the joy - Baby Girl & Baby Boy!

Shower Invitations

I was honored to make these boy/girl twin invitations several months ago. It was initially difficult to come up with an invitation idea since I needed both boy and girl, but this is what I came up with! Neutral background, with pink and blue carriages to symbolize each baby. 

• The carriages were cut from A Child's Year. The original image was a girl pushing the carriage, but I just used the carriage part. Place paper face down on cricut mat to get the "mirroring" effect.
• I printed the text on my computer's printer, regular ink printers take 8.5x11 card stock no problem!
• It was pretty simple from there, edging everything with distress ink and ensuring each layer was equally spaced.
• I purchased the cream card body/cream envelope from the dollar store. Dollar Tree has been a good resource for these things, you can find them in the "do it yourself" area near the party section. These particular cards actually have green dresses printed on them (for a bridal shower), but I easily covered it with the background paper. Thus, I got 8 card backgrounds w/ 8 envelopes for .25! It's economical to think of ways you can re-use/re-purpose pieces of cards not originally intended for what you wanted. :-)

The Diaper Cake

This was my first diaper cake, and I see many more in my future! This particular one was made for the boy/girl twins. They really are fun to make, and there are no limits to how creative you can be. YouTube is an excellent place for a beginner. You can pick and choose which methods you like, and come up with something truly personal. Be creative and have fun! Just be sure you have enough diapers! I've listed this specific cake's materials below to help as a reference. Thanks to my friend Jenn for helping both fund and decorate this cake! TIP: Don't apply hot glue to ANY diapers! There are several ways to make a diaper cake without ruining the diapers. If you glue them together, Mommy-to-be cannot use them later.

Supplies

• Necessary items:
• 52 diapers
• empty paper towel roll
• hot glue gun
• three huge rubber bands, topped with extra wide ribbon to hold the round layer together. Extra thick ribbon can be purchased at walmart by the inch! Perfect for this project.
• decorative cake plate (this was shiny silver cardboard from walmart) ~$4
• a cake topper of some kind
• Optional/Personalized features:
• decorative pieces for your cake! cut-outs, words, clothing (socks). Rolling small washcloths  and folding them in half, made for cute "flowers".
• I found baby hair clips especially useful because they clipped right to the diapers
• Approximate cost of this particular diaper cake was ~$65.

General Directions:

• I used three different sized cake pans to assemble the diaper layers. The top layer is definitely the hardest. Each layer is held together by two large rubberbands, covered with the ribbon for decorative purposes. Ribbon is hot glued to itself ensuring no unsightly knot.
• The tower is held upright by the paper towel roll stuck in the middle (that is the approximate height of the cake). It's surprising how solid the cake is considering it's only being held together by rubber bands.
• Decorate! Use things with clips, or that can be hot glued to the thick ribbon. Try not to get glue on the diapers, if you want Mom to be able to use them later.
• The very top is constructed of extra thick cardboard, cut into a circle, with a wooden D hot glued to it (along with the frilly bows). The D was purchased in the craft section at Walmart, unfinished. Spray paint it and you have an awesome cake topper. Stuffed animals are also frequently used. This piece was not secured to the top, since again I didn't want to get glue on the diapers. The weight of the wood was heavy enough to keep it from moving. You can also hide small presents amongst/between the diapers if you have the time! That would be fun for Mom when she dissembles it later.