Cupcake Toppers And Holders Tutorial with Templates Using Photoshop
I have seen so many beautiful party design sets lately and wanted to play around and make some more of my own. I went through a cupcake topper stage awhile ago and looking back, I really shouldn’t have shared the ones I did. Although these I’m sharing today are not high end by any means they are meant to more or less show you how to create your own. I’m going to show you how to make cupcake toppers, flags, and holders in this one post as well as include a few templates and a Photoshop shape set I made to help in this process.
First let’s start with cupcake toppers. These are by far the easiest way to turn cupcakes in to fabulous. You can make a party theme look great with just the addition of these little circles. I do not yet have a scrapbook circle hole punch but you can cut them out with scissors just as easy… okay not as easy but it’s an easy alternative for those of us who do not have a circle punch.
The template we will use for the toppers is this page of circles. The download is a .png transparent file. You can use this a guide in Photoshop or Gimp. Using the selection tool on a new layer, you can select the inside of the circle and paste or fill a pattern. Below I am going to share a Photoshop shape set with a few decorative frames to use as well. I have shared scrapbooking digital papers in other posts that you can use to fill in the circles to make a back color and layer with a frame or image.
I layered a digital scrapbooking pattern I made with the frames I made and some text to create these Valentine’s Day Cupcake toppers. I’ll include these in a pack with the other things I made during writing this tutorial at the bottom. Note: In order to use pattern fill you have to download pattern files. You can find pattern sets on the internet or make your own by clicking EDIT at the top and defining pattern. This can be tricky so I may make a new tutorial for this sometime in the future. For now you can find out more from Adobe about patterns. As you can see from my image I have been playing around with patterns a good bit here lately. Pick your pattern and click the inside of your circle.
Once you get your circle filled in you can decorate it. I used this shape set I made that contains 13 shapes. If you have had experience using shapes, just place these in your shape folder. If you need a little refresher on shapes or want to know how to make your own try this link.
I used one of the above shapes to layer on my cupcake circle. I then followed that with a white fill inside the shape. In order to fill a shape you have to rasterize the layer. To do this right click on the layer and click rasterize the layer. And you end up with is a page of pretty colorful cupcake toppers. This is where you print them out on your printer and go look for the scissors the kids have probably hidden. After a 15 minute search and coming up with only a pair of kid’s safety scissors, cut out your circles and tape toothpicks or plastic straws to the back of them as shown in this horrible phone photo taken at 6 in the morning.
Now with your cupcake toppers finished, you can move on to the cupcake holders. Using the same principles with this template. The lines came out a little darker than I had hoped but they work.
Using the same tactics and patterns you can create your matching holders to go with your toppers like these.
Print and cut out your holders. Wrap around and tape close. Place cupcake in middle. I would show a picture of this but I don’t really want to bake and decorate cupcakes at 6 a.m. and no natural lighting would make them look awful anyway. Check me out on Instagram and you may see the cupcakes dressed up later.
Now we can move on to flags. I’m not going to share a template of these because you can use the shapes above to create flags in the colors and sizes you need. I will show you the ones I made for this project to give you an idea of where I went. Flags can be made shorter as well. These just need to be cut out and folded ends together around toothpicks or straws.
And there you have it. Next time I’ll do a tutorial of banners but for now I would love to see any cupcake toppers you make. Share them with me on Instagram by tagging me @miniaturemasterminds or using the #miniaturemasterminds.
And if you want the set made for this tutorial, just click this download below!
Those are all so cute. Now I am in the mood to go bake some cupcakes!
These are adorable! They’d bring a nice pop of color to cupcakes for a class or group party.
Those look so great! There really isn’t any limit to what you can do in Photoshop. Thanks for sharing these, as well. Love them so much!
Those are some great design for cake toppers. I have a photoshop but I haven’t really use it. Thanks for the idea.
What an easy and simple idea! Buying cupcake decorations is so expensive, so I love the idea of making my own.
These are all really great ideas for making cupcake toppers. I love the different shapes you can use!
This would be perfect for my son’s Valentine’s Day party at his school! I have been trying to find something to put on top of the cupcakes I want to make this is beautiful for that.
Thanks for the ideas. It is now easier for me to make those cupcake toppers when I know where to get templates!
This is so awesome! I am going to do this for Valentine’s Day. What a cute way to dress up your cupcakes!
Cute ideas. I’m bookmarking this so I can get back to it when the need arises that I have to make cupcakes for a special occasion.
I’ve trying to learn how to use the complex Photoshop software. Thanks for these free templates.
These are cute! I’ve created similar cupcake toppers, but not using photoshop. I like how this is a template.
Genius! I’m bookmarking this for future parties! Thanks for the useful printable!
Aww, these are so cute. I’d love to top some cupcakes with these for a family Valentine’s Day party.
Those are pretty cupcake toppers. I am saving this to use later. Thanks for sharing!
I have always wondered how people make those adorable cupcake topper and now I know!! Great post!!
These look adorable! Great templates, I better start learning PhotoShop. I’m saving this, this would come very handy in preparing my boys’ birthdays!
These are all great! thanks for sharing your idea. cupcakes design was so expensive, I’m so glad you share it i can use it for any occasions.
I love this. I haven’t ever made my own toppers but I didn’t even realize it was as a easy as it is. I’ll have to give it a try!
These are pretty. I’ve never tried making my own cupcake toppers. Now I can easily print them.
Those are really cute. I’ve been wanting to get photoshop and learn how to use it. Thanks for these.
These are so cute! I usually am not a baker, but will have to make an exception for these. My family would get a kick out of these cupcakes for sure.
Super smart idea for Valentines Day. I love them!
Thanks for sharing the patterns! I love all the fun stuff you can do in Photoshop.
These cupcake holders are so cute. Thanks for the templates.
This is such a great idea, thank you for sharing. My children would love to make some cupcakes for them. Kaz
Those are a really cute idea. I think I may use these this Valentines Day.
What a amazing idea. Cupcake design was so expensive for me. But because of this idea i can make a lot of cupcakes design.
What a great way to decorate cupcakes and make them stand out from the crowd. These would be great for any themed party–not only Valentine’s Day.
These are adorable! What an awesome tutorial for making your own toppers which is super easy and perfect for accenting just about anything!
Those are so cute! I honestly never thought about using photo shop to do do these things, but you made it look easy!
My husband is in to graphic media & he is good in Photoshop related works & I try to learn something from him when I am free. This is a wonderful tutorial which I guess I can try on my own to check out my skills to get those creative toppers & holders.
Oooooo what a fun and cleaver tutorial! Photoshop can be tricky sometimes so I love learning tips like this!
What a great tutorial! I love using photoshop to make things, never thought of making these.
I love getting creative on Photoshop and these banners will be so helpful to get me started. I am loving how you designed them!