Diaper Cake Tutorial

Have you ever been to a baby shower and seen a diaper cake that looked so real you couldn't stop staring and wondering, "Now how did they do that?" Or perhaps you were just disappointed that it wasn't real because dang it, you were really hoping for cake but you still wondered, "No really, how did they do that?" Well, here it is. I've seen a few different ways on how to build a diaper cake, but I thought this one was the easiest and kind of fun, actually.

I put together my first one, about a year ago (it's the image at the top), for my friend Mandi's baby shower. I think it turned out super cute. Then I co-hosted a baby shower last weekend and had the opportunity to make another one, except this time, I documented it for your crafting pleasure. It's really not that bad, I promise and the best part is, you can just turn on your favorite movie and you'll be done before the closing credits roll. Let's get crafty!

You will need: about 65 diapers (I bought the size 2, 132 count Pampers and had a pack leftover), M&M candies (or whatever candy the new Mom fancies), 3 large rubber bands, a pack of small hair elastics (the cheap plastic kind), 2 baby bottles, ribbon and flowers (I got both of these at the dollar store) and white cardstock and scissors (optional). You will also need a hot glue gun.

Step 1: Roll the diaper up from the top down, folding the "colorful" part in so it can't be seen.
Step 2: Secure in the middle with a plastic hair elastic.
Step 3: Repeat steps one and two until you have about 65 rolled diapers, or one pack.

Step 4: Fill one of the bottles with M&M's and place one of the large rubber bands around the middle.
Step 5: Place a few of the rolled diapers under the rubber band until the bottle is surrounded.
Step 6: Keep building more rows of diapers around the first row (under the same rubber band) until you have 3 complete rows.
Step 7: (Optional) place the stack of diapers onto your cardstock and trace the circle. Then cut out a circle about an inch inside the wavy line you drew. Make sure to cut out a hole in the middle for the baby bottle.

Step 8: With the second large rubber band, build two rows of diapers around the top of the baby bottle. (Optional) Cut out a second circle, no hole in the middle, for the top of this middle cake layer.
Step 9: Cut your ribbon to the circumference of your base cake layer and secure it with hot glue. DO NOT glue the ribbon to the diapers or you'll make the diapers unusable.
Step 10: If you have a second ribbon, cut it to the right length and either glue it or tie it around the middle of the first ribbon.
Step 11: With your second baby bottle, fill it halfway with M&M's, and build a single layer of diapers around it using your third large rubber band. Glue your ribbon around the middle and fill the top of the baby bottle with flowers as well as around it.

Step 12: Assemble all three layers together. And because the first two are secured together with a baby bottle, I taped the top layer to the middle layer so it would stay put and wouldn't ruin the diapers.
Step 13: Decorate the "cake" however you want by placing the rest of the flowers anywhere you like. I chose to do a cascading effect. There are several ways to decorate these and if you want some inspiration, just Google diaper cake images for more ideas.


And voila! Your very own diaper cake to give away or display on your dining room table (though you may grow tired of explaining that one to guests).

Happy crafting!