Ducky Diaper Cake

A friend (sister really) is expecting her second baby so I decided to pass along the newborn diapers I had left from when Roman was tiny (which lasted all of about 2 weeks).  At first I was just going to pack up the diapers into a bag and give them to her, but what fun would that be?  Then an idea popped into my head; diaper cake!!

When I was pregnant with Roman a co-worker made me an amazing diaper cake.  It was a farm theme and had sunflowers, hay bales, cows and John Deer tractors all over it.  It was probably one of the best gifts I received and it made great décor in Roman's room until I started robbing diapers from it.  This was my inspiration for Trellyn's diaper cake.  I'd never made one before but I had a general idea of how to put it together, so this is how it went!

I started by rolling all the diapers up and securing them each with elastics.  For a clean look roll the diaper from the waistband in so that the rough edges are tucked away inside the diaper.  This will give you a clean looking cake at the end.  Obviously I figured this out a little late!

 

Once all the diapers were rolled up I arranged them into groups of 3-4 and secured them with an elastic.  Then I arranged the groups into the tier of the cake and secured the entire thing with two large elastics.  This formed the top tier.

For the bottom tier I repeated the process that I used for the first tier with one exception.  After I arranged all the 3-4 diaper groups into the tier I removed one group from the centre of the tier to make room for a bottle of baby powder.  Not only is this a neat way to sneak a gift into the cake, but it also gives the cake some support and prevents it from moving around too much.  I secured two diapers to either side of the baby powder bottle to fill on the space in the centre of the tier, then secured the entire tier with two large elastics.  If the tiers aren't perfectly round you can slip diapers inside the large elastic to fill in the spaces.  Stack the tiers on top of each other and voila, your cake is complete!  Now for my favorite party, decorating!!!

 

I started with the top tier.  I found this super cute duck wash cloth that turned out to be a perfect topper.  I realize it's not the most practical thing for a newborn but if nothing less Leila, the soon to be big sister, will swipe it and enjoy it!  I found these great ribbons at.......Wal Mart, gotcha!  I know you assumed it was the dollar store! I laid the duck up against the tier and wrapped the larger ribbon around the centre, covering the elastics.  To attach the ribbon to the diapers I used a bit of double sided tape in a few spots so it wouldn't move.  Then I hot glued one end of the ribbon onto the other.  Then I wrapped the smaller ribbon around the centre of the blue ribbon and attached it with a line of hot glue to hold it in place.  I repeated this ribbon process on the other two tiers, as well as the body wash and lotion bottles.

The decorations behind the duck I found at the dollar store, you know I can't stay away from that place.  I slipped the wires in between the diapers in the top tier and threaded them down through the second tier.  Then I bent them in different directions to give them a sense of whimsy.

I used elastics to attach the rattles, rubber ducks, and bottles to the cake.  *TIP - to hide the elastics run them under the ribbon and then wrap them around a diaper or two.  This will hide the elastic better than if you go over the ribbon.  To hide the elastics around the small ducks necks (what baby wants to come into this world and see a rubber duck in a noose?) I tied ribbons around their necks and curled the ribbon, I guess that makes it better?.  Once everything was attached to the cake I started to place the flowers (also from the dollar store) on the ribbon to a) fill in bare spots and b) to hide where the ribbon ends met.

 

Now the diaper cake is officially complete!  Isn't this a much more interesting way to pass along unused diapers?  I think every Mom should have a diaper cake.  Not only is it made up of things that you will undoubtedly need, but its so darn cute!!!