Picnic and Fathers' Day Crafts

It's the first Monday in June and this month's Designer Craft Connection theme is "Picnic and/or Fathers Day Crafts".  So, you may be wondering, why am I looking at a photo of a Diaper Cake!

Well, Life in the Craft Lane isn't always a picnic.  I spent the last 10 days of May at the hospital with my hubby who was admitted with a severe case of pneumonia, a blood infection and a bladder infection.  His mother has been telling him for years to get a pneumonia shot and now he realizes why.  Yes, I'm going for mine next week.

Our son and his wife were also visiting from Philadelphia these past few days to celebrate our son's birthday with us on May 31st and since they're expecting their first baby in September, her mom was having a baby shower for them on June 2nd.  Yes, he's going to be a Father.  I admit it's a stretch to connect with our theme, but it works for me.  I was in charge of making the diaper cake, so I thought I'd share it with you. 

My son has a "thing" about diaper cakes and neither he nor his wife like cutesy crafty stuff, so this a "tasteful" version without a whole lot of crafty "c--p".... LOL   I've made a bunch of these over the years for family and friends, but rather than it being just a decorative piece, it's also a gift "bag".  I start with either an empty Pringles can or a Quaker Oatmeal container.  They're both the perfect height.   I use the white hospital, fabric type tape to wrap 3, 4 or 5 layers of newborn diapers around the base.   I find it easier if you fold the folded diapers in half to make them more even then line them up next to each other on a flat surface, overlapping the ends about an inch or so.  Attach them together with the fabric tape then wrap the strips of connected diapers around the can until you have a bottom tier about 10" in diameter.  Add 2 or 3 layers above the first layer for the second tier.  As you can imagine, I didn't have a whole lot of time to work on this, so I just wrapped wide ribbon around the layers.  The topper was a die cut stork shape which I glued to a bamboo skewer.  My son loves to play golf, so I purchased a golf bag sticker to add to the stork's bundle, punched a circle from pale peachy colored card stock, added 2 black dots for eyes and 2 pink dots for cheeks to make a baby's head then stuck this peeping out from the top of the golf bag.  I also added a second golf bag sticker to the skewer at the base of the stork. 

As I said, my diaper cakes are gift containers, so I stuffed the inside of the oatmeal container with baby gifts - sox, onesies, etc. then added colored paper shreds and a few silk flower heads on top.  The topper was then stuck into the center between the tissue paper wrapped gifts.  EZ PZ Quick'n EZ...   The cake was then placed on a 12" round cardboard cake base covered with a round, scalloped piece of scrapbook paper, which I just happened to have.  I usually use cake doilies.

Here are a few more ideas:

You can find all kinds of things to use for decorations:  stickers, cake embellishments, candy shapes, favors from the baby aisle at the craft store and lots of stuff at the party stores.  Enjoy!

Hopefully Life in the Craft Lane will be back to some semblance of normalcy by the end of next week.  Since I have babies on the brain I'll be putting together a "Babyville Boutique" giveaway on or around June 8th.  You won't want to miss this one, so y'all come back now....!

For more, and probably more authentic, picnic and Fathers' Day crafts don't forget to hop forward via the blue, Designer Crafts Connection logo here in my sidebar.

Yours truly,
Julie :)