valentines

DIY projects for any kind of party have become popular in the last couple of years and even though most the items I sell are handcrafted by me {yes, one by one}, I also love designing DIY projects for my customers. They come in handy especially when they are overseas.

The most popular item sold for birthday parties are the Cupcake Toppers and today I am going to show you step by step how to make yours at home, given you already have purchased or downloaded a file for free.

I have made these Valentine’s Day Party Circles for you. Download them here for free. Please remember to read my Terms of Use first. Let’s get to it!

First of all, you must gather your tools and materials. Some items – such as paper, printer and scissors – you should have handy at home but if you’re not the crafty type, there are some other items you must purchase or borrow. Click on each item to take a look or purchase some of my favorites.

TOOLS AND MATERIALS:

– White Paper Card Stock – 65 lb

– Inkjet Color Printer
– Sharp Scissors for paper
– 2″ scalloped squeeze punch
– 4″ Lollipop sticks or wood craft sticks
– Hot glue gun or craft glue
– Hot glue clear sticks if you decide to use a hot glue gun

OPTIONAL ITEMS:

– 2″ circle squeeze punch
– 2.25″ circle punch

TUTORIAL

I will break it down in 4 easy steps: print, cut, punch and glue.

1. PRINT
With your color printer, print your file as many times as you wish at 100% scale.

2. CUT
With the scissors, cut each row of the party circles.

Now, for the tricky part:

Each craft punch has a different “reach throat” that’s the maximum distance your craft punch will reach on the paper. The one I use for my crafts has a very small throat and it’s a matter of trial and error until you get the hang of it. Gosh! I wish there was a scallop punch out there with long reach. I am sure there is, I just haven’t done much research. I like mine, it’s easy to use and soft on the hand; the open head allows you to see the design before you punch…I like that!

You can see in this picture that the circle is not centered, that’s because the “throat” of my punch does not reach further….

…so, we cut again. Note: this is trial and error, so be easy on the trims…

…until we get to this. Perfect!

or this…I personally prefer the scalloped punch…You’ll see why later…Keep reading!

2. PUNCH:

Once you are absolutely sure that your design is perfectly aligned and centered, punch away!

4. GLUE:

Fire up your glue gun and start gluing the lollipop sticks to the back of your punch out. I use a *very old* cutting mat where I put down my hot glue gun and use the grids as guide.

Put a 1″ long ‘strip’ of hot glue to your lollipop stick like this:

and then adhere the stick to your punch out:

Pardon the thread of hot glue hanging…Remove any rests of glue…{*blush* }.

At this point you can be done with your cupcake toppers and they look cute…However, I am going to show you how to add more “pizzaz” to them. Here is when you could use that optional 2.25″ circle punch.

Punch out a 2.25″ circle out of contrasting cardstock. I used white, black and pink for these particular Valentine’s cupcake toppers…

Put another 1″ long ‘strip’ of hot glue in the back of your semi-done cupcake topper like this:

…and stick it to your punched out 2.25″ circle.

and now you’re done!

If you have ANY questions, I would love to hear from you!

Thanks so much for looking, sharing, and for all the LOVE! Have a wonderful weekend!