More Monkeying Around

My next commissioned project was yet another diaper cake that I don't remember a whole lot about the story behind it other than it being another monkey diaper cake for a girl.

The request for another monkey cake made me perfectly content as monkey themed cakes had long been a favorite theme of mine. The baby items you could find with monkeys on them were simply adorable. You basically couldn't go wrong with monkey baby items.

One detail I explicitly remember when planning for this diaper cake was that I could no longer find the plush monkey I had used for so many of my previous diaper cakes and gifts. That monkey was so adorable, but it seemed to have been discontinued from the manufacturer. That really upset me. I love that monkey so much. He was the perfect size and coloration, but I had to proceed as that was the theme I had been provided, and I needed to find another option for a topper.

I do remember that this cake included some items from the baby registry. It worked out really well because I could use some of the pink monkey blankets I had on hand and also incorporate some of the pink monkey items on the registry. Though the blankets were from the same manufacturer, their updated monkey designs also incorporated some leopard print, so I decided to incorporate that into the overall cake design to ensure the entire thing was cohesive. I found a coordinating lovie that had a plush rattle connected to it so that became my cake topper. I included some bibs from the registry and finished the look with some washcloth daisies. Because I chose to use leopard print ribbon on the tiers of the cake, plus the leopard print was part of the baby items, the cake looked a bit busy so I avoided adding too much else to it.

In the end, despite not having the original monkey topper I had wanted, I absolutely loved the finished look of this cake. The print was busy, but not too busy so it all came together in the end and it was well-received. 

Puppy Love!

Having the itch to create another diaper cake, I decided I wanted to create some more holiday themed diaper cakes. The year before, I built some small holiday themed cakes purely for the purpose of taking the pictures so I could have something seasonal for my Facebook page. I wanted to go bigger though. The previous holiday cakes I had created were small, easily put together, and nowhere near the quality that I had started creating. My skill had just improved. My cakes looked better and I wanted the cleaner designs to be reflected. I also wanted to inspire people to think outside of the box - diaper cakes could be great gifts for "Baby's First" holidays.

For Valentine's one year I created what I called a "Puppy Love" diaper cake. All pink and hearts and a cute plush puppy for a topper.

I had on hand some blankets with various heart designs which I though would make a great background for this 3-tiered covered cake. I added coordinating ribbon. I selected some cute hart baby wash cloths and some additional pink socks to add to the tiers. For the top, I added a cute plush puppy I had. I also added some heart die cuts to fill out the cake.

I absolutely loved the final look. Granted, the cake was not for anyone in particular and was dismantled as soon as I created it and took the pictures, but it was so cute and looked just as complete and polished as a diaper cake I would make for someone else. It's too bad it wasn't intended for anyone as it would have made a great gift. Since then, it has always been used as my February profile picture as I love to update my Facebook page throughout the year with seasonal or holiday diaper cake images to continue to remind fans that any time is a great time for diaper cakes.

Owls: Take 4

Less than a month after creating my pastel owl cake, I got yet another request for an owl cake. This time, they wanted a recreation of the original hot pink and lime cake. Awesome. Can do.

Seriously, if I didn't have the pictures dated, I'm not sure I'd be able to tell which diaper cake was made when. The ribbons selected were the same, the wash cloth owls were made in the same manner with the same colors as the original, and even the crocheted plush owl was made with the same skeins of yarn. 

It was a different cake, however, created more than a year after the first one, but it was a successful recreation of the original. Granted, I did change some of the baby items, so the extras included on the cake were different, but they still coordinated with the overall color scheme. It was probably the closest "copy" I had created, though I will always state the caveat that I'm happy to repeat a theme and color scheme, but the cake ultimately will be different than a previous cake since they are made at different times and therefore, materials may be different. I have never made a copy with all the same elements and this time was no different. It was close though.

After receiving this request, the owl cake became the first diaper cake listed in my Etsy store. I had four of these cakes under my belt, each one a little different, but based on the same basic design elements - 3-tier "naked" cake (meaning the diapers are exposed), 5 wash cloth owls, 1 crocheted plush owl as a topper. Additional baby items as desired to coordinate with the selected color scheme. The thing I liked about this was that unlike some other designs which can get very specific, this one can be repeated relatively easily no matter the trends that are available in baby items. Since I create all the owls myself, I can make them at any time with readily available baby items that are not seasonal or trendy for a given year. This is one of the reasons it became a customizable design - in that the colors can change - but it can be easily repeated no matter the current popular themes of baby items available in stores. Can't go wrong with a concept like that.

Copycat - It's the same, but different...

I used to be really good at remembering the story behind each diaper cake I've made. It appears that after years, I don't remember any more. Some of the details are fuzzy. Such is life.

The next diaper cake commission I had was a repeat of a design I had made before. Sorta. The request was for different colors. I don't remember the exact story or the commentary on the initial cake vs. the one I made, but the overall concept was the same. My owl cake was popular. The little washcloth owls are a big hit. How can they not be? They are simply adorable. In any case, the request was for a cake like my hot pink and lime owl cake, but with pastel colors - yellow, pink, and turquoise.


At its core, the cake was the same as before but with different colors. I built a 3-tier naked cake and added the ribbon. There were 5 owls added to this cake in addition to the crocheted plush owl on top of the cake. I also included some other baby items to fill it out as I had done with the original owl cake. To this cake, I added some additional simple die cuts with flowers and hearts. I had wanted to fill in some of the extra spaces without creating too much clutter. To this day I can't decide if I like the more simplistic appearance of the original or if I prefer the added detail. I think it depends on the person ordering the cake and what they prefer.

This cake, along with the cloth diaper owl cake I made a year earlier, based on the same hot pink and lime owl cake was a great representation on how it's possible to repeat a design but be able to tweak it to taste. The cloth diaper owl cake had some die cut as well. While all of these cakes had similar elements, none was an exact duplicate of the others.

This cake was great and I love how different it looked even if the overall design was a copy. It's also fun to make the little wash cloth owls which can be disassembled and the washcloths are completely usable after the decorative elements are removed. Overall, it turned out to be another awesome creation.

A Touch of Spring in Winter

 I love that my family supports me in my crafts. Not only that, they respect the time and investment that creating diaper cakes entails. I have had several requests from family members for diaper cakes, so it was no surprise that one of my sisters was interested in ordering one.

What was surprising was the request itself. My sister had seen my previous cake made a few months before with it's elegant minimalist style (you can check out the pastel pumpkin cake here) and she wanted something similar. She threw me for a loop, however, when she requested a spring floral theme for a December baby shower. That was the plan for the shower - spring flowers.

Inspired by my previous cake, this one was essentially a repeat, however, instead of pumpkins and fall leaves, I selected spring flowers. I also decided to incorporate some butterfly decorations to compliment the flowers and add visual interest. Having one cake under my belt where I incorporated floral decor, I was relatively simple to repeat the design and put this one together.

This 3-tier cake started out a lot like the previous cake with the spiraled tiers in my standard size for a 3-tier cake. The middle tier was made up of cloth diapers as the mom wanted to try them out. Having created an entire diaper cake with cloth diapers, I was able to fold them in such a way that unless you looked closely, they were almost indistinguishable from the disposable diapers that made up the other tiers. Again, I used the off-white floral ribbon to hide the structural ribbon for each of the tiers. artificial flowers were cascaded down the sides in a spiral beginning at the top and worked down to the bottom. The butterflies were then affixed and a bouquet added to the top to finish it off.

This cake turned out as beautiful as the last one with it's elegant simplicity. I love how this cake can add to a baby shower theme and truly look so chic while at the same time keeping overall costs down by excluding extra baby supplies. Incorporating floral elements means that a great amount of visual appeal can still be had.

My sister loved the cake, I'm happy to say, and it brought a bit of warmth to a cold winter month.

Buncha Mini (Diaper) Cakes - Craft Fair Prep from How Long Ago?

Since I'm catching up on my older diaper cake creations, here's a collection...

Several years ago, okay, it was like, 8 years at this point, I was getting prepared for the annual craft fair that I participate in. I was having some issues because I didn't have a lot of inventory but at the same time, I had noticed that my larger cakes just never sold well. I'm not sure if it was a matter of people wanting something more specific or they just weren't able to get something at that price point. So, I came up with an alternate plan.

I decided I wanted to create some diaper cakes with as much impact as the full size cakes, but make them half the size. I already had some 1-tier cakes, but I wanted to make some 2 and 3-tier cakes as well as making some diaper buggies since those sell regularly at the fair.

So, first up is the 2-tier cakes. I created 3 diaper cakes.

The first diaper cake was a cute little boy puppy cake. I used an adorable plush dog I had and matched it up with some puppy blankets. Along with some blue and brown ribbon and baby items, I put together this cake that had 20 diapers which is half of the normal amount for a 2-tier cake. I finished it with some dog die cuts that coordinated with the other decorations.

The second diaper cake I created was a 2-tier lion cake. This cake was a girl cake using pink, light brow, and cream to go along with a little lion plushie I had. Since the puppy cake was a covered cake, I decided to make this one a "naked" cake where the diapers were exposed. I added some pink and cream colored ribbon to the tiers. I included some pink baby items on each of the tiers. Lastly, I added some lion die cuts as inspired by a lion cake I had made previously by request.

I was most excited about the third diaper cake which was a gender neutral cake. This diaper cake was giraffe themed - I love giraffes. I had a super cute giraffe plush and some giraffe print ribbon which pull this orange and brown cake together. I didn't add die cuts to this cake because the printed ribbon created a bit of a busy look and I didn't want it looking chaotic. I absolutely loved it. It was one of my favorite diaper cakes I created for this craft fair.

I already had on full-sized 3-tier cake in stock that was a brown and blue boy cake so I didn't feel the need to create a mini 3-tier cake as well. I just made a mini gender neutral and a mini girl cake to round out my offerings.

For my first 3-tier cake I decided to create a neutral cake. Per my decision to make half-sized cakes, this diaper cake had 30 diapers. I created a "naked" cake with a relatively common theme of ducks. I had some super cute wash cloths with ducks on them and a cute plushie for the topper. The orange and yellow colors kept it neutral. I did add some die cut ducks to this cake as well.

My second 3-tier diaper cake was another favorite for that year. I created a hot pink and zebra stripe cake. With a cute zebra plushie and some zebra print ribbon, I created another "naked" cake with the diapers exposed. I was especially proud of one of the decoration pieces which was a stacked bow placed on an alligator clip. It looked like it was just a bow for the diaper cake, but it was a real bow for a baby's hair. I added some more hot pink and white baby items as well as some die cuts. I'm not sure why the zebra print seemed less busy than the giraffe print, but it was so the die cuts looked just fine.

Along with the diaper cakes I also made three buggies to round out what I already had in stock. I made a pink girl buggy, a green neutral buggy, and a brown and blue boy buggie. They were the basic buggies that I make regularly which include 15 diapers to make the basic structure, along with a blanket and some other baby items.

For my prep for that show I also make a few other items, hair bows and baby beanies and I was ready to go.

Pumpkin Elegance

It's been a minute. Or a number of years. Life has kept me busy, for better or for worse and I haven't given any background insights on my diaper cakes in an extremely long time. No worries, I have pictures to let me know what comes next so here we go.

When the request came for the next custom diaper cake, it was once again, something new and different. I don't know how this kept happening, but it did and as always, I'm glad for the challenge. I love the opportunity to take someone's idea and create something beautiful with it. This go-round, the request was pastel pumpkin themed, but they wanted something elegant, rather than cutsie like so many diaper cakes have a tendency to be. They also wanted minimal, so that's what we went with.

This diaper cake was going to be something that incorporated floral decor rather than baby items. Several years prior, I had switched from creating a distinct front on the cakes and decorating all around. This time, I was going for an entirely new look with a cascade of decorations.

I given that this cake was created in October, I was able to find some Halloween and fall decor including light colored pumpkins and leaves. This was my first time working with floral decor so it was a bit of a task to pull the pieces apart and deciding which aspects I was going to use. Certainly, some of the colors were too dark so I had to pull out only the lighter colors.

This cake was a large one - 4 tiers. Since I wanted the decor to cascade, I needed to come up with a way to have ribbon around the cake without detracting from the decorations. When I build the cakes, I have some ribbon holding the middle of the tiers together. This ribbon is then covered by the larger decorative ribbon in normal diaper cakes, but for this one, I needed to still hide the structural ribbon while keeping the cake as clean as possible. I selected a slightly off-white floral ribbon to place around each tier. While visible, it sort of melts into the cake since it's dull, relatively speaking so when viewing the cake as a whole, it's barely noticed.

I then began adding the various leaves and pumpkins, tucking them into the tiers. I created two spirals that began at the top of the cake and angled downward to the bottom on opposite sides of the cake. This created a beautiful cascade with visual interest on all sides of the cake. For the topper, I used one of the larger artificial pumpkins I found.

This cake was so beautiful. It was the first time I created something with no additional baby items other than the diapers that made up the cake. It created an upscale elegant centerpiece for the baby shower while still being useful at it's core. 

What do you think? Do you prefer diaper cakes with more usable baby items or do you like the elegance and simplicity of this style?