Baby Boy Nappy Cake!

Hi Folks,

I recently attended my first ever baby shower- and it wasn't half bad! Myself and a friend put ourselves forward to help the mum-to-be out and offered to do the decorations, my friend had balloons and banners and I made gift favors, a nappy cake, which was super fun and not as difficult as I thought. We decided the theme should be leopard print (as my friend is pregnant and fabulous) and blue for a boy. 

For the favors I ordered 50 leopard print paper bags from Ebay, and made some light blue labels and then filled them with a handful of blue sweets- blue bon bons, blue jelly bellys etc.

For the Nappy Cake, I used a pack of 45 size 2 newborn nappys and I got the leopard ribbon and blue organza from ebay. Tere are tons of tutorials online for Nappy or "Diaper" cakes, but this is the one I thought was the best:

Youtube: How to Make a Baby Diaper Cake

And here's how it came out- apologies for my cat photo bombing one of the pictures...

The mum-to-be seemed to really like it and it looked great as a center piece with all the other baby gifts surrounding it too. I cant wait to make another one!

Hayley xxx

DIY Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" Notebook

Hey Folks,

So I made this a little while ago for a Disney fan, it was inspired by the story book at the beginning of Disney's "Sleeping Beauty"- here is the original:

This currently on display at "Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives" Exhibition at The Ronald Reagan Library, California.

And here's my version:

Of course, my version is no where near as fancy as the original jewel encrusted masterpiece above! ^_^


Here's how I made my simpler version though:


You Will Need:

• A New Hard Back Notebook 
• Old Paintbrush 
• PVA Glue 
• Gold Paint (Metallic) 
• Flat Back Little Gems 
• Shoelaces, Thick String. 
• Newspaper 
• Deco Or Scotch Tape
• Mod Podge (Optional) 

Step 1
Get your materials together and prepare your crafting area. You'll need to put down some newspaper as you'll be painting.

Step 2
Cover the inside cover and the page edges with newspaper and deco tape (or scotch tape)- to protect from the paint.

Step 3
Cut out strips of laces/thick string and stick them down on the notebook using the silicone glue- to form the letters "Sleeping Beauty". This will give a cool 3D embossed look to the letters. I cut the tips of the laces into points to make the lettering look better.

Step 4
Cover the letters with a layer of PVA glue using an old paintbrush- make sure you get in the cracks to help it stick to the book! Wait for the glue to dry- about 30 mins or until it turns completely clear.

(Tip: Not essential, but I added a layer of mod podge after this stage for good measure)

Step 5
Cover the whole cover of the book (back and front) in gold paint.You should add about 3 layers of paint to make it nice and shiny! If you want it to look a bit more of a bronze gold- mix a drop of brown paint to the gold.

Step 5
Then add your gems! Even though mine were sticky back, I used a dab of silicone glue to stick each one down. You can find the basic round gems in any good craft shop, but ebay has a great selection of rhinestones in different sizes and shapes also.

And you're done!

If you wanted to go all out (and you're a dab hand at painting or stenciling which unfortunately I am not), you could even try to recreate the inside first pages of the book as featured in the film:





Hope you liked the tutorial! It took a good couple hours, but I'm more or less pleased with it!


-Hayley S xxx


P.S- I will be doing my very first blog giveaway very soon! (How exciting), Once the blog hits 2000 views, I will be opening up a giveaway competition to members of Hayley's Craft Blog, so please- go forth and recommend the blog to anyone you think may like it, and keep watching this space for details coming soon!