Diaper Cakes are so much fun!

As you know, my nephew is coming!  I am very excited :)  Jessica (my sister-in-law) is due mid September.

Jessica's sister and I gave Jessica a baby shower, and this is a tutorial on how easy it is to make the diaper cakes.  I am not going to lie to you, I googled how to make diaper cakes and then just "winged" it as I went along.  There might be a much easier way to do this.  If you know of something, leave me a comment so I can improve on the next one.  Mine was built trying to be cost effective and practical and I just problem-solved along the way.  (One tutorial that I found required a cardboard telescope travel tub... Where do you even get one of those???)

"Ingredients"  (get it... a Diaper Cake would need ingredients) :)
40 size 1 diapers
1- 6 inch cake cardboard
1- 8 inch cake cardboard
1- 10 inch cake cardboard
1- pack of 10 inch paper doilies
3 sizes of pans (the corningware works really well)
3 rubber bands
1- small dowel rod from hobby lobby (not shown in picture, because honestly I forgot about it)
Ribbon of your choice to decorate
Hot glue and glue gun

I got a little excited about this and bought a HUGE pack of diapers... maybe I went a little overboard.  When it was all said and done, I used 41 diapers.  I am sure you can squeeze a few more in or take a few out.  It is really up to you.  Start by putting some in a dish. You want to get as many as you can and still be able  to move them.

Start to move the diapers around.  Just kind of work with it until they go around. BE SURE that the colored band ends up in the center.

Just keep working it until you feel like it is even around the dish.

Using a rubber band, stretch it around the diapers while they are still in the dish.  When the rubber band is on there, flip the dish over.  (don't worry about getting the rubber band in the center yet)

Adjust the rubber band to the middle of the diapers.  (Be careful because they will move a little)

Continue with the next level.

Finish with your third.

By the way, I used 19 diapers in the bottom, 15 in the middle, and 9 in the top.

Next, take the 10 inch Dollie and put it on your 10 inch cardboard.  Then I took another 10 inch Dollie, cut it and placed it around the 8 inch cardboard.  I taped the pieces together and then onto the board.  You could use an 8 inch Dollie, but let's face it... I'm cheap!  Do the same with the 6 inch.

You can stack them to see your cake start to take place.

Now, take your ribbon of choice and hot glue gun.  I started out giving myself extra slack when I cut my ribbon, but found it to be easier if there wasn't more than a 1/2 inch extra to work with.  I folded one end of the ribbon and glued it to the other.  This gave it a nice, clean line.

Next, I grabbed a screwdriver and eyeballed the center of the cardboard for the top and middle layer. I didn't poke a hole it the bottom cardboard because I hadn't figured out how to attach the dowel to the bottom.  This is to give it some stability without damaging the diapers.  I didn't want to glue them or pin them because I didn't want to make it where it couldn't come apart or the diapers have holes in them.  I figured since I was going to be the one to set it up, I would be okay without attaching the bottom.

It is time to start assembling the cake. 

I marked the top of the dowel and had my husband cut off the extra.  (I didn't pay attention to how he did it... he just showed up with the sizes I needed) :)

For the bow on top, I googled directions again and then just played with it until I liked it.  I am not going to lie, this took the longest.  I can't really tell you how to make it, because I am not exactly sure myself how it worked. 

When I realized I had so many extra diapers left over I decided to make smaller cakes to be centerpieces on the tables at the shower.  Then I ended up adding more layers to the cake so it would be more grand.  You can "serve" your cake on a cake stand to make it a little larger too.

I ended up with 4 small cakes (2 tiers), and one large one (5 tiers).  I had every intention of taking pictures at the shower, I took my camera fully charged and everything... but I didn't take a single picture. :( It turned out beautiful though!  I hope Travis and Jessica enjoyed every minute of it.