Well, I officially have a one-year-old. On Saturday we celebrated this development with a few friends and a lot of family at Wells Park in Kwinana Beach. It was an absolutely wonderful afternoon, and despite the fact that the birthday boy skipped his nap entirely that day (!) even he managed to enjoy himself (most of the time)!
We got a lot of comments on his cute little cupcake toppers, so I thought I would share a DIY. Full disclosure, the original idea came from Pinterest (as all the best ideas do, amiright?) but I have shaken things up and incorporated my own bit of style.
A gorgeous selection of scrapbook/craft paper is key for this project. I was recently generously gifted with an overwhelming supply of scrapbooking materials, including pages and pages of beautiful paper, so I decided these would be perfect for the creation of these little keepsakes!
As for the assembly process, I find it works best production line-style. Cut out all the faces, then all the triangles, then all the pom poms, etc. Assemble all the hats at once. Attach all the hats, then attach all the straws, then all the bow ties. It helps you keep up a good momentum!
DIY Birthday Boy Cupcake Toppers
Supplies
- Photos of the birthday boy (or girl!) clearly showing his/her face
- Scrapbooking/craft paper
- Double-sided tape/craft glue
- Paper straws
- Sticky tape
Method
- Cut around all the faces.
- Using various papers, cut out the following: long triangles (for the hats), strips (for the bottom of the hats), circles/rounded squares (for the pom poms atop the hats), bow ties.
- Assemble the hats using the double-sided tape/craft glue, and affix one to the top of each cut-out face.
- Cut paper straws (I cut mine to varied lengths).
- Using sticky-tape, stick the straws to the backs of the faces.
- Using double-sided tape, stick a bow-tie to each straw below the chin.
- Your toppers are now ready to grace the tops of any cake around!
Variations
There are so many ways to change up this project! Here are a few ideas:
- For birthday girls, stick on hair bows (or even cut out flowers!) instead of bow ties
- For a themed party, match the toppers to the theme. For a Disney theme, cut out Mickey/Minnie Mouse ears instead of hats. For a Princess theme, cut out little crowns. For an Animals theme, draw black noses and whiskers on the birthday boy/girl faces. Options are endless!
- In terms of craft supplies, the sky is the limit! You can use buttons, ribbons, paints, string, cellophone, miniature pom-poms – anything you have on hand!
- Not into cake? OK, weird, but this project can still fit your affair! Instead of sticky-taping the faces to paper straws, string them onto a garland or, I don’t know, stick them randomly onto surfaces, paper cups, balloons, invitations, anything!
As for Jackson’s party, here’s a little peek at the day…
Your work is so professional. What a gift you have. I was there when you were gifted the papers. So glad it is nurturing and enthusing your creativity. Asta x