Who Wants a Piece of Diaper Cake?

While I was home in Wisconsin last month, my mom helped me with a handful of Bachelorette party projects. Those pictures are still to come in an upcoming post, by the way. After those projects were done-finished-finito, I got to help her with one she was working on…a diaper cake for my sister’s shower!

I have to say, I was pretty excited when she called saying she wanted my help. It may sound silly, but I have a newfound infatuation with all things DIY, and have been wanting to learn how to make a diaper cake for quite awhile now.

When I arrived, my mom was prepared. She had supplies, tutorial videos to watch, and had already rolled most of the diapers.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

• 84 diapers
• 14-inch circular tray or piece of cardboard
• ribbon that is at least 1 inch wide, you will need enough length to wrap around each tier
• 84 regular rubber bands
• 7 extra-long rubber bands
• 2 dowels (approximately 12 inches long)
• Decorations (for example: baby socks, toys, bottles)
• Hot glue

*Be sure to check out the bottom of this post for additional notes.

The whole construction process of a diaper cake is pretty self-explanatory. Start by rolling up all 84 diapers. We rolled from the bottom (of each diaper) to the top. Fasten the rolled diaper with a rubber band.

Once all your diapers are rolled, you can start bunching them up into the necessary circle shape. On a flat surface, put 1 rolled diaper upright. Then gather 7 more diapers around that to form another ring of diapers. Fasten this with one of the extra-long rubber bands. What you have, should look like this (the top tier):

1 + 7 = 8

Onto the middle tier. Once again, on a flat surface, put 1 rolled diaper upright. Then gather 6 more diapers around that to form another ring of diapers. Fasten with an extra-long rubber band. Around that ring, gather 12 more diapers and fasten with an extra-long rubber band. What you have, should look like this:

1 + 6 + 12 = 19

Next is the bottom tier. On your 14-inch tray or cardboard circle, put 1 rolled diaper upright (in the photo below, disregard the bottle in the middle, which we replaced with a diaper). Then gather 6 more diapers around that to form another ring of diapers. Fasten with an extra-long rubber band. Around that ring, gather 11 more diapers and fasten with an extra-long rubber band. Around that ring, gather 17 more diapers and fasten with an extra-long rubber band. And finally, around that ring, gather 22 more diapers and fasten with an extra-long rubber band. What you have, should look like this:

1 + 6 + 11 + 17 + 22 = 57

Stack the middle tier on top of the bottom tier. Then stack the top tier on top of the middle tier. What you have should be starting to resemble a tiered cake. Stick the dowels through the top tier (on either side of the center diaper), down until you hit the base tray/cardboard. This should stabilize the diaper cake and make it much easier to move.

8 + 19 + 57 = 84

Now onto the fun part – DECORATING!!! My mom and I were pretty minimal with our decoration, but you can go all out. We started by adding a rattler/squeaker to the top of the cake, which we squeezed into the diaper at the top-center. Then we followed up by wrapping each layer with ribbon to cover the rubber bands.

For the ribbon, you will want to unroll some and determine exactly how much you need for each tier. Leave a little extra when you cut – maybe half an inch or so. Wrap the length of ribbon around the tier. Position the ribbon so it is covering the rubber bands and pretty straight (does not have to be perfect at this point since you can readjust a little after). Fold one end of the ribbon over so that the edge will be clean, and hot glue to the other end of the ribbon. Be sure it is tight around the tier. When the hot glue cools, you can readjust the ribbon band and make sure it is straight.

Continue the same process with the ribbon on each tier.

My mom and I also made little roses out of baby socks for decoration on each tier. Aren’t they adorable? Click here to see Purplemtn7’s video tutorial via YouTube where my mom found this super cute idea.

We placed the little baby sock rosettes around each tier of the diaper cake and stuffed them into the diapers below to get them to stay put.

Finally, here is the finished product. A diaper cake for a baby girl.

And in action as the table centerpiece at my sister’s baby shower. Complete with cute favors around it that my mom made.

As I mentioned above, my mom also made some cute little favors – baby booties made from styrofoam cups. She found a video here by yoyomax12 via YouTube, but ended up recreating these instead using ribbon and hot glue.

In addition to that, she made a really awesome baby carriage from a watermelon. She found a video here by EatAllAboutIt via YouTube.

NOTES:

• Diapers:
  • We used Pampers Swadlers New Baby 84-pack in size 2.
  • Diapers with little-to-no patterns on them are the best.
  • Do not get diapers that have the cut out for the umbilical cord. They will not roll properly.
  • Items such as onesies, bibs, and bottles can be used in place of diapers in the cake.
• Tray/Cardboard:
  • This is for a base for the diaper cake. Without this, the diaper cake will be impossible to move.
• Ribbon:
  • Do not use sheer ribbon because it will not cover/hide the rubber bands.
• Rubber Bands:
  • Buy extra, because at least a handful of the regular size ones will break.
• Dowels:
  • For stability when moving the diaper cake.
  • Could try a handful of chopsticks as an alternative since those are readily available.
• Decoration:
• We used minimal decoration for the diaper cake my mom and I made. Just a Garanimals rattle/sqeaker (available at Wal-mart for $2) at the top, baby socks made into flowers, and ribbon.
• Items such as onesies, bibs, and bottles can be used as decoration too.

Credit: All photos taken by me. Styrofoam baby bootie video by yoyomax12 via YouTube. Stryofoam baby booties via Creative Baby Shower Ideas. Watermelon baby carriage video by EatAllAboutIt via YouTube.