Diaper Cake Tutorial & my first knitted hat

My best buddy in the whole wide world {we'll call her Critty, hehe} is having a baby boy soon. Considering she has been my homegirl since 2nd grade, I'm just a little ecstatic over this. So I've been busy creating baby things the last few weeks in preparation for her shower. This diaper cake was so easy to make and turned out really cute (and practical I might add).

So here's a simple tutorial:

What you'll need:

~ a small pack of newborn or size 1 diapers (about 50 or so)

~ small hair rubber bands

~ a few larger regular rubber bands

~ thick ribbon of your choice

~ sticky two-sided tape

~ 2 baby bottles

~jellybeans (I used ice cream jellybellys) or other filler

~ flowers or a plush toy

~ cardboard base or cake pedestal

Start by rolling each diaper and securing them with a small hair rubber band. For the bottom tier, you'll have about 3 rows...middle tier will be 2 rows...and top tier will be one row.

The easiest way to layer them is to take a bottle and add the jellybean filler (or whatever you want to go inside). Wrap a big rubber band around it and then start adding your rolled diapers between the rubber band and the bottle. Add a new rubber band for each row and repeat for each tier. Put the bottom layer of diapers on the cardboard or cake pedestal and then stack the other two on top.

Add the 2nd bottle on top of the other one so it holds the tiers together. If you are planning to use flowers instead of a toy as a topper, you'll want to leave that bottle empty and take the top off so you can later add the flowers.

Once you complete your diaper layers for all three tiers, then you'll wrap your ribbon around each tier, cut it and use double-sided sticky tape to adhere it together. I only had to use two small pieces for each ribbon...it made it through traveling 4 hours in the car to the baby shower and was still lookin' fresh as a daisy, hehe.

Then, I just rubber-banded the elephants legs to the top of the bottle so he wouldn't fall off. If you want to use flowers, just stick them in the top of the bottle. You could even stick a couple in the tops of the rolled up diapers for more decoration. And to get even more fancy, you could embellish the ribbon with a couple of felt or paper flowers.

So there ya have it...let me know if you have any questions. Have fun creating the perfect baby shower gift. It's cute, creative, and every baby needs diapers and toys right?

Oh, I also knitted my first hat. Even though the baby will be born in the spring, every baby must have a hat, tee hee. I just learned to knit and thought it'd be the perfect gift and a great keepsake too.

Let me know if anyone tries a diaper cake, I'd love to see pic's!

P.S. I should have done step-by-step pictures...I promise, next time ;-)