First Attempt at a Diaper Cake…
categories: DIY, baby shower gifts, baby shower ideas
Since Huggies was one of the sponsors that donated to St. Jude for Alison’s baby shower (see previous post today), I was instructed to make a diaper cake for the shower…which made sense.
The only problem was that I’d never actually made a diaper cake myself before, and when I opened the Huggies packages the diapers had blue and green Winnie the Pooh characters all over them, which didn’t exactly match the pink/yellow/chocolate baby bird theme we had going…eek!!!!
Alpha Mom to the rescue though! Their fabulous “How to make a Unique Diaper Cake” guide totally saved me. It shows how to wrap each “cake tier” with tissue paper so that you can still have a white cake no matter what the diapers actually look like, and comes with the added bonus of a champagne (or sparkling cider) bottle hidden inside – which is actually the perfect “support system” and height for a 3-tier cake!
Instead of the white satin ribbon, I used receiving blankets to wrap the sides of each tier (folded down to the right height and fastened with safety pins), then added a smaller band of ribbon on top of that to add some color.
The cake “topper” is actually a piece of scrapbook paper, rolled to fit around a paper cup filled with faux grass (and some vase gems to help weigh it down), and the birds were pre-cut chipboard shapes that I bought at a scrapbook store, then covered with decorative paper and glued to white lollipop sticks.
And just like that…a pink/yellow/chocolate bird-themed diaper cake was created from blue & green Winnie the Pooh diapers…ta da!
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It’s adorable.
Nov 5, 2008 at 10:49 am -
Where did you get the receiving blankets– especially the animals one? I need that for my munchkin.
Nov 5, 2008 at 11:21 am -
Hi Lindsay -
Nov 5, 2008 at 11:29 am
They all came together in a pack of 3 and i got them at Target! I think it was $9.99 for the package. I’m blanking on the brand right now, but I’ll let you know if it comes back to me
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I am not a fan of the diaper cake but this is the best darn one I have ever seen! I just love it.
Nov 5, 2008 at 12:17 pm -
How beautiful!! Great job as usual!!!
Nov 5, 2008 at 12:37 pm -
omg seriously?!?!?! this is the best one i’ve ever seen!
Nov 5, 2008 at 1:33 pm -
The prettiest I’ve seen!
Great job!!!
Nov 5, 2008 at 1:40 pm -
Super great job with that, especially for being your first!
Nov 5, 2008 at 2:42 pm Congrats -
Super cute – awesome job! I love how modern it looks! The grass accents are especially nice.
My friends threw me a baby shower last month and held a diaper cake contest. I tell ya, I had a gazillion rubber bands from those cakes!
Nov 5, 2008 at 2:57 pm -
Super cute! Great job!
Nov 5, 2008 at 3:22 pm -
i love the cake! i have all of those papers, too! how many packs of diapers did it take?
Nov 5, 2008 at 3:39 pm -
Noel -
It only took 1.5 packs of size 1 diapers! (There were 44 diapers per pack.)
Nov 5, 2008 at 3:57 pm -
sweet! thanks so much.
Nov 5, 2008 at 3:59 pm
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Oh my, this is AWESOME! I love it! You are so crafty it’s just not fair!
Nov 5, 2008 at 5:20 pm -
That looks awesome!!! How long did that take you though?
Nov 6, 2008 at 6:18 am -
Candis – It actually didn’t take too long – maybe and hour and a half total. I did have some help rolling the diapers though
Nov 6, 2008 at 7:22 am -
Thank you for the link love! Really appreciate it!
Nov 6, 2008 at 8:20 am -
In my excitement I forgot to post that I LOVE this cake. The receiving blankets are GENIUS.
Nov 6, 2008 at 8:22 am -
Perfect! it is the best looking diaper cake I have ever seen.
Nov 6, 2008 at 12:42 pm -
I am SO doing this! Thank you for a refreshing and stylish take on the diaper cake. I am inspired.
Alina
Nov 8, 2008 at 6:06 pm
http://www.oliveandbeanboutique.com -
Why is your first attempt amazing? FYI, I ALSO have my first attempt at a diaper cake I’m working on this week. Seems that diaper cakes are the new madhatter cakes.
Nov 11, 2008 at 10:50 am -
So cute. Where did you get the template for the birds? i
Nov 11, 2008 at 7:13 pm -
Hi Maryann –
The birds are actually die-cut chipboard pieces that I traced then covered with paper. The brand is “Maya Road” and the products are called “bird coaster albums” or “bird coaster books”, depending on the store. They come in 2 sizes and each size has several pieces. I purchased mine at a local scrapbook store, but you can also find them online:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=maya+road+bird+coaster+album&btnG=SearchI also found this template based on the bird shapes that you can print and trace, in case this helps:
http://www.funkyplaygrounddesigns.com/store/product.php?productid=1045&cat=30&page=4It says it’s “free” but then lists a price of $2.50 though – so I’m not sure what that’s all about!
Jenn
Nov 12, 2008 at 11:19 am -
Thanks so much for this great look. I made my first one using your design and it looks amazing. and thanks to Alpha Mom too. I better get extra points for this baby shower.
Nov 12, 2008 at 12:52 pm -
check out diaper cakes on growinstyle.com. i loved their theme diaper cakes, especially bob the builder.
Nov 14, 2008 at 2:25 pm -
You should check out my diaper cakes at
http://www.elisascakes.comLet me know what you think…..we ship all across the US & Canada
Nov 15, 2008 at 9:36 pm -
By the way…….I LOVE your cake…. really love the blankets and how well put together it is.
Nov 15, 2008 at 9:37 pm -
check out eco friendly diaper cakes on growinstyle.com, they make such great baby shower centerpieces and they are so practical and thoughtful.
Nov 18, 2008 at 2:31 pm -
OMG! You did great! I made a few for a friend’s baby shower once, and they didn’t come out nearly as well. What a great idea to use scrapbook paper as well.
Dec 1, 2008 at 12:03 pm -
WOW!!! Love your cake! All the accents really make it just gorgeous! I am going to try to make something similar for a friend.
Dec 2, 2008 at 6:01 pm Btw, I love your site/blog and how you share such great ideas. I’ve been sharing your site with all my friends! -
Thanks for the sweet comments!
Dec 3, 2008 at 5:06 am -
Hey Jenn! Did you create the flower topper on your own? Also, do you have any tips on how to make the back of the cake look neat? Thanks so much!
Dec 10, 2008 at 10:55 am -
Hi Rana –
The little flower on the “paper tube” topper is actually a pre-made felt sticker from the “Everyday Email” set by American Crafts:
http://www.americancrafts.com/subcategory.php?id=23&sub=129Just peel and stick…super easy!
I bought them at a local scrapbook store in San Diego, but you can find them online too – google should do the trick
For the back of the cake, use cute diaper pins to secure the edges of each blanket together neatly and a spray adhesive or other clear-drying glue on the edges of the ribbon to bind those edges together. Good luck!
Dec 10, 2008 at 12:20 pm -
Your diaper cake was so inspiring. I was planning a baby shower for a friend and never even considered doing a diaper cake (as I am not a fan of the traditional looking diaper cake – pretty cheesy, I think) – but your modern design was too cute to pass up. And it was really pretty easy to put together. The compliments were unending – it was a hit of the shower! Thanks so much. You can check out pictures of the cake and other pics from the shower on a friends blogspot page http://www.thesimsfamilyblog.blogspot.com
Jan 19, 2009 at 9:15 am -
Hi Jenn,
Where did you get the faux grass that you used on the top of the cake, i love it!
Feb 9, 2009 at 12:52 pm -
Hi Jillian –
Feb 9, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I purchased the grass at Michaels, but I’ve had a bunch of it for quite a while – so I’m not 100% sure if they’ll have it anymore. You can probably find something similar at http://www.save-on-crafts.com though. Good luck! -
I just checked out http://www.elisascakse.com and the cakes are GREAT!!!
I love all of the designs that Elisa’s Diaper Cakes has.
I think I need to add some grass to my new cake that I am developing…. I had a hard time finding it at any Michael’s Store……I will check out the website Jenn suggested
Jul 12, 2009 at 7:46 pm -
I absolutely love this cake! I’ve been looking on the web for weeks trying to find the perfect design for my daughter’s baby shower. We are wanting a very classy and unique look and this is perfect. She is having a boy so I’ll just swap the pink for blue…lol Thanks for posting the pics!
Jan 31, 2010 at 1:10 pm -
Love the diaper cake. I am doing a shower for my daughter in law and she does not like anything that looks too cheesy. I’m not especially crafty, so I need more detail. What size did you do each of the layers?
Feb 1, 2010 at 4:39 am -
EJ – the layer sizes were based on the platter that I started with for the base which was a 15″ diameter.
Then I just placed the sparkling cider bottle in the middle of the platter and worked from there, stopping when I the diapers reached about 1-2″ inches from the edge. For the next layers – same type of concept… just kept adding diapers until the layer was a little smaller than the layer tier below it. Kind of an eyeball method
The diapers were size 1 for the entire cake.
Hope that helps!
Feb 1, 2010 at 10:03 am
