Monday, October 29, 2007

Butterfly Baby Shower Favor

As beautiful as gel candles are, they are not as popular as wax candles.
The main reason is the undeserved bad reputation they earned a couple of years ago from stories of candles exploding. I will devote another blog article on that in case the interest is there to clearly understand the confusion on gel candles.

In the baby showers where the favors are gel candles people are amazed at how beautiful they are and yet they don't see many of them around. Under different lighting the gel candles can take on an appearance of a celestial water paradise. In the sun the appearance turns in an aqua bubbling world of beauty.
When creating the candle favors one can control the amount of bubbles desired by the temperature to which you heat the gel. This baby shower candle was created for a mom-to-be that had a passion for butterflies. Everything at the baby shower was butterfly related and most of the baby gifts all had butterfly theme.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Baby Shower Centerpieces

When it comes to enhancing the decor of a baby shower, there are a few areas that are key to bringing out the spark to the moment. When a person first walks into the room the first things they will notice is the accents placed on the walls or at the tables.

The cake, centerpieces, and extras placed around the room are the key to making the baby shower beautiful.



My pictures in this blog are examples of one of the many cute ideas that could be made. These were created for a baby shower requested from a guest of another.

Notice the creations of the flowers and their stems. They are all made of baby socks. The cover around the base is of a baby blanket and the little extras are all baby related.

A baby shower center piece can be either done for the mom-to-be to take home and use or it can be created for the guest to keep as keep sakes.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Hallow Spirit Candle

As I have mentioned before in previous blogs, the great thing about being creative and making different things is that the possibilities are endless. I have a good friend of mine that had a baby at the same time I did. When I say same time I mean almost literally the same time. We got pregnant with only about 4 days in difference. And our babies were only a day apart when we delivered.

Well for her baby shower she decided she was going to celebrate the arrival of her little girl with decorations of her favorite holiday. And it fit perfectly since the baby was due end of October.

Below is the picture of the favors given away at her baby shower.


My little girl Calista decided to help pose as Vana White for these candles :)
Both little girls turned 2 yesterday and today.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rhiannon!!!!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Shower Car Candle Favors


The great thing about working on different diaper cake or candle designs is that every request comes with different desires and needs. When someone is looking for a unique idea but expresses there need for design orientation, it gives me the challenge to come up with something that will go with what they are hoping for. Whether they are looking for diaper cakes or candles, my first question is what if the baby’s gender if known. If the gender is not known then we go with neutral colors. Next, does the mom-to-be have a particular theme for the baby’s room? Or does she or who is preparing her baby shower have a theme to make her diaper cake or candles.

For the picture displayed here. The baby was a boy and the room theme the parents had chosen was cars. The baby shower was also going to follow the same theme. So we put together a perfect baby shower favor for a keepsake for all the friends attending. The baby shower was really cute with car balloons and so many cute little details that just said boy all over them.



23 baby shower forever gel candles were created. They all can have the tea light changed out if one wants to light them up. Most of the times, these candles are just kept as keep sakes. But either way the candle is a delight.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Value of a Diaper Cake


When looking to purchase a diaper cake, not only do you have a wide range of designs, but the price spectrum can be overwhelming. Diaper cakes can range in price anywhere from a few bucks to way into the hundreds. The question might be why the difference and what goes into making one of these beauties to either be so cheap or so expensive.

Well for starters you can find yourself in two scenarios, either the diaper cake is overpriced, or you have a diaper cake that’s true to its value. But how do you distinguish between them?

The advice I can share is if you are looking to know what your money is buying you, ask for the contents within the diaper cake. The contents hidden within the diaper cake can mean a world of difference in the price of the cake. The person purchasing the cake must also understand that presentation is also key to the first impression. My opinion, the perfect diaper cake would be one that truly is breath taking and that it carries all the essentials that a mom-to-be would need. With those things in place you have yourself a great buy. I am not going to tell you there is a perfect price because there isn’t. The best bet is to analyze the contents you are purchasing inside the cake and make sure you compare to a few when making the decision.

When purchasing a cake, also consider the time and quality of the cake. At a baby shower of a good friend of mine, I was more concern with her loving the diaper cake itself then the contents I had hidden in it.

Like any gift, it depends on what you are willing to spend on the person you are buying for. Know what you are buying and you should be fine.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Angel Candle Paradise



Center pieces were the highlight of my preparations when I was putting together my little girls baptism gathering. Since I am always looking for something unique to stand out and I don't want the same generic stuff you find in every party store, I decided to work on my own centerpieces. A baptism in our family is considered a highlight in our lives and it brings a feeling of purity and innocence. What better then to take my candle hobby but instead of devoting most of the time in the candle area, I decided to build a garden paradise with a heavenly angel in the middle. I didn't make the candles, I simply bought them and created the hallow area to have a perfect space for my angel. The candle towered over the center of the garden and birds sat at the edge of a bird bath. The bird bath water was made of gel.



I had 6 tables and each had one of these candle center pieces making them the main decor for each. I used a variety of flowers in every candle centerpiece. So no two candle centerpieces were alike. They were all taken home by one of the guests after the party was over.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Popular Baby shower Gift


You can search online under a wide variety of categories related to babies and baby showers and with no doubt you will come across a bit of ads offering you a huge selection off diaper cakes.


Diaper cakes have taken a huge takeoff in the last three years becoming a well known gift and gesture in lots of baby shower gatherings around the country. You might be amazed to ask people around you what a diaper cake is though, because the chances are the answer to your question will be: what is a diaper cake? Most of the popularity lies mostly within the people either in the industry related to babies or parents themselves. But like anything it is not because the exposure isn’t there, its simple because the necessity has never been there to either come up with a shower gift or the person simple has no babies of their own.


The great thing about diaper cakes is that the creativity is endless. There are no two diaper cakes alike. It’s not beyond any one's reach to create a beautiful masterpiece. It could take a bit of time in creating depending how detailed you are. But most people master a certain look and stick with it. I know my first one took me a few hours but it was wonderful to see the ending results. I probably still take more time then most would find worthwhile, but most of that time lies in treating every diaper cake I create as my very own “Michael Angelo’s David”. Of course diaper cakes, like art, is left to the eye of the beholder.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Passion for Diaper cakes

My passion for diaper cakes came when I had my little girl Calista. I was searching on ebay for sesame street toy figures and came across a beautiful diaper cake. It grabbed my attention since I was invited to a baby shower and I was on the search for the perfect gift. I decided to go on the hunt to find information on how to make a diaper cake and created my first diaper cake.

After a few requests I was on my way to perfecting every diaper cake I set out to create. Every cake I would make I had a hard time letting go. I guess it was because it was my way of knowing I did my best to build the prettiest cake.

This link will take you back to one of the cakes I did in the past:
Johanna's Diapercake

I will post more as I make them and some from the past that were a babyshower delights.

Origin of my Candle hobby


About 7 years ago, when neither babies nor marriage were yet in my horizon, I met a coworker who had a hobby of making gel candles. Out of interest I asked him if it was hard to make one. He said it was the way he and his wife relieved the everyday mundane and stressful jobs they both had. From that point on I took on the desire to make these candles from an example he brought me to work one day. The candles were fascinating since the gel candles were so beautiful. And so came the beginning of my gel candle search. About a year later, wedding bells started to sound and I knew soon I would be making wedding plans. I searched for shower favors everywhere and all the ones I found that were of my liking were to expensive for my budget. So I ventured into making my own gel candles as favors.

About a year later on April of 04, I was so into them that my husband and I took advantage of a Gel Convention they were having in Las Vegas and went. Yes, I know what you must be saying, what a bore. But I loved every minute of it. It was great, we killed two birds with one stone since Vegas was also a great place to take a vacation. The specialty of the convention was gel but they introduced a popular new craze, the mix of wax and gel to make beautiful food candle creations. The attached image is an example of a food candle they had on display there. I never really got into this type of candles but if you are interested, you can find all type of accessories related to this type of candles at: http://www.geltyme.com/

Today I still love making them, although now candles share my love with a new addition to my hobbies…. Diaper cakes. Diaper cakes give me the ability to be just as creative as the candles so like candles I put so much passion in every single one of them.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Baby Related Links

I've added links that I find to be informative. The gender predictor is a fun little test you can do to guess what you baby's gender will be if your an expecting mother. I went on a hunt to find out how right it could be. I found that in most cases when I asked the women I knew, 8 out of 10 had the gender the Chinese Calendar had chosen. So being that is for fun and knowing it can’t be guaranteed, it was fun to see how close it really gets.


Baby Gender Chinese Predictor

On another note, this may be a common thing to do at baby showers that I was not aware of but at mine, someone told me that the 7th gift opened is the next women to have a baby. And what was funny was the girl who had given me the 7th gift I opened, was indeed already pregnant.

Friday, October 5, 2007

Mother's Day Candle


Here is another request that was made for a mother-to-be from her husband on Mothers day. This is a fountain with little birds sitting on the edge of the glass. At the babyshower I had two other people later ask for the same design.
A Diapercake was later done for this mother.
In the coming days I will post pictures of that diapercake.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Johanna's Diapercake


Talking to my friend Johanna the other day I remembered on the first beautiful diaper cake I created for her cousin. I was not present at the baby shower where this cake was the center of attention but from what she tells me it was a complete hit. Johanna later told me that her cousin for situations we all know if we have been pregnant, had time creep up on her and was not fully prepared for the baby. So the booties, bottles, baby wipes and a few of other little hidden extras came of great help to her!!! :)

Monday, October 1, 2007

Candle Dish


I was going through some pictures of the different little things I have done for baby showers and I came across the candle dish that was a great hit.

The mother of this baby had a room decorated with an animal paradise. She professionally had someone paint a beautiful tree with all types of animals. So as a keepsake to go with her room I created a dish candle that she later put on a picture stand and had it sit on the dresser to go with the room. I hope the picture is clear on what it was. On the far left you had the candle that sits in its own little area. The rest of the plate was the small paradise created with all types of animals and a little river running through it. You have a hippo, zebra, giraffe, alligator and a lion. Next to the candle there is a palm tree. All these were the animals in the decorations the room had.