Diaper Cake Tutorial (Baby Shower Weekend)

In celebration of my baby shower being held this weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to post a tutorial for a project that just about anyone can do, not matter what their craft skills may be.

Diaper cakes are a cute and crafty gift, perfect for a mommy-to-be, no matter what gender her bundle of joy will be. Here is a simple tutorial if you would like to try one of these for a pregnant friend or family member. 

This picture of the supplies is not exactly organized but here's the basics on what you will need: 

• Disposable or cloth diapers; decide how tall you want the cake to be or how much you want to spend, that will determine how many diapers you buy

• A cardboard base; you can buy cake boards or cut a piece of study cardboard and cover with cute wrapping paper

• Ribbon; choose your colors based on the gender and make sure to have many different widths 

• Clear elastic bands to secure rolled diapers

• Rattles, socks, lotion, pacifiers - extra items for sides of cake

• Glue gun, tape, scissors, flowers, and wine (for drinking, not decoration!)

• Cellophane and ribbon for wrapping

The first step is to glue lace around the bottom cardboard base and then start rolling some diapers! 

We used 52 for this cake and it took us about 15 minutes to roll them all. I was initially going to roll them and have Sandy tie them with ribbon but it would have taken too long. A quick trip to the store led us to the clear hair elastics in the picture and still saved about 45 minutes. 

After the diapers are rolled, start lining them up on the base, with the edge facing in, until the outside of the board is covered in a ring of diapers. You may need to use a smidge of rolled tape under each to keep them upright while you are working. We stuffed the center with tissue paper but if you have enough diapers, you can use those to fill the entire circle.

Then, place a slightly smaller cardboard circle on top of the bottom level and repeat the process. We tied some ribbon around the bottom layer while we worked but it's just a temporary hold. The cake isn't sturdy at this point but you can secure it all once the diapers are in place.

Repeat the process from the first layer on the second and third (if applicable). 

If you are using cloth diapers, you will find that as few as 30 will make a full, two tier cake but that will mean your cost could be significantly higher. 

After we finished all three layers and wrapped the layers with thick, wired ribbon with smaller magenta ribbon on top, secured with hot glue, we realized that the top layer was too full (the picture on the side is  the goof-up before we fixed it). There was not enough of a difference between the middle layer and top layer so we simply pulled out one of the diapers from the top layer and pulled the ribbon tight with hot glue for security. Try not to get any glue on the diapers.

 You can see there is one diaper left over in the middle, we used that and the diaper that we removed from the top layer, to hold a bottle of baby lotion in place on top of the cake, creating the illusion of another tier. 

Once we fixed the top layer and positioned the lotion bottle, it was time to adorn the sides of the cake with teeny tiny socks, a package of pacifiers, a rattle (shaped like a diamond ring for the little diva!), small flowers and an adorable star washcloth, with a happy face to celebrate the joyous occasion! 

Of course you will want to cover this cake to protect the diapers, now that they are out of the package. We used rolled cellophane and some ribbon to complete the gift. This also keeps the cake more secure for traveling as well. 

The finished project cost approximately $30 for all the supplies. You can adjust the size of your own cake project based on your own budget. The recipient will certainly appreciate the thoughtfulness of this personalized gift, no matter how much you spend. Happy crafting!