Ultimate Guide: Cricut Cake Toppers - Make Etsy Quality Toppers EASILY!

Have you ever been planning an event and thought to yourself, man, I wish I could make my own custom cake topper so that I don't have to spend tons of money buying one from Etsy? Well, stick around because in today's video, I'm going to show you exactly how you can do that. My name is Lauren and I'm a craft educator here at Makers Gonna Learn. And today I'm gonna be talking to you all about how to build your confidence so that you can make Etsy quality cake toppers. The first thing that you wanna do when thinking about making a cake topper is figure out your size. So a general rule of thumb is to make a cake topper between five to six inches or one to two inches smaller than the cake you're gonna be putting it on. Next thing you wanna think about is the style that you're going to be going for with this event. Are you wanting to be classy? Is this a kid's birthday? Lots of different things to consider. For example, obviously these two are great for kids' birthday parties. However, they don't have to be themed just for a kid's birthday party. I could see this shaker topper being great for an engagement party or really any other event. This one you have more of a classy look, can be used for a wedding, bridal shower, baby shower, really anything. But this is more of the classy look, whereas here we have more of a whimsical look. Starting with this one, this one has been made out of paper, cardstock paper, glitter, acetate, and two skewers or dowel rods that we have attached to the back. Same for this one. Once again, this one was made out of cardstock as well as foam squares to give both of them that 3D look. This cake topper is made out of a pre-cut acrylic blank that you can get from Amazon, paint, gold fleck, and vinyl. If you want a full tutorial on how to make each of these three cake toppers, there are links down below so that you can watch those full tutorials and make one exactly like these. However, if you want to try to think of your own ideas and come up with your own theme, stick around and I'm going to show you all of the materials that you're gonna need to get started. First thing, if you are going to be making a paper cake topper, you really want to get a good cardstock. Now, not necessarily this color palette. However, I pulled this in because the Recollections cardstock is probably some of the best cardstock that you can buy that's on the market. It really has a nice clean cut, gives you a nice clean cut. It is a color core, which means when you rip into this cardstock, the same color is gonna be on the inside instead of a white core. So really buying a good quality cardstock is going to be key when making these cake toppers. Another thing you need to think about are your colors. So this is a really nice color palette. If you can find the Recollections brand in a really good color palette, this way you have your color scheme. You can go gradient. These are all colors that complement each other really well. So if you are not confident in choosing colors, I would highly suggest you pick a pack that has a color palette that goes well together. Next thing you really wanna think about when creating your cake topper is your adhesives. Now, these different adhesives are gonna work well for the different types of cake toppers, starting out with our shaker cake topper. Obviously we need a glue or an adhesive that does not leave lines on our acetate and to keep the glitter inside. So the most important thing for the shaker card is going to be getting foam tape. So what the foam tape is going to do is it's going to create the barrier between the acetate and the back of your cake topper, and it is going to hold these two pieces together and allow the glitter to stay in so that it doesn't shake out. You also want to make sure these foam pieces touch each other, leaving no gap so that the glitter doesn't escape. Now, you can see that we have cut these foam pieces and they are molded to the shape of this card, so it looks like there may be gaps on the outside, but they actually touch closer on the inside so that that glitter stays in there. You also cannot go wrong with this fine line crafter's precision glue. It is perfect when working with paper crafts and making these things. It dries clear and it hardens very well. So this is an absolute must when working with paper crafting and making paper cake toppers. When thinking about glue for your paper cake toppers, this crafter's precision glue with the fine line tip is an absolute must. It dries clear, it gets inside those intricate cuts, and it really has a strong hold once it dries. Another must-have when creating paper cake toppers are foam squares. Now, this pack actually comes, it's a variety pack with the different sizes. It has the smaller ones, and about the medium to large size ones. This is great when it comes to creating the 3D look. For example, this looks like it is popping off the cake topper as well as the stars. So using these foam squares really gives that a three-dimensional look, and it takes your cake topper to the next level. Also, do not be afraid to cut these foam squares because you don't want to be able to see it, so you can cut them to your desired size so that they fit perfectly within your design. Last but not least, if you're wanting to make the acrylic cake topper and add the gold leaf embellishment, the DAP rapid-fuse glue was the absolute best that I use, and I've tried multiple different glues. It gave me the clearest dry without leaving a lot of residue on the acrylic. Now that we've gone over all the materials and the best materials that you need to make Etsy-quality cake toppers, we really wanna think about design, especially the size of your design. When you are designing, you want to think about how large it's gonna be because then you have to think about the support for your topper. For example, this cake topper with this specific design probably would've been fine with one dowel down the middle. However, the more dowels you have in your cake, the sturdier your cake topper is going to be and the less movement you have. After you have figured out your support, you then need to think about how long your dowels need to be to go in your cake. For example, if you have a two- to three-layer cake, your dowels are gonna need to be longer than if you have a single-layer cake. Pro tip for this is if you are making this for yourself or for someone else for a party later on down the road, always make your dowels longer because you can cut them shorter, but you can never take a shorter dowel and make it longer. Now, if you're wanting to make the acrylic cake toppers, do not just buy the acrylic circle or the acrylic, any other acrylic shape. Make sure you buy one with the dowel already attached to the bottom. These come pre-made because you do not want to have to attach something to the back of this clear acrylic because it will throw off the whole entire look. I really hope these pro tips have helped you to build your confidence to make your own Etsy-quality cake toppers. Once again, if you want to learn how to make these exact cake toppers, the video links are down below this one, and you can view those so that you can make the exact replications of these cake toppers. Make sure you like this video, subscribe to our channel, and turn on those bell notifications so that you don't miss out on any new crafts that we bring your way. I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye.