One of the easiest things to make with a Cricut is a cake topper. I’ve made a few DIY cake topper templates to share with everyone here.
I’ve made so many cake toppers for all types of occasions but the most common one has to be for birthdays.
They are surprisingly expensive and I’m always wondering if they stick party of the purchased topper is clean.
When I make the Happy Birthday cake topper myself, it’s not only super affordable but I can customize it and use a cleaner stick attachment. The best is when you can customize your cake topper with a name or number.
I usually make my cake toppers using my Cricut cutting machines but these can look just as cute made by hand. The same template design can be used to cut or printed and then cut by hand. While some of the designs are more intricate, you don’t need to make that many so I find it worth while to spend a little more time on it.
Often times, if you have a nice customized cake topper, you can get away with a less fancy cake. For me, as long as the cake tastes good, that’s all that matters. It is just an added bonus when it is nicely decorated 🙂
Here are a few of my DIY Cake Topper Template projects:
All of these Cake Topper templates are available for free in SVG and printable formats in my resource library.
Reinforcing your DIY Cake Topper
My latest cake topper wreaths are interchangeable with the sentiment. You can create your own text and add it to the base wreath.
These rustic looking wreaths can easily be glammed up with a different cardstock material. Depending on what sentiment and occasion you making the cake topper for, the wreath may need to be reinforced. My favorite reinforcing method is just to make another cutout of the same design.
I frequently recycle my cereal boxes this way. I just make sure to glue the colored side inwards and it just looks like I’ve used regular kraft cardstock. The cereal box is the perfect thickness for cake toppers. It is rigid yet not to heavy and won’t topple over for even the most delicate mousse cakes.
DIY Xfmer Robot Cake Topper
It has turned into a bit of a tradition in our family for me to make a cake by request for my son for birthday each year. While my fondant cake decorating skills have improved over the years, there’s still quite a ways to go.
On a few occasions, I’ve had to rely on cardstock cake toppers to finish the look. With the right colors and design, it can match the colored fondant cake perfectly. In case it wasn’t obvious, cardstock is a lot easier to work with than fondant.
DIY Cricut Unicorn Birthday Cake Topper
Unicorns were all the rage a while back and I think every little girl goes through a unicorn phase. I made this custom unicorn cake topper for my friend’s kid’s birthday one year. This cake topper comes with unicorn age template along with templates for decor for the rest of the party.
Funny enough, while I originally made this for a kid’s birthday, I think plenty of adults of used it for more grown up parties as well. Everyone loves unicorns.
(oh, by the way, I heard unicorns are getting replaced by llamacorns. I will post with a new template soon 🙂
DIY Congrats Baby Shower Cake Topper Template
All my friends are now marries and starting to have kids. I feel like every month I’m either attending or helping organize a baby shower.
Some of the store bought decor looked a little cheesy to me so on one occasion, I decided to just design and make all my own decor including this cake topper.
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Materials for DIY Cake Topper
Cardstock – I would recommend heavier cardstock (80lb). If this is not available, you can always reinforce the lighter cardstock with cutting it out twice. I have also just used a cereal box in the past or recycled some other cardstock. Here are some of my favorite cardstock brands:
- Recollection Assorted Starter Pack – Basic assorted colors, great starter pack, perfect weight for most papercraft projects
- Metallic Shimmer Assorted Set from Amazon – This set is a little lighter in weight but the colors are beautiful in 3D
- Cardstock Warehouse Brand on Amazon – I love the quality of all the matte colored cardstock with Cardstock Warehouse. It is my go-to brand for individual matte colors that I might need
- Stardream Metallics Line – For paper crafts, the Stardream line is the go to for a metallic shimmer finish. It is the perfect sheen to make any project pop. The core is also colored is which hard to find for metallic paper.
- Assorted Pink Set from Paper Paper – This is a must-have for paper flower makers. The variety is perfect to create a bouquet.
- Assorted Purple Set from Paper Paper – This is another must-have for paper flower makers. I love the variety of finishes in this pack.
- Metallic Variety Set from Paper Paper – I don’t know any avid paper crafter that doesn’t use Stardream metallics line of shimmer paper. It is the only metallic cardstock line that I know of that has such variety and has colored cores.
Glue – I stick to glue that doesn’t warp the paper. Here are some of my favorites:
Stick – I like to use a coffee stir stick. A straw or chopstick also works. I know they are clean and make for consumption.
Cutting Machine – I use a Cricut. Check out my recommendations for Cricut machines and accessories for beginners for more info.
A Few Tips on Making DIY Cake Topper Letters
Like I mentioned earlier, I like to make my cake toppers using my Cricut cutting machine. For more intricate designs, I stick to a fresh light grip blue mat. I find it easier to clean off the scraps on the light grip mat. We sure to peel the mat off from the cake topper rather than the other way around as to minimize warping of the cardstock material.
If you don’t have a cutting machine, printing the whole thing and just cutting a halo around it also works too.
Reinforce floppy letters with a second layer. Depending on what base cardstock I use, I sometimes do a shadow layer with a complimentary color just to make it a little stiffer. It doesn’t have to be a true shadow layer cutout, I just cut with the same template and offset the words a bit when I glue it together.
My favorite is to use juice box straws, they are the perfect length.
If using my Cricut to cut the cake topper, I sometimes weld a long rectangle as the stem and do a cut using old cereal boxes. I then glue another layer of cardstock on top of that base.
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