Winner update: This giveaway is now closed. Thanks so much to everyone that entered! And the 3 lucky winners are… Commenters #50 – Jessica, #462 – Michele, and #260 – Eveline. Congrats, ladies!

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I’m so excited to share this week’s Surprise Giveaway with you! For those of you that love a thoughtful/sentimental gift idea – whether for yourself or someone else – the handmade jewelry and other sweet things by Lisa Leonard Designs should be right up your alley! Even better - Lisa is offering up $50 Gift Certificates this week to THREE lucky hwtm readers!

You’ll find custom necklaces, inspired necklaces, bracelets, and more at Lisa Leonard, for everyone from mom to sis to BFF. Each piece is hand-cut, hammered, antiqued and polished sterling silver.

Pictured above: a few necklace designs, including the adorable – and brand new – Laundry Line Necklace! How cute is that?!

Pictured above: various custom & inspirational bracelet designs… I’m especially loving the chic Thin Sterling Cuff.

Pictured below: adorable Key to My Heart necklace… notice the sweet, hand-stamped “xo” detail!

And last but not least, a few favorites from the “other goodies” section: Baby’s First Spoon, Single Tag Keychain, Sterling Ring, and Bronze Freshwater Pearl Earrings.

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HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:

• Post a comment here telling us which design(s) from Lisa Leonard Designs you especially love!

• Giveaway ends Tuesday, August 25th at midnight PST. Winner is chosen randomly and will be notified via email Wednesday, August 26th and announced here as soon as they accept the prize. Good luck!!

Update 4/21: This giveaway is now closed. Thanks so much to everyone that entered – nearly 600 of you!!  Alas, there can only be one winner, and that lucky (and randomly chosen) person is… commenter #374 – Nikki, who said, “I think the WIllow-4 Sweet Cupcake onesie is adorable. It’s just one of the many items that I would purchase if I am selected for the $500 shopping spree! My little cupcake would look even sweeter wearing it!” Congrats, Nikki! And happy shopping!

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This week’s Surprise Giveaway is going to make a lucky someone VERY HAPPY! It comes from Childish Clothing – one of the hottest kids & maternity clothing lines around – and they’re offering up a whopper of a prize… a $500 Shopping Spree towards anything on their website! How much fun could you have with THAT?!

At Childish, you’ll find the highest quality fabrics and fashion-forward designs for Maternity, Baby & Kids. Their styles are a little bit preppy, a little bit punk, a little bit rock star, and always cutting edge! Check out just a few examples of the cool stuff they have to offer below…

Pictured above: various styles from 0-6x Girls. Pictured below: favorites from 0-7 Boys, Maternity, and Toys & Gifts…

Baby on the way? Shop for cool dresses, tops, jeans, fine jewelry, candles, and more…

In the Gifts section at childishclothing.com, you’ll find funky plush toys, hip nursery decor, music, blankets, and more….

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HOW TO ENTER:

• Post a comment here telling us which items from the Childish website that you think are especially fabulous – or would love to get if you win!

• Giveaway ends Monday, April 20th at midnight PST. Winner is chosen randomly and will be announced Tuesday, April 21st. Good luck!

P.S. You can now find Childish on Facebook too. Become a facebook fan to get the latest updates & deals!

After I posted on my first attempt at a diaper cake last November, some of you shared pictures of your own diaper cake creations inspired by that post – and they are impressive! I couldn’t resist sharing a couple of them in a follow-up post today… starting with this ridiculously adorable monkey-themed diaper cake created by Noel Culbertson for the equally adorable monkey themed baby shower she hosted.

Noel used DwellStudio for Target receiving blankets to wrap each tier then added some ribbon & paper flowers (available at craft & scrapbook stores) to dress them up. The top layer of the diaper cake is another receiving blanket, rolled and wrapped with banana patterned paper and adorned with a paper monkey “cake topper”, which was glued to a popsicle stick. (Martha Stewart’s “Monkey Party Kit” was used for the topper.)

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This next diaper cake – a fun, girlie pink & brown design (which also features DwellStudio for Target blankets) – was created by hostess Davina Saunders:

Here are some tips from Davina on how to recreate this design:

Materials used:
Set of 3 DwellStudio receiving blanket from target
Size 2 Pamper swaddlers
chocolate brown grossgrain ribbon
Pink shabby rose trim (sold by the yard at Hobby Lobby)
chocolate brown ric rac
Pink & Brown scrapbook papers – used to create the “vase” at the top of the cake and then cut into 1.5″ circles for the “candles”
Scrapbook embelishments
Faux flowers – from Michaels

To make the “candles” – I glued scrapbook paper circles together – with a lollipop stick sandwiched in between.  The name was spelled out with stick-on letters from the scrapbook section of Hobby Lobby.

{View more pics of this diaper cake here.}

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Thanks to Noel & Davina for the fabulous inspiration! If anyone else has tips or ideas to add, please share them here!

Since Huggies was one of the sponsors that donated to St. Jude for Alison’s baby shower (see previous post today), I was instructed to make a diaper cake for the shower…which made sense.

The only problem was that I’d never actually made a diaper cake myself before, and when I opened the Huggies packages the diapers had blue and green Winnie the Pooh characters all over them, which didn’t exactly match the pink/yellow/chocolate baby bird theme we had going…eek!!!!

Alpha Mom to the rescue though! Their fabulous “How to make a Unique Diaper Cake” guide totally saved me. It shows how to wrap each “cake tier” with tissue paper so that you can still have a white cake no matter what the diapers actually look like, and comes with the added bonus of a champagne (or sparkling cider) bottle hidden inside – which is actually the perfect “support system” and height for a 3-tier cake!

Instead of the white satin ribbon, I used receiving blankets to wrap the sides of each tier (folded down to the right height and fastened with safety pins), then added a smaller band of ribbon on top of that to add some color.

The cake “topper” is actually a piece of scrapbook paper, rolled to fit around a paper cup filled with faux grass (and some vase gems to help weigh it down), and the birds were pre-cut chipboard shapes that I bought at a scrapbook store, then covered with decorative paper and glued to white lollipop sticks.

And just like that…a pink/yellow/chocolate bird-themed diaper cake was created from blue & green Winnie the Pooh diapers…ta da!

The new line of Hostess with the Mostess® digital scrapbooking templates is now available at How Fast They Grow! And to help celebrate, HFTG is offering HWTM readers 20% off with discount code: “HWTM922“! {good through 10/22/08}

For those of you that didn’t see the sneak peek from a couple weeks ago, here’s a quick recap: There are 81 new HWTM templates that fall into 3 different categories categories: Mod Squad (blue, green & chocolate tones), Metro Sorbet (berry, pink & orange tones), and Mostess Days (holidays & celebrations).

For the template designs, I tried to keep the focus on modern colors & patterns so that they can be utilized for a variety of ages…from the very young to the young at heart! Here are a few sample pages…

About How Fast They Grow:
In the era of digital photography and Web 2.0, How Fast They Grow’s patent-pending Digi-Scrapbook® technology has become one of the most talked-about new web apps this year.  At How Fast They Grow, users can “drag and drop” their digital photos into the 12×12 templates and create magazine-quality scrapbook pages in about seven minutes. There is no software to download or purchase, and each page can hold up to six high-quality digital images. You can also customize titles, fonts, and journaling on each page!

Click here to check out the entire collection… hope you like them!

Cristina also creates adorable & unique Monogrammed Stationery Sets (see image above) , which come in sets of 6, packaged in a super cute gift box!

This week, Cristina is offering up prizes for TWO lucky readers!
• The first place winner will receive a necklace of their choice (up to $42 value) AND a custom monogrammed stationery set!
• The second place winner will receive a necklace of their choice (up to $42 value) .

HOW TO ENTER:
• Visit the Cristina Ashley Designs Blog to check out more of her jewelry designs (new ones recently added!) and post a comment here telling us which jewelry design is your favorite.
• Enter by Friday, March 21st at midnight PST . Winner will be announced Monday, March 24th – don’t forget to check back and see if you won!
• Remember to use your login name if you have one (blogger, typepad, live journal, word press, AIM) or first name & last initial so we can identify you if you win. Good luck!

In a nutshell, How Fast They Grow provides zillions of stylish & adorable 12×12 page templates, plus a patent-pending digital scrapbooking technology that enables you to upload your photos to their website, drag-n-drop the photos into the template designs of your choice, and type your own custom text & page titles – so you’re essentially scrapbooking online!

There are tons of cute template designs to choose from – including an entire collection from stationery extraordinaire Boatman Geller ! Once you’re happy with your digital pages, you can order printed pages (which will fit in any standard scrapbook) for $7.50 each. Pages are printed on high-quality cardstock in photo-quality resolution, so you’re essentially creating a premium designer keepsake for years to come.

Baby Shower Gift Sets or Gift Cards from How Fast They Grow would actually be a a super thoughtful idea for baby showers, baby arrival congrats, or first birthday parties. I also like the idea of framing the pages individually to make your own custom wall hangings. Hmmm – maybe you could even design a few featuring mom and dad-to-be’s baby pics and use those as baby shower decor? Always thinking in terms of decorations

Special Discount for Readers:
Get 20% OFF of your entire order at How Fast they Grow with promo code "HWTM" at checkout…happy scrapping! EXPIRES 2/29/08

Onesies also make great baby shower party decor, and the black “illuminate” onesie featuring the cool chandelier design might have to make an appearance at the black & white baby shower I’m currently planning

{$25 each at e.k.g clothing}

• Snack Ball Snack Container ($6.50)
• ModWare Toddler Utensils ($5)
• Dombo Cup ($15)
• Groovy Interlocking Plate and Bowl Set ($13)

*The entire group above would make a fabulous baby shower gift!

• Munch Lunchbox Dog ($12, on sale)
  *Lightweight lunch bag that insulates for up to 4 hours and unzips into a nifty placemat!
• Kids Bottle ($16 each)
  *stylish, durable, spill proof, & leak proof

You’ll find find fun illustrations and stickers to mark important milestones in each book, and each gift pack comes complete with a calendar, plus matching notepad and sticky notepad, tied up pretty with a polkadot ribbon. Great gift ideas for friends & loved ones – or even yourself if you’ve got a little one on the way!


How to enter:
• Post a comment here:
You can either post any comment OR tell us one of your favorite things you’ve ever seen at a baby shower you attended or threw – whether it be a particular theme, favor, activity, invitation or food – OR if you have something to vent about – tell us your least favorite thing about baby showers (certain games immediately come to mind myself!).
• Giveaway ends Friday, Nov 10th at midnight PST. Good luck!