Halloween is just around the corner, and it is time to get our seasonal preparations done! One thing my kids love is to each some Halloween treats. So, this year we have made some free Halloween cupcake toppers with Cricut.
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What you need to make free cupcake toppers with Cricut
Let me clarify, you will still need to buy all the paper and physical supplies to make the toppers, but you will not have to pay for any of the designs. But the items that we will need:
- Access to Cricut Design Space
- Card Stock – any Halloween colors, such as orange, black and white. I typically buy Recollections Paper from Amazon., but you can also buy some great seasonal cardstock at your local dollar store.
- Glue – I use Barely Art Precision Craft Glue. It dries quickly and does not leave creases on the paper when dried.
- Toothpicks – I like to use toothpicks, but you can also use cake-pop sticks, they are a bit thicker and more sturdy, but I find toothpicks work great.
- Cutting machine – I use my Cricut Explore Air 2, but any cutting machine will work.
- 30 minutes – 15 minutes to design and cut out, and 15 minutes to assemble.
how to design free halloween cupcake toppers in Design Space
Select your Halloween Images
Design space is great but not everyone wants to pay a monthly subscription for access to the Cricut designs. I do not have a membership to Design Space Access because I find I can do all the things I need to with the free features. So let’s start making our free Halloween cupcake toppers in Design Space.
Open Cricut Design Space, and just right onto your canvas. Going into the Images option will bring you to all of the free, paid and Access subscription images and designs.
We will start by typing Halloween into the search bar at the top. This will bring up all images that fit the Halloween search criteria. You will notice that the ones that appear at the top of the search results either require an Access subscription or are paid designs. We will quickly hit the filter button and filter for all the available free designs. These designs change from time to time, but there are always a few free ones.
Scrolling through the free designs, pick out a few that you like. I picked 2 pumpkins, a ghost, a spider web and a coffin. I thought those were decent Halloween designs and should be easy to work with on small cardstock cuts.
Select all the ones you like, and add them to your canvas.
Design the Halloween cupcake topper
Once we have all of the cupcake topper images we want on our canvas, we need to make a few modifications to complete our design.
We want our cupcake toppers to have some depth, select one image and then select the Offset option (found in the Edit menu). This will automatically generate a offset around our image. We can increase or decrease the size of the offset as we like.
Repeat this step for each of your images.
It is also a good idea to change the color of our offset so it represents the paper color we will use.
Finally, we are going to add a circle from the Shapes option. This is going to be our backing paper for the Halloween cupcake topper. Size the circle to fit behind each of the images with their offsets. You can edit the circle dimensions to make it an oval, or use any other shape you wish. I like to keep all the backing pieces the same color, but they can also be changed to whatever color you choose.
Place each image and offset over the backing shape. Make sure you send the shape to the back to allow the Halloween images to be visible.
Once you have them all arranged, we need to select each cupcake topper and adjust the size to about 2″ in diameter. Cupcakes are not very large, so we want our toppers to be proportional to them. We can make them bigger but I found 2 inches was a good size.
Cupcake topper design is complete
Ok, so your design is complete. Now all that is left is to Make It.
Get all your cardstock ready, and cut out the design.
Assemble your Halloween Cupcake topper
Once all of the pieces have been cut out with your Cricut, there are only a few minor steps left. So let’s get started!
Organize your cupcake topper images
This may seem silly, but you need to have all the correct pieces grouped together. Just make little piles for each cupcake topper so you do not mistakenly glue the wrong pieces together.
Glue the Halloween Cupcake topper together
Pull out your glue, glue the design to the offset backing, and then glue that to the backing piece. This is simple enough. Now, you need to wait for the glue to dry before you move to the next step. I like to place my designs under a thick book to help them stay straight, but that is not needed.
Glue on the toothpick
Once the toppers are dry, flip them over and glue on the toothpick. I use the same glue as above, as it works just fine. You can use a hot glue gun or other glue if you prefer. Let this glue dry as well.
And that’s it! You’re done With your Free Halloween Cupcake Toppers!
Now it is time to put the Halloween cupcake toppers into the cupcakes and get ready to eat them!
Frequently asked questions about Halloween Cupcake Toppers
How long does it take to make Halloween cupcake toppers?
The whole process, from start to finish takes about 30 minutes. About 15 minutes to design and cut and about 15 minutes to glue all the pieces together. However, if you are making 20+ cupcake toppers, assembly and cutting will take longer.
Can you reuse Halloween cupcake toppers?
Yes, you can reuse them. You will just need to collect them all after they have been removed from the cupcakes and wipe off any cupcake or icing that is on the topper. But you will need to be mindful of kids licking them after use and germs, but I leave that up to you.
What other types of toppers can you make?
You can make cupcake toppers for any occasion. Currently, I have these Halloween ones, but you can also make them for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthdays and More.
You can make cake toppers for any event as well.
Did you find this tutorial on Free Halloween Cupcake toppers with Cricut helpful?
Did you find this tutorial on how to make Free Halloween Cupcake toppers with Cricut helpful? Let me know in the below!
Did you try it out? How did it turn out! Do not forget to share!
If you liked this tutorial, check out my other paper crafts here.
If you are looking for more Halloween ideas, check out these posts:
The Easiest Way to Carve a Pumpkin
Seven Unique Way to Celebrate Halloween
