How to Make a Diaper Cake for a Baby Shower

My little sister and I made a cake out of diapers for M’s baby shower.   My mom had the idea after seeing it at another baby shower.   She bought us all the supplies and we made it the night before M’s shower after looking at pictures of diaper cakes on-line.

Supplies (aka cake ingredients):

– about 100 diapers (we used the brands and size M asked for her on registry so she can actually use the diapers when baby is born)
– wooden skewer
– curling ribbon, string or rubber bands
– pretty ribbon (like thick pink or blue ribbon)
– large tray or cake plate (we used a large catering plastic plate)
– tape
– scissors
– small baby gifts/supplies- like a bottle, pacifiers, teething toys, rattles, and whatever you would like to anchor on your cake

Start by rolling the diapers up, with the print to the inside (so you only see white)  and tie with the curling ribbon.   We found it easy to cut a bunch of curling ribbon to the right size in the beginning and then start rolling and tying the diapers up.

Keep tying the diapers until you can form about 12-15 together and to start the base. Tie curling ribbon around the 12-15 to hold them all together.  Next, start building around the bundle you have made until you have a base that fits your plate (or to whatever size you prefer).  Then, tie a larger curling ribbon around the outside to keep the whole base together.

Next, we started on the middle layer just like we did the first layer, except making it about a row smaller to create a layered look to your cake.   When placing the second layer on the cake, we used a couple pieces of tape and then stuck a wooden skewer through the middle to hold it (we made sure not to pierce the diapers because we didn’t want to ruin them!)

Then, we made the top of the cake the same way,  just smaller then the middle layer and we placed a bottle in the center filled with light blue M&Ms. You can use your own creativity here!  We decided we wanted  a smoother frosting look to our cake so we tied another layer of flat unrolled diapers around the outside and tied them there with the curling ribbon. Next, we put light blue and baby ribbon around the curling ribbon to cover it up and make it look like stripes on frosting. Finally, we tucked and tied the toys and other gifts around the cake.  Feel free to look at my pictures to get ideas!

Enjoy!

-K

My new hobby- letterpress

While I was planning my wedding a few years ago and picking out invitations, I became introduced to the concept of letterpress.  I quickly fell in love with it and have since done much research on this very old form of printing.  I read the on-line letterpress community Briar Press daily and have purchased several books on printing and typography from Amazon.  This past summer, I took a letterpress class through the Mass College of Art…the minute I passed my first notecard through the Vandercook press, I was hooked.

Shortly before returning to my parent’s home in upstate NY this past Thanksgiving, I was perusing the Briar Press classifieds and saw that there was a press for sale in my home town.  What luck!  I did some Google searches on the press and e-mailed a few individuals who owned a similar press and everyone had good words about this particular press.  It is called a Poco Proof Press No. 0 and was originally manufactured in Chicago in either the 1910s or 1920s.  The general feedback I received on the press was that it was a pretty rare press, a good beginner press, made a strong impression (onto the paper), and that it was generally lightweight (compared to other presses…more on that story later).   Most importantly, it is a small enough press that it will fit into my condo in Boston…I decided to go for it!

I contacted the seller and asked to set up a time to see the press.  My husband was away traveling at the time so I asked my mom if she would go with me to see the press and possibly pick it up if it looked good.  Off we went to the artist’s studio…

Upon arriving there, the man showed us into his studio that he was just moving into.  I was hoping he had a few other presses just to look at and show my mom, but he just had the Poco Proof Press that he was selling.  I gave the handle a few cranks and looked at a few other things, and decided to buy it!  It came with its original wooden shelving, but it comes right off for “easy” moving.  The owner’s son and another artist in the building helped move it to the car…despite the press being 210 pounds of cast-iron steel, this 14 year old boy and wirey artist made the move appear effortless.  Our only challenge was fitting in the press and the wooden case both in the car due to their awkward shapes.  Our two movers were in my car, bending at every angle, and somehow balancing this heavy press on their laps- it was quite a scene.  Finally, after finding a way to remove the divider in the back, we were able to get both pieces in.  I was now a proud owner of a poco proof press!

-M