EJS Creative – Diaper Cake

Hellooo!! 🙂

Today’s craft is….. a diaper cake!

There are many ways to make, layout and decorate a diaper cake, but for this tutorial I am going to show you how to create a classic, 3-tier, sturdy, winter wonderland themed diaper cake for a baby girls shower.

Here it is…

What you’ll need:

140 Diapers
Elastic bands
Cardboard base (also could be plywood or any sturdy material)
Paper towel roll (or anything that can serve as a center post)
Hot glue gun
Ribbon to go with your theme
Cardboard for “platforms”
Scissors
Custom decorations to go with your theme
Cotton covering (optional – can also use fabrics such as swaddles and burp cloths)

Roll your diapers.
*Tip: Roll all diapers in the same direction, open end first for a cleaner look.

2. Create your stand. A paper towel roll works well for the centerpiece.
*Tip: I have also used a bottle of champagne for a nice new parent surprise!
I happen to have these cardboard round (because I save everything) to use as a base. Otherwise, I would have cut a piece of cardboard box or plywood and just spray painted it a solid color.

3. Start creating your layers. Use larger elastics to hold each row and tier together. For this cake, I used 5 rows for the bottom tier, 3 rows for the middle tier and 1 row for the top tier. I like to have a 2 row difference between each tier to give yourself enough of a ledge for decorating.
*Tip: Layer all diapers in the same direction with the ends facing in for a cleaner look.

*Tip: Try using all the same diaper. As you can see, I did not follow this tip and some of the diapers are different colors. Beware of the color of diaper you buy if you are planning to have them showing. (Example: I know Luvs diapers are very purple and green so I usually steer clear of them, Target diapers are almost all plain white so they are my go to). Also make sure you use all the same size diapers to avoid layers being uneven. (I’ve found size 2 to work best)

4. Add your ribbon. Make sure all your seams match up so you can easily hide them on the back of the cake.
*Tip: Make sure the ribbon is tight! Hold it together while the glue dries. I always want to be impatient but it really does makes a huge different and will hold very well if you wait it out, hot glue dries pretty fast!

5. Lay out everything you have so you can see it. (I didn’t fully take a picture of that step, sorry!). Start building the cake but don’t glue anything yet as you will probably move things around a few times before you are happy with the result.

The next steps will be more specific to this cake in particular. You can follow the steps exactly for a similar look or use the tips and adapt them to what you are doing. I would love to see photos of your creations!

6. Make “platforms” and place your decorations. This cake needed to be transported a couple of times so I wanted it to be sturdy. I didn’t want to glue to the diapers because then they cannot be used. So, I cut pieces out of cardboard to use as “platforms”.
*Tip: Cut the cardboard like a triangle so that the pointy end can be stuck under the top row of diapers to hold it in place and decorations can be glued to the wide end.

7. Cover your diapers. This step is optional, I like to do it because it’s a cleaner look. In this case, I used a sheet of fake snow.
First, I lightly layed out the fabric around the cake.
Second, I held the fabric up with my left hand while cutting with my right hand so that it was the correct size.
Third, I gently tucked the fabric behind the ribbon, under top layer of diapers and around the decorations.
Fourth, I filled in all the “holes” between diapers with polyester fill.

8. Glue on snowflakes.

9. Add your topper. For the top you will need to create a “platform” that can be stuck down into the top layer of diapers to hold it in place. I got creative, cut some pieces of cardboard and glued them together. The cake topper could then be glued onto the “platform” to complete the cake.