Monthly Archives: August 2012

DIY Diaper Cakes

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  Today I’m going to talk about one of my favorite baby gifts to give at a baby shower.  A long time ago, ok 2008, my sweet cousin Rosie was pregnant and expecting a boy, and I wanted to give her something cool, unique, and practical.  Enter diaper cakes!  I researched online for a unique baby gift and the diaper cake kept popping up, so I read articles and blogs in order to see what you needed to make one and how to do it yourself.  I also viewed YouTube videos and they helped out a lot with the visual aspect.  Like I said before, I don’t have a great memory, but because this project brings me so much joy in constructing it and giving it as a gift, I do remember the sheer anticipation when I tackled my first diaper cake.  I had a lot of fun!

My list of essentials in order to make a cake includes an empty wrapping paper tube (it’ll be your starting point where you begin assembling the diapers around it, once you finish the tube will be hidden), rubber bands (to wrap the individual diapers and then wrap them to the tube in place, making the towers), ribbon (to hide the rubber bands), baby toys (for decoration and added gifts), baby toiletries (for decoration and added gifts), baby blankets (roll them up and insert into diaper cake just like the diapers), clip art (optional), curling ribbon, (optional), assorted mini baby decorations such as pacifiers, safety pins, etc. found at the craft store (optional), a piece of wood or very thick cardboard (for the cake to sit on), and of course diapers!

This was the first diaper cake I made.  My family and my cousin’s friends loved it.  It looked great on the table and it was one of a kind.  This cake made everyone happy, especially the expectant parents, because diapers are one of the most important gifts one can give.

I wish that I would have taken step by step pictures but back then, that thought never occurred to me.  I’m happy that at least I took a picture of the finished project.  After that cake, I did some more but again I only took pictures of the finished project and unfortunately at this time, no one is expecting.  So until, you can always do what I did and research online.  Look at different cakes for inspiration and DIY.  This is a project with endless possibilities.

Here are pictures of all the cakes I’ve made:

This diaper cake was for my sister-in-law.  This one came out wider than the first.  I stuffed a lot of diapers, which made the top big enough to sit two stuff animals, wash cloths in the center forming the “candle or cake topper”, and letter sitters (sadly, discontinued) spelling out the baby’s nickname, A.J.  Everyone kept asking, “You made that?”  I would nod and they would say, “Amazing!” 🙂

This diaper cake was for my dear friend, Francine.  It was the tallest, widest, and heaviest cake I’ve ever made.

This was the cake topper that I chose and I thought it was the most adorable thing ever.  It was a clay baby figurine that I found at Lady Jane Craft Store.

This cake was smaller and I used the letter sitters (sadly, discontinued) to spell out bella (short for Isabella) to decorate the top.

And last but definitely not least,

my Rock and Roll Princess diaper cake, which I made for my sister-in-law’s second child.  I placed a pair of brand new black, patent Mary Janes on top as the cake topper.  For decorations, I used a princess crown, pink feather boas, and on the base I glued gingham ribbon to make the skirt for the cake to sit on.  A hit once again!!

I can say wholeheartedly that I had so much fun making each and every single diaper cake.  I hope you enjoyed looking at these pics.  Until next time…

Funny Face Sandwiches

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Hello everybody!  School begins next week and my oldest daughter is about to enter Kindergarten.  I didn’t enroll her in Pre-K for two main reasons:  I wanted her to spend more time with her little sister and form an indestructible bond and I simply wasn’t ready to let her go.  The bond has been formed, but alas I’m still finding it really hard to let her go and there’s nothing I can do about it.  I can home school her, but I need to give her a chance to be among other children and experience a new environment.  I have to at least try.

I am going to miss her greatly, especially during lunchtime.  I have been feeding her since the day she was born and as she grew older, her palette grew as well.  Some days she’ll ask for pasta with a chicken patty or a whole wheat pizza or her favorite, a funny face.  What’s a funny face?  Well, it’s a peanut butter and jelly sandwich along with other items that I put together constructing a funny face.

Here are some examples:

PB&J sandwiches, mixed salad, red apples, grapes, bananas, strawberry, mini marshmallows, and chocolate chips

PB&J sandwiches, banana, broccoli, apples, pickles, shredded mozzarella cheese, and chocolate chips

PB&J sandwiches, apples, banana, raisins, cherry tomatoes, and chocolate chips

About a few weeks ago, I surprised her with a different sandwich, a happy face butterfly.  She loved it!

PB&J sandwich, mozzarella cheese stick, pickle, marshmallows from cereal, and chocolate chips

When she starts school, she does have a choice between eating the school lunch or I can send her off with food in a lunch box, but I don’t believe that the happy faces are going to stay intact in her lunch box.  😦  At least, I’ll have the weekends until she gets too old.  I’ll settle for that.  🙂  Until next time…

Flowers, candles, vases…oh my! My ideal centerpiece!

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.   Today let’s talk about centerpieces and how daunting they can be.  Nowadays, I believe people want to stay on a budget and they want their centerpieces to sort of be unique.  Those two criteria were very important to me when I was planning my anniversary/vow renewal party.  The only difference this time around was the fact that my husband and I were paying for EVERYTHING, including the banquet hall, which my parents paid for eleven years ago.  I still gave myself a budget back then because I didn’t want my parents to spend a lot of money so I chose a venue that practically had everything in the place.  That saved a lot of headaches, time, and money.  My venue, The Astoria World Manor, has a chapel, photo studio, and banquet hall.  You can’t get any better than that.  But I digress, back to the centerpieces.

There are definitely your traditionalists who chose the vases with the flowers or floating candles and that’s ok, but I wanted something different.  I also wanted to arrange it myself.  Remember, we’re on a budget here people.  🙂  I searched for ideas and pictures on Pinterest, of course, as well as images on AOL search and immediately fell in love with arrangements that featured mason jars.  Vases are good and there are different shapes, sizes, and prices, but mason jars can be used for storing all kinds of stuff including food!  They’re simply functional and I wanted them.  Badly.  So when I spotted them at the craft store for $1.49, which is a great price because for some reason I thought they would be more expensive, I couldn’t stock my shopping cart fast enough.  Needless to say, I was very happy.  I know it’s just a jar, but the point is, I found them.  That’s half the battle.  Onto the next step, what’s going inside?

I knew I didn’t want real flowers.  I also knew that artificial flowers could add up to be expensive.  So I went around searching for a bushel of flowers, artificial, that I could separate and possibly distribute evenly.

I found one at the craft store that had mini wheat stalks and long leaves.  The price was right and I liked the way they looked, so I bought four of them.

I also chose to fill the jar with gold glitter and natural curly ting stems.  They come in bunches (around 30 per bunch) and are reasonably priced so they were ideal in order to distribute among the jars.

Putting them together, I had the height and fullness I wanted, but I still needed a flower.

I wanted to incorporate the turquoise color so I searched online for a turquoise gerbera daisy.  Eleven years ago, the gerbera daisy was the main flower in my wedding bouquet, only it was white so I thought why not?  I have to admit though that I did procrastinate on finding the flower until I found a good-looking and reasonably priced one on a website.  I put a dozen into the cart, clicked CHECKOUT, and almost fell off my chair when I saw the shipping and handling charges.  They wanted almost twenty dollars!! for shipping twelve artificial flowers.  I deleted that cart so fast and I was so furious because I still had no flower or idea of what to do.

Something you must know about me…I do not have the greatest memory so I can’t tell you how I came about thinking about paper flowers.  I just know that one day I searched DIY PAPER FLOWERS and was bombarded with tutorials online.  I saw videos on YouTube and read several blog instructions, but ultimately I ended up using a freehand template, courtesy of my husband’s artistic talent, tissue paper, glue, lollipop sticks and gold acrylic paint.

My masterpiece, made out of tissue paper!  I also tied a gift tag with the table number and ribbon in my color palette, turquoise and gold, around the jar to complete my look.

Here’s my centerpiece on table #7.  I made a heart paper garland (a later post), as seen on Pinterest.com, using my colors.  I threw potpourri, which I got from IKEA, inside the garland to surround the mason jar.  I also covered the lid by simply cutting out and gluing a circle from turquoise card stock and affixing a monogrammed sticker.

I love the way it came together and I will definitely be posting the way I did my tissue paper flower in a later post, but for now I hope you enjoyed how I arranged my ideal centerpiece.  Until next time…

DIY Card Box

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Hi everybody!  I wanted to share with you one of my crafty ideas that I did for my anniversary party.  It’s so convenient to have a card box stationed at your table so guests can just drop their well wishes into it and party on.  You don’t have to carry around envelopes or even carry a bag full of them.  Instead RECYCLE a box, it can be one you received something in the mail with or even a shoe box, and decorate it with items, that you might already have in the house, like wrapping paper, stickers, ribbons, gift tags, tape, glue, etc.

I wanted to stay with my color theme so I bought a gold wrapping paper, coordinating ribbon in turquoise and gold ( I forgot to include them in the picture), and gold glitter sticker letters. I had the gift tags already and decided to use them.

I took a white shipping box and before taping it closed, I outlined and cut out the opening for the cards.  Remember to cut the flaps that fold inside as well, not just the outside flaps.  I then taped it shut on the sides, bottom, and whatever is left in the middle.

I wrapped the box like a gift and then I pressed down gently to feel out the card slot and make a faint outline.  Carefully using my X-ACTO knife, I made a slit down the middle of where the opening was.

I tucked the wrapping paper inside and carefully taped it using thin, but long strips of masking tape.  I placed the tape as close to the edge of the opening and slid my hand inside to reach as far as I could to tape the paper inside.  If you make a mistake, which I did (see little star in my picture), while cutting out the card slot and you don’t have enough paper to tuck inside in order to cover the box, just take strips of the same paper and slide under the top paper, and above if you want, and tape until completely covered.

I glued a thin gold ribbon onto a thicker turquoise ribbon, where I strung the gift tags and glued them onto the box.  I printed out the word CARDS onto a clear address label.  I then cut out each letter and stuck them onto the gift tags.  I finished off the box with the letter M and the words Thank You using gold, glitter stickers.

This box was easy to make and a big hit at my anniversary party.

I hope you like this crafty idea.

Until next time…

Update:  I just realized that you can also use a large tissue box and the best thing about it is that there is already an opening…duh!  Wrap that sucker up and decorate the heck out of it.  🙂  Enjoy!

Celebrating 11 years happily married to my high school sweetheart!

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Hello everybody!  I wanted to share a special event that just occurred in my life.  This past Saturday, August 18th, I celebrated eleven years happily married to my high school sweetheart, (we have a total of 19 years together from the moment he asked me to be his girlfriend).  We also renewed our vows and threw our celebration at the same place where we got married eleven years ago on the same date, the Astoria World Manor in Astoria, NY.  It was pretty exciting this time around because our children were able to see us get “married” again.  Everyone, including us, had a blast.  The food was fantastic (we got a personalized watermelon display) and the employees there were very helpful.

I had a lot of fun putting together my centerpieces.  I made my own flower using tissue paper and I loved using the colors turquoise (11th year wedding anniversary color) and gold (representing my dress) together.   I included and made a marshmallow treat (inspired by a Pinterest pic)for my favor bags.  I also made a card box and decorated my cake topper.  I will be sharing my crafty ideas on those items in a later post.  I didn’t want to feel overwhelmed so I stuck to a mantra of, “KEEP IT SIMPLE!”  It worked, and in the end everyone complimented me on what I did and I was very happy.  Many of my friends and family members know that I’m crafty so they instantly knew my touches here and there.  Overall, there were a couple of hiccups, but that’s expected because nothing can ever be perfect.  The imperfections are life lessons so you know what you can correct in the future, if you chose to do so.  Until next time…thanks for following.

Oh, did I mention our names?  No?  Oh, I’m very sorry.  We are Angelica and Angel, and no I’m not making that up.

I like to think we were meant to be!

Cheers!

Hello world, family, and friends

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First let me start by saying FINALLY, MY BLOG IS UP!! I have been wanting to start a blog for such a looooong time now. Due to my many excuses a.k.a. fears, I procrastinated as long as I could, but I’m ready now. I’m currently a stay at home mom of two, but my oldest is about to enter Kindergarten. YIKES!! There will be many, many posts in the future regarding my anxiety about having to let her go into the real world. It’s so scary. As for now I want to start my blog with a crafting idea because I’ve been crafting for a very long time. I’m constantly inspired by ideas I find on the Internet. My latest obsession is Pinterest.com. If you haven’t checked it out, do so and you will simply be hooked! I have so many crafty ideas to share with you. For example, I wanted to make some butterfly paper decorations for my daughter’s birthday. I currently own two large Fiskars squeezable paper punch machines, a circle and a heart.

I love these punches because they cut out the shapes easily and fast, so I wanted to find a butterfly one. After searching and comparing prices I just didn’t find one that I liked. Either it was too expensive or it was too hard to cut out per reviews. As my daughter’s birthday quickly approached, I still had no butterflies and I didn’t want to cut them out myself. Then one night it came to me, out of no where, I could use my heart punch to make the butterflies.
Here’s what I did:

Step 1: I punched out two hearts using pink card stock.

Step 2: I stapled the bottom of the hearts together in the middle to form the wings. I cut off the tip of one of the hearts so it wouldn’t peek out once I did the final step, but you can also bend it and tuck it in before stapling it.

Step 3: To complete my little butterfly, I used a black pipe cleaner, formed the body, glued it in the middle of the two hearts and viola, a beautiful paper butterfly.

Step 4 (optional)): If you want you can decorate the wings with crayons, markers, glitter, etc. or give them to your kids so they can decorate them.  Endless possibilities!!

Since my daughter was turning five, I did five each of three colors and affixed them onto our party decorations. They were a hit.

I hope you guys like this little crafty idea. I hope to share some more in the future as well as opinions and thoughts on different subjects such as parenting, life issues, relationships, and then some.

Welcome to my world.

Welcome to The Mercado Project.