A practical, easy, and favorite baby shower gift idea that will be appreciated and remembered is a DIY Diaper Cake. They are not hard to make and you don’t have to be a crafts expert with a degree in design.
Many new moms forget that diapers are going to be an essential item in their household for the next few years. Any new parent, moms as well as dads, after 3 months have become diaper experts.
You don’t have to stick with blue for boys or pink for girls, even if in this day and age there may be no surprise.
Does the mom love Winnie the Pooh? Go with a honeybee theme. Use honeycomb fabric or ribbon in black, white, and yellow.
Is it a fall baby? Use orange, yellow, and brown. A Spring baby? Add real flowers to the cake and use purple, bright pink, and green.
You will need:
- a large box or bag of size 1 diapers. I will describe this DIY Diaper Cake shower gift using Pampers brand. I like the smell.
- three circular baking pans, size 7.5-inch diameter, 9-inch diameter, and 10-inch diameter.
- Ribbons and perhaps lace of various widths and colors and think about your color scheme. Very wide ribbon the width equal to the width of the diaper can be used down to ½ inch width are recommended. In this day and age you can usually know if you need pink or blue ahead of birth, but be creative. What is the mom or dad’s favorite color?
- scissors
- large elastic rubber bands
- cute cake toppers like babby booties or small stuffed animal
- twine or string
- wooden Bar B Q skewers
- safety pins or double-sided tape
- scrapbook paper
- recycled wrapping paper tube or the cardboard tube from a long roll of aluminum foil
- hot gun glue with glue
How to Make a Diaper Cake Instructions:
Bottom Layer
Start with the largest cake pan, begin to place one diaper lengthwise along the side of the pan, and add another diaper two-inch intervals alongside the last diaper around the cake pan. Think of a rose unfolding. Make sure all diapers are facing the same direction. (note see Youtube video How to Make a Diaper Cake Step by Step Tutorial.
Spread the diapers out along the inside of the cake pan so you have a donut shape of diapers on the outside and a whole without any diapers yet on the inside.
Then make a diaper layer inside the donut shape, again like a rose opening up. Stuffing as many diapers as you can while placing the recycled cardboard tube in the center.
You may want to cut it a bit if it is too high. Stop adding diapers when there are enough diapers around the cardboard tube fitting snuggly.
Take a large elastic band and place it around the outside donut of diapers to secure them into a cylindrical shape.
That is bottom layer number one and remove the “cake of diapers” from the pan. Keep the tube inside the center.
Middle Layer
Make a second layer using the medium-sized pan (9-inch diameter)and start adding diapers inside the pan in a donut shape around the side of the pan.
Take the recycled cardboard tube from the bottom layer and place it into the center of the middle layer and diaper around it. Secure with a rubber band and place the cardboard tube back into the center of the bottom layer and add the rubber-banded middle layer through the cardboard tube so it sits on top of the bottom layer.
Top Layer
Do the same with the smallest cake pan. Fill with diapers inside around the outer edge of the cake pan, add diapers around to form a donut shape, and add more diapers inside to fill the donut hole around the cardboard tube. Secure with a rubber band.
Place the cardboard tube back in the first bottom layer, add the middle layer on top and the smallest layer on top of the middle layer. The cardboard tube will now stabilize and anchor all three layers of cake diapers.
Trim the cardboard tube so it is level with the top of the top layer of diapers. Now the creative part starts.
Decorating the Cake
Using your widest ribbon add a strip of ribbon around each layer of cake and recur with a safety pin and add other ribbon or decorations around that. Each layer of “cake” should be decorated.
You may prefer to use strong masking tape that is sticky on both sides or make a circle of tape that is sticky on the outside and tape so the tape does not show. Keep all seams in the back of the diaper cake.
Each layer should be decorated with different shades of colored ribbon and or textures. Stick to a few colors and mix and match.
Pennant Banner
Make a pennant banner for the top of the cake. You can use three different kinds of scrapbook paper and cut out triangular flags about an inch or inch and a half, two in each colored paper.
They should match the colors of the ribbon on the different cake layers. Alternate them and stick them on the string to make a pennant banner.
Glue each end of the string banner to the wooden skewers and attach them to the top of the cake. You can put the baby booties or a stuffed animal on top of the cake, securing them with double-sided tape.
Let’s say you might want to make a Safari Diaper Cake. Choose ribbon or 3-4 inch width fabric with leopard spots, tiger stripes, and zebra stripes.
Have each tier a different band and use an alternate ½ inch ribbon in the middle.
For instance, have a gold ½ inch ribbon around the zebra stripe fabric on the bottom layer, a black ribbon around an orange and black tiger stripe fabric around the middle layer, and a white ribbon around gold and brown leopard stripe on the top layer.
Have a pennant banner in similar colors and patterns and have a baby tiger or zebra on top.
The ideas are endless, let your imagination and creativity go wild or classy.
