DIY Hot Air Balloon Diaper Cake Tutorial (2024)

This Gender Neutral Hot Air Balloon Diaper Cake Tutorial is sponsored by Pampers at Sam’s Club.

Lift your baby shower to the next level with this fun Hot Air Balloon Diaper Cake! It will be the perfect center piece to take your party up up and away!

When you get invited to a baby shower, are you ever stuck with wondering “What do I gift?”

Well, I have a great idea for you! Try something special like an adorable gender neutral Hot Air Balloon Diaper Cake!

Not only will your gift be unique, it will make a great addition to the baby shower decor, will be a fun conversation starter, and will be something the new mom can definitely use!

Before you begin, talk with the person throwing the baby shower to let them know your plans. If they are also planning a diaper cake, maybe you can coordinate colors and sizes.

If there will be multiple diaper cakes (which no new mom will ever turn away, trust me) maybe one can be made in size 1 diapers and the 2nd diaper cake can be created in size 2 diapers. The new mom would love your thinking ahead. Since babies tend to grow quickly those first few months.

Plus, then you will have multiple beautiful centerpieces – one could be placed on the gift table and one on the food table.

And the expectant mom will be blown away in gratitude for how loved she is. She will be singing your praises weeks after the baby is born at 2 a.m., while half-awake during the umpteenth diaper change of the day when she is still stocked up on diapers and doesn’t have to make that midnight dash to the store for more! Trust me!

As all parents know, having a child in diapers can get expensive. So we always look for ways to save on diapers, like shopping at Sam’s Club.

Right nowSam’s Club has an offer through August 22, 2017, for $10 off the purchase of two Pampers or Luvs diapers or wipes items, or $18 off the purchase of three items AND free shipping or Club Pickup (where available).

The deal is valid both online and in stores, even if you don’t see any signs in store!

We were running low on diapers ourselves, so we made a quick stop at Sam’s Club for the kid’s swimming lessons. And while they had a nice display, they weren’t displaying any signs or information about the promotional deal anywhere!

But rest assured the deal still worked! So don’t let that worry you at all if your store is slow getting the signs up as well.

As I said, we were in a hurry on our way to swimming lessons. So we used the Scan & Go app. I seriously can’t tell you how much I love this app! It saves us so much time!

I simply scanned in our two boxes of diapers for Miss Rose and BOOM, it instantly added the $10 off deal!

Rose was happy, the kids were happy, I was happy. It’s all good!

When you finish shopping, just click “check out” and you pay through your phone, then receive your digital receipt. No standing in line.

And let me tell you, there was a LONG wait at the checkout lane that day. My kids were in awe at mommy bypassing the checkout lines. They thought I was magical not even kidding!

Thank goodness for Sam’s Club Scan & Go , and the great ways to save on diapers!

You can order your Pampers or Luvs products on samsclub.com and select Club Pickup to have everything waiting for you when you arrive to the club to save time, too.

Hot Air Balloon Diaper Cake Supplies:

1 package Pampers diapers (size of your choice)
1 square box
Spray paint (optional – if you have a wooden box that needs painting)
15-16″ round paper lantern
2 spools lace ribbon (varied patterns and sizes)
1 string flat back small pearl beads
Spool Burlap Ribbon (enough to wrap around Box and a little to spare)
Large Burlap Flower embellishment
8 Small Burlap Flowers in cream and brown
Spool of jute string
Four 36″ wooden dowel rods
Straight pins
Elastic
Hot glue
Tape
Stuffed animal for a passenger
Any other baby-related items you want to add inside the hot air balloon basket

You can change your hot air balloon diaper cake look simply by changing the basket. You can pick one that is wicker, or one that is already lined, a round one or a square. There are many options. Don’t feel you must get the exact box I found.

I first found this wooden box in the unfinished wood section of my craft store. So I grabbed some of my Favorite spray paint in a Caramel Latte satin finish.

Apply a light coat and allow to dry. I love this spray paint because it dries quickly, usually in about 10 minutes, and then I can apply the next layer.

After painting, allow at least an hour to fully dry before moving onto filling the basket. If you want, you can skip ahead to work on decorating the paper lantern while you wait for the box to dry to save time.

Once the box is completely dry you can then begin to stuff it with diapers.

Now I know most diaper cakes have you rolling the diapers and securing with elastic bands. Which is all fine and good. But I have 2 issues with that.

First, have you ever tried to use a diaper after it’s been rolled up like that? It’s such a pain to flatten out and put onto the baby. Or to store in the closet! I don’t want to give a new mom that headache.

Second, it takes so much time to roll each individual diaper and secure it. Who has time for that?

So I went with a much easier route. Just stuff them in the box! Haha.

Ok, so they are just stuffed in there. There is a little order. I formed a little circular pattern in the center and just kept building onto it expanding out.

Keep going until you can’t fit any more diapers into the box.

Now we will have a few rolled diapers, but it’ll only be a few, which I can handle versus all of them. You will roll two diapers together and secure with an elastic band. Do this four times, and stuff each one into each of the four corners of the box.

On the outside of the box, you can leave it showing, or you can add even more diapers. Seeing as it’s a Hot Air Balloon Diaper Cake, I went all out and decided to really let the diaper shine and added more diapers.

Layer flat diapers across all four sides of the outside of the box and secure into place with the jute string. I had my kids help to hold the diapers in place while I tied the string.

If you don’t have helpers, you can always add a bit of tape to the back of each diaper to keep it in place until you tie it with the string.

Wrap the burlap ribbon tightly around the diapers on the outside of the basket of the Hot Air Balloon Diaper Cake. Secure it into place in the back with a straight pin. We want to be able to remove this part so the new mom can easily access her diapers.

Wrap the larger lace ribbon around the center of the burlap ribbon and secure in the back with a straight pin.

Add the large burlap flower on the front. I found my flower in the Christmas ornaments section and just removed the tree hook.

If you don’t mind the flower being permanently attached to the lace ribbon you can hot glue it into place onto the ribbon. Or you can secure it also with a straight pin.

Now you can move onto decorating the paper lantern.

Hot Air Balloon Diaper Cake Paper Lantern

For the paper lantern, you will be using the hot glue, as you will want this to be more permanent and not fall off over time.

Wrap the smaller lace ribbon around the center of the paper lantern and secure with hot glue where the ribbon meets and also at the center point across from where the ribbon meets, so it doesn’t slide around as you work.

Cut 8 strips of the jute string that are long enough to travel from the top to the bottom of the lantern and a little extra to fold inside both openings.

Use tape to attach the jute string to the lantern at each of the 8 main seam points.

Wrap them into the inside of the lantern and hide the ends with the tape. No one will see inside the lantern, so it won’t matter if it is a little bit messy.

If you find your tape doesn’t stick well, go back over and add a little hot glue to secure it in place.

Attach the pearl beads with hot glue to one section where the jute string and the lace intersect. Drape the pearls around, attaching them to each intersection with hot glue.

Embellish with the burlap flowers over top of the pearls where they are attached to the jute string and lace ribbon. Alternate the flower colors as you work your way around.

Now the paper lantern is complete! The last step is simply assembling it all together!

Assembling the Hot Air Balloon Diaper Cake

Insert the wooden dowels into each inside corner of the diaper-filled box. Gently bend the dowels inward together and slide the paper lantern on top.

When you let go of the dowels, they will hold the lantern in place. If you want it more secure you can use 3D glue dots or hot glue on the wooden dowels on the inside right where they meet the lantern.

I also attached a few slip knot jute strings from the metal hook inside the paper lantern and threaded each one through a corner on the box and tightened them to help secure the lantern even more.

Lastly, add the stuffed animal as the passenger to the Hot Air Balloon Diaper Cake!

Want to make it extra helpful to a new mom? Add the extra box of Pampers diapers from Sam’s Club next to the diaper cake when you arrive at the baby shower. The mom will think you are an angel sent from heaven!

Now be prepared to fend off little hands, as they will want to touch, grab and love thisHot Air Balloon Diaper Cake!

Miss Rose was rather happy with the end results. She loves her Pampers diapers!

Or maybe she just wanted to grab that Giraffe! Haha.

Either way, it’s a gift both she and I can be very happy with – diapers to last us at least another month.

You can personalize this Hot Air Balloon Diaper Cake with pink or blue ribbons if you want a gender-specific baby gift. Or stay gender neutral which is easy to match most any baby shower decor.

If you are throwing the baby shower, you can use the hot air balloon theme by making the Hot Air Balloon Diaper Cake for the table center piece, and also our smaller Hot Air Balloon party Favor basketsfor each of the guests.

You can also add any other baby gift items inside the basket as well if you choose.

Now your baby shower is ready to lift off and blow your guests Up, Up, and Away!

Don’t forget to grab your diapers at Sam’s Club before the great $10 offof 2 or $18 off of 3 deal floats away!

Click Here to shop Pampers Diapers

Click Here for Luvs Diapers.

What would add in your Hot Air Balloon Diaper Cake?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Pampers at Sam’s Club. The opinions and text are all mine.