Ghostly Cupcake Toppers: 2 Ways

Halloween is quickly approaching and soon there will be all kinds of sweets that could use some spooky touches to get in the spirit. Here are 2 ways to make easy cupcake toppers and add a little Halloween spirit to a party!

Topper number one:

For this cupcake topper you will need:

Toothpicks
paper or cardstock of your choice
scissors
pencil
non toxic glue
glow in the dark paint (optional)
small paint brush (optional)
ghost pattern (you can also draw ghosts free hand)

Start by drawing or tracing your ghost shapes onto your paper or cardstock. You will need 2 cutouts for each cupcake topper (a front and a back). Cut out all of your shapes and then sandwich your front and back pieces around a toothpick, glue together and allow to dry completely. If you like, add a spooky face with glow in the dark acrylic paint (you could also cut out the eye and mouth shapes with a mat knife or hole punch). Add these little guys to cakes, cupcakes, etc. for a little extra spooky decoration.

Topper number two:

For this topper you will need:

one package of small suckers (I used Dum Dums)
small squares of tissue paper (I used white, silver and gold)
scissors
string

Cut out squares of tissue paper to layer together for your ghosts. I like using the silver and gold as an underlay for white, but you can use any color you like. Place the sucker in the center of your tissue paper squares and tie them around your suckers with string. The sucker will be the ghosts head, and the stick can be placed directly into your cupcakes. You can add faces if you like, but they look cute without them as well. Not making any kind of cakes? This is a great way to dress up your Halloween candy to make it a little more festive for the Trick-or-Treaters.

How do you like to dress up your Halloween treats?

If spooky snacks aren't your thing, you can also check out this fast and easy tutorial for gravestone garden markers, and don't forget to follow The Craftinomicon on your favorite social media sites so you don't miss any upcoming projects.

Ombre Pom Pom Centerpiece

I was browsing Pinterest the other day (shocker, I know!) and came across a centerpiece similar to this one that was made with white carnations. Since I am helping my sister with the flowers for her wedding, and we are making them all from paper, I decided to try out a version with tissue paper pom pom flowers. I also wanted to get a little extra fancy, so I did an ombre arrangement starting with a white flower at the top and moving down into a dark blue at the base. This is a pretty easy arrangement to make, and would look great not only at a wedding, but a baby shower or birthday party!

The base for the arrangement is simply a candlestick (I snagged mine at the dollar store!) and a styrofoam ball (mine is 4" in diameter).

You will also need a bunch of tissue paper pom pom flowers, with a wire stem long enough to poke into your styrofoam ball. My finished centerpiece has a total of 25 flowers on it, made from pieces of tissue paper that were 4"x6". I left about 2" of stem on each (to make your stems sturdier you may want to double them over and wrap them with floral tape). Depending on the size of your styrofoam ball, the size of your flowers, and how densely you want to place them, you may need more or less.

I decided I didn't want to glue my styrofoam to the candlestick, so I could use it again later if I wanted to for another project. So to start, I placed my darkest color blue flowers around the candlestick base to hold it in place. I fluffed up my flowers and then moved o the next color. I also placed my single white flower at the top as a reference point so that my flowers wouldn't get too crooked as I built upwards.

Continue placing flowers and fluffing until you are satisfied with your finished product! If you don't want these as a centerpiece they would also be great as decoration on a dessert table, and if you want a taller base you could easily use a tall slender vase instead of the candlestick. :)

More Tissue Paper Flowers

Here is another great tissue paper flower you can make, complete with templates. These are a little fussier than the first tutorial I showed you, but they are well worth the effort. The thing that makes these so fussy is cutting out all of the individual petals, so if you want to avoid that, I'd stick with the first version for now. You could also make these from a patterned paper with more heft, these are definitely very delicate from tissue.


To make these flowers you will need:

Tissue paper in colors of your choosing
floral wire
large glass seed beads in color of your choosing
petal template (below)
floral tape
glue
small hole punch (I used a 1/16" hole punch)*
scissors
needle nose pliers (for twisting wire, also optional, I find using my fingers works just as well, but if you are doing a large number of these you may want to give your fingers a break)

*hole punch is optional, you could also use a small needle to poke holes in the center of your petals before fanning


To start, print out the following template. I have included several different sizes of the petal shape I used so you can make different sized flowers, or make a flower with petals grading from large on the outside to small on the inside. You can further change your petal size by manipulating the image in your favorite image program, or changing the size on your printer (provided your printer has a scaling function).

Trace your petal template onto your tissue paper and cut out your petals. For my flower I cut out 7 petals, all of the largest size. It can be faster to layer several sheets of tissue paper together, but if you feel you can not cut all of the sheets evenly you can do each petal separately.

Once you have all of your petals cut out, stack them together so the centers match up. They do not have to match perfectly. Use your hole punch to punch a hole through the center of all of your petals. This will be where you thread your wire stem through all of the petals.

To create a wire stem, take some floral wire and a large seed bead (I chose purple glass seed beads, you could use plastic beads or beads in another shape if you like) bend your wire in half and feed a bead onto one end. Push the bead to the center and twist the wire around the bead tightly as shown below.

Continue twisting your wire together to create your stem. I use 26 gauge floral wire when making my flowers, so I find that twisting it together allows me not only to add beaded "stamens" of my choosing, but also gives me a thicker more stable stem for my final project. Twist all of your remaining wire together until your stem is complete.

Now, thread your petals onto your stem. If using several different sizes, make sure that the smallest petals are threaded on first, followed by the larger ones.

Next, fan out your petals to create the final shape you want. Use a tiny bit of glue to hold each petal in place. You may bend and fold your petals to give more volume and shape to your flower as well.

Once your glue is dry, use floral tape to cover your wire stem. I generally overlap my bottom petals a bit, pushing them against the beaded center and making my petals "pop up" a bit more. Wind the tape tightly around the entire stem to cover all of your wire. Now your flower is done and can be put together into a bouquet or vase, or you can twist the wire around your wrist as a corsage!

If you want longer, thinner petals I also have this template: I would recommend using more petals, as these will not cover the same area when fanned out.

Happy flower making!

Tissue Paper Flowers

I'm jumping straight into paper flower making mode for my sister's wedding and I'm starting off slow with these easy tissue paper flowers. These would be great to use as aisle markers (in a larger form), cupcake toppers, or even filling in volume in a centerpiece or bouquet. They have some big bonus rewards in that they are easy enough even children could help make them by the boatload, and they come in a huge variety of colors (you are only limited by the colors of tissue paper you can find). Here is a great online shop with tons of colors you can choose from if you are without a nice party supply shop nearby. These flowers also have a variety of looks depending on how you trim your edges.

Aside from possible wedding decor, these would be great to use at a birthday party, or just to brighten up your home any old day of the week.

To make these tissue paper flowers all you will need is:

Tissue paper in your desired color
A pair of scissors
Floral wire


Start by cutting your tissue paper to size. For these small flowers, I used 4 sheets of tissue paper cut to 4"x5". Stack them on top of each other, and fold like an accordion as pictured below.

Next, find the middle of your accordion folded paper (it's easiest to just fold your paper in half again, you won't see any fold lines in your finished product). Using a piece of floral wire about 6 or 7 inches long (also folded in half) secure your paper by twisting the wire around the center of your paper like so:

I find it is easiest to work with these in a variety of ways if I leave a longer wire stem. So I twist the remainder of my wire all the way down. You can cover this with floral tape later of you wish.

Now, you get to decide what kind of edge your flower petals will have. A soft, rounded edge will give you a rounder finished flower. A sharp, triangular cut, will give you something spikier, almost like a sea urchin. You can also use pinking shears or other decorative scissors before you fold your paper to get a more subtle edge. I chose a rounded edge for this tutorial.

To make poofing out your flower petals easier, I recommend fanning out your flower before you begin, like so:

Now, all you have to do is gently pull up on each layer of tissue paper and fluff as necessary to achieve a finished look. Be careful not to tear your paper, but don't worry if you get a little snag here or there. These flowers are particularly forgiving.

Continue separating and fluffing each layer of tissue until you are done. If you want a fuller flower, feel free to use more layered sheets. You can also do multiple colors. If you want the middle of your flower to be white, make sure you have a white sheet of tissue on top of your paper pile before you fold, tie etc.

Here is my finished flower:

It can now be used as I see fit! These would even make a cute hair accessory for my nieces!