Diaper Cake

Last weekend Paul and I went to a baby shower-well I don't know if you could really call it a baby shower because the baby was born 7 weeks ago, so it was more like a meet and greet, haha-for our friends Robert and Oriana and their new baby, Avery James.

The parents asked for diapers, so I thought it would be fun to make them a diaper cake.

BUT...I didn't know how to make one.

So I googled it and found a few different websites with step-by-step directions.  Good old google never lets me down.  Seriously, what did people do before google??

Anyway, there are a lot of different ways to do it, and as this was my first attempt-I'm certainly no expert, but I thought I would share how I made mine. 

I started by unfolding the diapers and rolling them up from front to back.  After each diaper was rolled, I secured it with a rubber band (you could also use curling ribbon).  FYI, I bought a package of 70 diapers and ended up using all but three. 

Then I placed 7 diapers around an 8-oz baby bottle and put a rubber band around the whole ring to secure it.  I chose to use a bottle, but you could use baby powder, lotion, shampoo, etc.  You just want something that is sturdy enough to be the foundation for the cake.

Next I made a second ring of diapers (13 I think?) by placing them around the first ring and securing it with a rubber band.  

And then I made a third ring of diapers around the second ring, secured it with a thick ribbon instead of a rubber band, and placed it on a piece of foam board so that I could transport it later.  I held the ribbon together with a dot of hot glue, but you could also tie it in a knot or a bow.
This is the first tier of the cake.  Yay!

The second tier of the cake is the same as the first except there are two rings of diapers instead of three.  I placed the first ring of diapers around the rest of the bottle that was sticking up from tier 1.

Moving on to the third tier-somehow I forgot to get a picture of this :(

I rolled up a little monkey outfit just like I did with the diapers.  Then I placed a ring of 7 diapers around it, secured it with a ribbon, and placed the whole thing on top of the other two tiers.

And now for the fun part-decorating!  You can pretty much attach anything to it with a straight pin.  I went with a blue & brown monkey theme.  I was pretty tame with the decorating, but I've seen pictures of  some that are COVERED in little baby items, ribbons, stickers, etc.  It's all about personal preference.

Here's my finished product..

   

Not too bad considering it was my first one.  And I'm thinking the more I make, the better (and more creative, fingers crossed) I'll get.

This really was a fun and easy project.  Plus, it was a huge hit at the shower! 

And, because I think it's so adorable...

My hub holding sweet little AJ.  He's a natural, don't you think?  ;)