I just made it last night and it looks so yummy I would eat it in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the fact that it's not edible :)
I've been invited to a baby shower for a friend who's having her first, a girl, and this is what I decided to bring. Being a Swede with limited experience of baby showers I have no idea how common the diaper cake phenomenon is but with all my friends being quite non-crafty this will be sure to stand out as an unusual gift with a huge impact. This idea allowed me to create something beautiful while still giving the mom to be something practical that will for sure be used. And it was cheap :) I only paid $20 for the diapers and the rest I made with stuff I had on hand.
This is the first diaper cake I've ever made (using these instructions) but it was so much fun that I will for sure do it again when my stash of odd ribbons and decorative items start overflowing again. If you have to buy all the decorations the cost will add up quickly.
I chose this design because of it's simplicity. Many of the images of diaper cakes I found while using my old friend Google seemed to be too over the top, decorations spilling all over them. But this turned out simplistic, chic and sumptuous with a vintage spin - just the way I like it!
The diaper layers are tied together with string and the ribbons hot glued into place over the string. I made sure to glue the ribbons to themselves, not to the diapers, so the diapers will be easy to pull out when it's time to use them. The layers are also loosely stacked on top of each other and if I was the mom to be I would start by using up the bottom tier, then the middle, then the top. That way the cake can hang out in the nursery looking pretty for as long as possible.
Also, the bottom tier is made of 40 Pampers' swaddlers in size 1 and the other two tiers are made from the other 40 diapers in the same size. I chose size 1 because our babies outgrew the newborns in no time, babies stay in size 1 longer.
This decoration I made from a vintage baby silhouette I found online (Graphics fairy?) printed out on copy paper and cut into a circle with scalloped scissors. Then layered with accordion folded scrapbook paper and another scalloped circle in card stock. I added definition with a thin tipped Sharpie and glued a tiny ribbon bow under the silhouette.
The ribbon banner is another vintage graphic I found through Google (don't remember from where) that I altered in Photo Shop to include the words "Welcome Baby Girl" since the little one hasn't been named yet. Printed out on card stock, cut out with scissors and hot glued to skewers stuck into the cake.
The paper on the top tier is a scrapbook paper cut with scalloped scissors into a circle with holes punched for the skewers, again with dots of Sharpie to add some detail. The flower is assorted petals from Dollar Tree fakes assembled into one and held together with a simple office supply brad (not sure if that's the right word for it but it's the only one that comes to mind).
For the shower I intend to cut out a couple of layers of cardboard or poster board to deliver the whole shebang on (it's resting on one of our scalloped place mats here) and could easily be displayed at the shower by resting the whole thing on an upside down breakfast bowl or similar.
So what do you think? And are diaper cakes really common fare at showers and I just wasn't aware of it? Our friends are just now starting to have kids, please excuse my ignorance :)