Hey Baby Cakes!

Last Friday, I put together a baby shower gift for some of our dear friends Chris and Jeneane in honor of their first baby. I absolutely love the opportunity to let my creativity shine when creating unique gifts for friends and this baby shower was no exception.

I'm sure we've all seen diaper cakes at showers, but I thought I would do a quick tutorial showing you how to construct the bulk of it (the hardest part) so you can get creative during your decorating too!

First off, gather all your supplies (this is the fun part! Shopping!). I opted for three packages of diapers, 150 in total. I used baby socks, scratch mittens, pacifiers, washcloths and onesies for decoration as well as some travel sized baby supplies. You'll need to make sure you purchase some sort of cake board or foam core to put your cake on and act as the "plate". I just get mine at the party store. I also got shrink wrap designed for baskets at the party store for $6.99. The shrink wrap keeps the diapers clean and protected. You'll need the hair dryer to shrink it.

Next, remove all the packaging from your baby gifts. You'll cut off about a million of these (save the packaging if you're concerned for returns, etc):

Arrange the diapers in whatever shape you'd like for your cake. I went with rectangle because I'd purchased so many diapers this time, but I've also done circle cakes. You just need a large bowl to use as a mold of sorts. Then secure them by wrapping them in ribbon of your choice.

I used a large binder clip to hold the ribbon in place and so I could adjust the diapers as needed.

Once I got things arranged and was satisfied with the shape. I used sticky dots to secure the ribbon permanently.

Remove the binder clip and wrap the diapers with the shrink wrap like you would a present. Use some tape to secure it, but make sure you aren't taping diapers! This takes a little time because the shrink wrap is thin and can tear, and because it's designed for baskets. The first layer is the hardest. After that it's easy sailing!

Once you have it wrapped you're ready to shrink. Put your hair dryer on the hottest setting, and get as close as you can to the wrap without touching it. That's the key. It will melt if you touch it. You just want it to shrink. It'll look like this when you're done:

Repeat with as many other layers as you need. 

Then decorate! I rolled the washcloths and gave them a small band of ribbon so I could stand them upright on the cake, and secured them with sticky dots (on the ribbon) to the shrink wrap. I used clothespins attached with sticky dots to hold the scratch mittens and socks. The onesies were rolled and attached using ribbon and the sticky dots as well. Then I had my DH hold the board so I could slide ribbon underneath and drew it up on all sides to secure the cake to the board (I had already taped it down to the board, but it's better to secure it as many creative ways as possible. Tall  = wobbly.) Lastly I added the travel kit and used some ribbon to tie it all together and include the pacifiers. It was decorated on all sides and ADORABLE. 

This Post is Partying At:

Hookin' Up @ House of Hepworths (You can find the button in my sidebar - Go.Check.Her.Out!)