DIY Shaker Cake Topper

Do you need a beautiful beach themed cake topper?  Hi there, it’s Dorlene and I made one for my granddaughter’s upcoming birthday using the Beach Sea Shells Monogram Frame cut file from Printable Cuttable Creatables.

When making a cake topper, I believe the more layers the better which makes the offset function your best friend!  With this topper, I added an offset to the original image, an offset of the offset times two.  The default color for offsets is black in Cricut Design Space so when creating each offset, I changed the colors for each layer so I have a better idea of what the final project will look like.

As you can see from the photo below, the first offset is a light gray, the next one is white and then the largest of the offsets is light gray again.

Before creating the largest light gray offset, I added a banner across the white offset wreath.  The banner is duplicated and set to the side and the other one is placed on the wreath and then welded (combined) to the white offset image. This gives a better base for the banner to adhere to when putting it all together.

Now create the third offset (light gray) from the white welded image which includes the wreath & banner.  I also duplicated the white offset and then used the contour function to hide all contours.  This is the black image on the canvas.  I plan on cutting acetate from this image and only made it black so it would appear on its own mat.

Yes, you guessed it, I’m making a shaker cake topper!  The acetate will be added between the white and largest light gray pieces.

Back to the banner and why I duplicated it.  As I mentioned before, I love lots of layers when I make cake toppers. By duplicating the banner and some shells, I get to use foam adhesive to create more dimension on the cake topper.

I hope this photo helps you understand the steps a little better.  You probably notice that the banner has two parts.  I decided to slice my granddaughter’s name into the banner so I wouldn’t have to worry about placing each of the small letters on it. 

To recap:

Step One: Upload the SVG image

Step Two: Create an offset and change the color to light gray

Steph Three:  Create another offset of the light gray offset image and change the color to white

Step Four: Find a banner in Cricut Design Space.  Before adding it to the white offset, duplicate it and set it aside.  Now add the original one to the white offset and weld it together using the Combine function.

Step Five (Optional if making a shaker topper):  Duplicate this combined white image and use the contour function to hide all contours. Change the color to black.

Step Six:  Make another offset of the white combined image and change the color to light gray

Step Seven:  Duplicate any shells or coral that you’d like to emphasize on the finished topper.

Click on the Make It button on the top right to cut out all the images.  I always lay the pieces together before adding adhesive.  Take note of which pieces will have foam adhesive and which will be adhered directly on top of the previous layer.

I used a pick tool for the small pieces and my favorite tool (my fingers) for the larger ones when applying liquid adhesive.

I adhered the wreath details directly on the light gray offset & then that portion directly on the white offset.  I used foam adhesive to add height to the pink shell, two starfish and the banner.

I ended up cutting two of the acetate pieces so the shaker area would have one for the front and then after adding foam adhesive & shaker bits in the middle, the second acetate piece acts like the “second piece of bread” of a sandwich.  This makes it so much easier to adhere to the base layer.

I also changed the banner to say Celebrate versus my granddaughter’s first name.  Here’s the final project!

As you can tell, I added a lot of black & white pen marks to highlight different areas. So cute!

-Dorlene

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