Tips on How to Have a Frugal Baby Shower

Every pregnant mom-to-be deserves a nice baby shower but it doesn't have to be expensive and lavish. Here are a few frugal baby shower tips to help save you some money when planning a baby shower for your mom-to-be.

* Instead of purchasing already made baby shower party invitations make them yourself or print some off of the internet. When possible, hand deliver the invitations to save on postage.

* When purchasing for baby shower party supplies check out your local dollar discount type of stores. We went into one last week and found: balloons, streamers, plastic tableware, candles for table centerpieces, party favors and you can purchase some really nice items there to use for prizes won from the baby shower games.

* Head to a craft supply store and purchase supplies to make party favors, table centerpieces and party decorations. Enlist a few friends to help you one afternoon to make up the favors and decorations that you will need.

* Instead of having food delivered or catered, make it yourself or ask some of the party guests to bring a dish. If you don't want to do those options then keep it simple with cake, ice cream and a few beverages. 

* Don't rent a venue to hold the baby shower in. Ask around and see if someone will offer up their home or place of business. If that doesn't work, contact a few churches or your local fire hall and offer a donation to them for a few hours of space in their location.

* Don't hire or rent entertainment for the party. I once attended a baby shower that had 3 different entertainer's doing different things throughout the party. Most of us at the party felt it was over-the-top and not needed. Keep it simple and let mingling with guests and the party games be the only entertainment.

* When it comes to the baby shower cake you can save money by purchasing one from your local grocery store's bakery department. If you walk into a regular bakery you are more than likely going to pay top dollar for a cake so save money by purchasing one from the grocery store or bake it yourself.

A baby shower is meant to be a fun time, not something to stress over.  So let the fun happen naturally and save some money while you are at it.
 

How to Make: Quick & Easy Homemade Baby Shower Invitations

Here is a quick and easy way to make your own baby shower invitations so that you can match the theme of your shower to the invitation. It is a great way to save money and people love seeing the creative ways to make homemade cards.

Supplies Needed:

*White Blank Note Cards with Envelopes

*Various sheets of 12x12 baby themed or pastel colored scrapbooking paper

*Glue sticks

*Baby themed sticker packs

*Party date rubber stamp with ink pad

*Embellishments: satin ribbon, mini silk flowers, buttons, beads, charms, etc.

*Liquid glue pen (only if adhering any of the above embellishments)
Scissors and Ruler

* You will need to decide if you are going to cover just the fronts and backs of your note cards with pretty scrapbooking paper or if you are going to completely cover them, inside and out to determine how many sheets of scrapbooking paper you will need.

* You can find rubber stamps in the rubber stamp aisle at your local craft supply store that will have: Your Invited To A Baby Shower, Date and Time on them and you can use that to stamp the inside of your invitations. If you are trying to be frugal, you can certainly handwrite it out.

You will want to measure your note cards and cut out blocks from your scrapbooking paper to fit over top of the areas you want to cover up. Use the glue stick to on the back side of the scrapbooking paper and place the paper on top of the card. Let dry. Once you have your card covered with the desired amounts of paper it is time to decorate the front cover. You can use flat baby themed stickers or get really fancy and purchase some baby themed 3-dimensional sticker embellishments. To jazz up your invitations even more, glue on some satin ribbon trim, ribbon bows, beads, buttons, etc.

Use a rubber stamp on the inside of the invitation as an outline for you to print in your party details...or just simply do it all in your own handwriting. I would suggest that you use black ink which shows up really well against printed or pastel colored scrapbooking paper. If you have any leftover stickers you can use those to decorate the envelopes.

Just remember...the more embellishments and stickers you add onto your cards, the more it can raise the weight of them which would cost you more to mail out your invitations. Just something to keep in mind when decorating your invitations.

Altered Crocheted Booties~ Easy!

Did you know altering baby items is so simple? You can take a plain item such as a pair of crocheted booties and turn them into something fabulous!

Cute huh? Well did you know a little lace or ribbon, needle & thread, hot glue and some tiny pearls could make this pair of booties "cuter".

These booties are available for purchase HERE




Yes, you can!


I turned these plain white crocheted booties into a nice little Keepsake Gift for the new Mom to be.Using Lace , my hot glue gun, needle and thread and tiny pearls.


I glued on the lace ( you can sew it on as well)  doing so with three layers for the bottom and one layer for the top of booties. I sewed two small lace flowers, sewed those on the booties and glued pearls onto the flower.These are not washable and only a keepsake, but you can certainly sew everything and make the functional.



OR, you can bling them up like this pair below , it's totally up to you and what you have on hand!

How To Make A Three Layer Diaper Cake Using Baby Blankets

For this and most of the cakes I make, I use a 40 x 40 baby blanket to achieve a bottom layer of 12 inches round. To start, lay the blanket (with the inside facing up) out in front of you leaving any decals for the last fold. Begin folding the end near you, then keep folding and smoothing out any bunches or wrinkles as you go.

Stand this layer up and make sure the height measures 5 to 5 ½ inches exactly (very important). At this time you can also measure the width, which should be around 12 inches. To do this you simply take your measure tape and measure the top of the template sideways. Adjust the length by bringing one end into (see picture below) the “ring”. This will help you by adding more or less to meet the 12 inches for bottom layer.

Once measurements are right, go ahead and pin both ends together using a corsage pin.

Now you can add your diapers by inserting them one at a time overlapping each other until you fill this layer.
Note: Always pack diapers in tightly, this will help stabilize your cake and insure its roundness. You can use packing paper in the middle instead of diapers to fill and pack tight. Make sure to push “out” to help form the diapers which helps make the template to take on fuller, rounder look.

You can use a cake plate or whatever you choose for the bottom BEFORE you start to work on the other layer.

This layer should be no higher than 5 inches (you don't want a cone appearance) and 8 inches wide. Once you have adjusted this layer like the bottom layer, pin the ends together & fill with diapers.

Note: It's always a good idea to stand up the second layer onto the bottom layer while holding ends together to get an idea of how much room you'll have on all sides (like picture above) for product, or whatever, before pinning. Repeat step one for filling the inside of layer two.

I used a bear for the top layer, so if you'd like to do so as well follow these instructions. If you choose not too, then just repeat instructions for layer two. I usually dress my bears with oneies or craft store outfits for bears.

In this case you need to either take out some diapers from second
layer so the bears legs can rest there from layer three & fold one in the middle for bear to connect with.

Fill about five diapers into the third layer then set in bear. You may also want to tie off the bottom of a oneise to insure a good fit, or omit all of this and just stuff the bears butt into third layer… either works. See pictures below.

So now the cake should look something like this! Adorable, if I say so myself – but for now it’s onto the shred and adding your embellishments!

Now go ahead and mix your shred if you haven't already (a good idea is to use colors that are in blankets, toys, bibs and so on)
Start adding at the top paying special attention to filling around the bear, this will help keep bear from moving and look fuller & rounder. Continue on adding shred to all layers. Shred not only gives more “wow” factor to your designs, but this also helps keep the cake stable and the layers secure within themselves. No need for dowels or any of that stuff.

This style is old school (I began making diaper cakes in 1999 but it's a favorite design because it’s one I taught myself. There were no instructions back then). Please don’t misunderstand. It’s not that the “spiral or rolled” kind are not nice; they are! These are just more compact and you can do so much more with blankets, whole baby suits, toys avoiding the issue of falling apart.

The most important factor is you just want to create and make this all fun!

Barb Ireland ©2011

Unique Baby Gifts to Make

The announcement of a new baby on the way starts the hunt for the perfect baby gift to give the new mom. For those women that are crafty, making a unique baby gift is on top of their list. I think it starts a bit of competition since everyone wants their gift to be unique and not duplicated by others.

At MakeaDiaperCakeToday we offer you a ton of resources so that you can learn how to craft a darling baby gift that is sure to make the new mom super excited. One of the tutorials for a great baby gift is, of course, a diaper cake. This is an art of sorts, but with some direction and help, you will find that making a diaper cake is a relatively simple process and something that a new mom is going to love! Plus, it is so cute she may want to display it for a bit before taking it apart for use.

We also have some great tutorials for making decorations for your diapercake too. Gorgeous flowers you can craft and ribbons make the outside of the diapercake beautiful and special. You can even match it to the shower theme for display purposes.

All of these are going to make your gift recipient very happy. So glad you joined us here! We love helping you create and make a wonderful, unique baby gift that you will be proud to giveaway.