Making your own cake toppers gives you tons of freedom to theme your party exactly the way you pictured it. Using your Cricut, or other cutting machine and software, it’s simple to create the perfect cake or cupcake toppers for any occasion! I’m going to show you how make a basic birthday cake topper.
*Originally, I had planned on making this example with two layers of cardstock, but the design I came up with and decided I loved was too small and detailed for cardstock so I used adhesive vinyl as the top layer instead. Adapt and overcome, right? <3
Supplies needed for this project:
1. Cardstock. I used this brand, because I find that it cuts smoothly on my Cricut.
2. Adhesive vinyl. The one I used can be found here.
3. Transfer tape. This one is my favorite for all my adhesive vinyl projects.
4. Cake pop sticks or bamboo skewers.
5. Hot glue gun and glue sticks.
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The first thing I did was design my “happy birthday” cake topper. I do most of my designing in Silhouette Studio or Inkscape because of the kerning (letter spacing) issues in Design Space.
When choosing fonts and drawings/images, you’ll want to make sure they aren’t too thin, and all separate parts can be connected together somehow making the design one solid cut. This is done so that your topper will not fall apart or be in pieces on your cake.
Pictured is the basis of my design. The font I used is called Angelica (get it here), and the frame I used was purchased on Etsy.
Once I had my design fleshed out, I created an offset to give my cake topper a little more dimension. This is where the decision to use adhesive vinyl along with my cardstock came into play. As you can see, all of the small details in this design would have been nearly impossible to cut out of cardstock, so I chose to cut my offset out of cardstock and use vinyl for the design itself.
Need help creating an offset? This video, recorded by Sarah of Spectrum Weavers Designs (1/3 of A Crafty Collaborative), will show you how using Inkscape.
After saving the design onto my computer from Inkscape, I uploaded the file into DesignSpace. Next I resized the design (6″ for this one), cut each layer from their respective materials, and weeded my vinyl layer. Here is what each part looks like separate from the other.
After separating my cardstock cut from the mat, I used transfer tape to apply the vinyl layer to my cardstock layer. I did this very slowly and carefully, because you kind of only have one shot with permanent adhesive. If it isn’t perfectly centered though, no worries, it just gives the cake topper character!
The last thing I did was use a small amount of hot glue to adhere the cake pop sticks to the back side of my cardstock layer. I went a little overboard with mine so the glue was nice and visible, but that’s not necessary; just enough to make it stick will do.
And, done! Such a cute addition to any cake, or make smaller ones for cupcakes and use toothpicks to keep them standing up. 🙂
Designing this cake topper was the most time consuming part for me. The cut and assembly process was so fast and easy! To save time or if you don’t want to design your own, there are many pre-made designs online for purchase and/or download, but it feels so great when you make it yourself from scratch!
Questions or suggestions? Please comment below!
