Being a mom is one of the hardest, and most rewarding jobs in the world. Between the three of us, we have 8 children, ranging from 9-years-old to 2-years-old. Nothing could have prepared us for the ups and downs of motherhood (and all the priceless memories in between), but one thing’s for sure – we had the best mom growing up. She was the greatest example for us to learn what it means to be a mother, and how impactful a mother’s love can be. Our mom, without a doubt, takes the cake as the best mom (and now Nani to 8 grandkids) ever!

This year, we’re treating our mom to a sweet slice of cake, a beautiful DIY layered cake. This cake won’t cause any cavities
though, because it’s inedible. It’s made of paper, and decorated with the best, most colorful paper, ASTROBRIGHTS^®  Papers.

We like to do most everything as a family, so we didn’t just stop at just one cake. Our mom gets the grand, three-layer cake, and we made three additional “baby cakes” to celebrate our own motherhood. Just like our personalities, they are all vibrant, but different and one-of-a-kind. All the how-to details for the 3-tier cake is available at Astrobrights.com. It’s worth checking out!

We hope you COLORIZE your Mother’s Day as you celebrate your own Mom, you, or any special Mother’s in your life, this year.

Materials:

• Astrobrights Papers, see colors below
• Scissors
• Paper mache boxes (found here or here)
• Glue dots, mini and regular
• Glue stick
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Hot glue gun and hot glue

Directions:

Step 1: Determine the colors of the cakes.  For the three-tier cake, we used Rocket Red™, Gamma Green™, Solar White (found in the Spectrum Pack) and Terra Green™ cardstock. You can use the text weight instead of the cardstock weight, but we found that the cardstock weight was more durable when opening and closing the box. For the middle layer, we printed a free watercolor printable on the Solar White paper. To get the size you need, re-size as needed in Microsoft Word.

For the black and white baby cake, we used Eclipse Black™ and Solar White. For the confetti and rainbow baby cake, we used Plasma Pink™, Pulsar Pink™, Solar Yellow™, Cosmic Orange™, Blast-Off Blue™, Lunar Blue™,  Stardust™ White, Terrestrial Teal™, and Terra Green™. For the mama bear cake, we used Fireball Fuchsia™ for the melted frosting on top, and we painted Stardust™ White with gold leaf paper for the base of the cake. Follow directions on the gold leaf packaging to add this fun touch of glam to any paper.

Step 2: Measure the size of the box, as well as the lid.

Step 3: Cut the paper according to box measurements. Important note: add 1-2 cm. to the lid width measurements, because you will want it a bit higher than the actual lid to cover the edges of the lid.

Step 4: Add glue dots to the edges and corners of the paper, and begin to wrap the box with paper. It’s best to leave the lid trim for last, so you can make sure the entire rim of the box is covered.

Step 5: Cut any embellishments, or designs you choose to add. Our cakes are pretty and somewhat simple, which best suits us. The embellishments worth noting are the DIY paper flowers, the Boy Mom topper (and the classic white “pleats” on the cake), the mama bear and rainbow.

To make the flowers, first print flower petals from a template you can find online. Trace onto Rocket Red paper, and then cut. We used a Poppy flower template through our Silhouette Cameo software. But, most petals you find online will work. Next, cut a small triangle on the bottom, center of the petal. This is where you need your hot glue gun. Press hot glue on one side, and gently place the bottom side of the other piece of the petal on top. Continue to do this until you have four petals. Now, just glue each petal on top of each other. Once you have the petals, begin to create the center. We free-handed one small circle in Terra Green, one mini circle in Gamma Green and then leaves in both greens. For extra texture, cut slits in the larger Terra Green circle. Glue that textured circle in the middle of the flower, and then glue the mini Gamma Green circle in the center. Finally, glue the leaves on the bottom of the flower. You can place these all over the cake, or use a couple – it’s up to you!

To make the bear, trace and cut the image of a bear onto card stock paper. For the words, you can use an electronic cutting machine to cut the words Mama Bear inside the bear. If you don’t have a cutting machine, you can use an X-acto knife to cut the words, or use a Sharpie to write them.

To create the rainbow, free hand one small arch (the last layer of the rainbow) with a pencil on the bottom of Astrobrights cardstock paper, and then cut five additional arches, each other larger in size than the one before it. Glue each layer on top of each other, beginning with the largest. Next, free hand cut clouds, and glue them to the end of each rainbow.

To stand the bear and the rainbow on the cake, use small wooden toothpicks (with square ends, not pointed) to create mini DIY easels. Dab hot glue on the ends of the wooden toothpicks to keep them in place on top of the cake. You will need 2 toothpicks per “cake topper.”

Finally, to make the black and white cake, cut small pieces of Solar White paper (2 inches wide by the length of the mache box), and glue one end of them on the box one by one (sliding each one under the one before it) until the entire box is covered. Because we only glued one end of the white paper on the cake, it left the other end open, which created a  beautiful pleat effect. As for the Boy Mom words, we used an electronic cutting machine to cut the words (you could easily cut the letters with stencils, or use sticker letters) and glued the back of the letters to two black and white straws. We punctured two small holes in the top of the mache box to stick the straws inside. Voila!

Step 6: Fill with gifts, and give to Mom (or yourself).

Our family of cakes will make for one sweet Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day to all you amazing, hard-working moms out there!

This post is in partnership with Astrobrights. We were crafting with and coloring on Astrobrights paper long before this post. It’s always been a fave product of ours. Thank you for supporting the brands that support j. sorelle. Astrobrights was one of the first, so we are very grateful. 

Affiliate Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means j. sorelle receives a small commission from the sale of certain items; however, the price is the same for you, whether it’s an affiliate link or not.