Sea Creature Diaper Cake (Guest Crafter for Carson's Creations)

I'm so excited to be featured as guest crafter today at Carson's Creations -- many thanks to Georgiana for such an honor!  If you've come from Georgiana's blog, thanks for visiting!  If not, please visit Georgiana and check out her amazing creations.

I'm sharing one of my favorite craft projects with you today -- a diaper cake decorated with Cricut die cuts!

Diaper cakes are wonderful baby shower gifts.  I was blessed by a diaper cake when my son was born, and I began making them for my expectant friends.  I learned to make diaper cakes from this YouTube video by CreativeBabyShowers:

 

For this diaper cake, I chose a sea creature theme; it's the recipient's nursery theme and colors.  Once you've made your diaper cake base as shown in the video, you'll need the following items:

 

• completed diaper cake base
• ribbons in two widths (Mine are 1.5 and 2.5 inches.)
• die cuts (I used cuts from Create a Critter and Playtime cartridges; see end of entry for more details.)
• floral stems or bush
• double-stick tape
• scissors

STEP 1:  RIBBON
Wrap the wider ribbon around the diaper cake layers to hide rubber bands.  Secure with double-stick tape placed along rubber band line every few inches.  Repeat with the smaller-width ribbon layered on top of the first ribbon, again securing with double-stick tape.

STEP 2:  DIE CUTS
Place your die cuts around the diaper cake as desired; secure to ribbon with double-stick tape.

STEP 3:  FLORAL ACCENTS
Cut small sprigs from your floral stem or bush and use as accents for the cake topper and around the die cuts.  Stems need to be approximately 3 to 4 inches long.  Wedge the stems between or under the rolled diapers; do not use glue, as it will damage the diapers.  I used a greenery bush that reminded me of seaweed to keep with the sea creature theme.

STEP 4:  TOPPER
Secure die cut as topper of the diaper cake.  I used regular transparent tape to fasten the die cut to a wooden skewer and stuck the skewer between diapers.  But don't limit yourself to just die cuts -- I often use a small stuffed animal or teething toy as a topper.

And now you have a super cute diaper cake!  Below are some close-ups of the topper and die-cuts for this sea creature diaper cake:

 

Cricut Cut Details:

• All animals are from Create a Critter; frog, whale, seahorse, jellyfish, and octopus cut at 3.5 inches; turtle and fish cut at 2.5 inches.
• Topper tag is <princess> and <princess_s> from Playtime, cut at 2.25 inches.
• Letters for "LANDON" from Opposites Attract using Opposite font, cut at 1.25 inches.
• Embossing for topper tag is Spots & Dots Cuttlebug folder.
• Textured cardstock is Core'dinations; non-textured cardstock is from The Paper Studio.
• Inking with cyan and green Colorbox petal point ink pads.

I've enjoyed sharing this project with you today.  Thanks again to Georgiana for such a special honor!  I'm really, really proud of how this project turned out, so I'm entering it into a couple challenges, too:

Cooking with Cricut:  Challenge #41 - Anything Goes
Decorate to Celebrate:  Challenge #3 - Adult's Birthday Party - My project doesn't fit the theme, but they allow any decoration to be entered.

And...if you're thinking this project looks familiar, you might recall the coordinating card I made last week:

Cricut After Dark -- "Sea" Baby Soon Card (June 28, 2011)