DIY make a wood CUPCAKE base using your Cricut

Use your Cricut & scroll saw to make a wooden cupcake base in the shape of a mermaid tail

I love throwing birthday parties for my four daughters. I love the excitement in their eyes when they see all the work and thought that’s been put into THEIR big day! I love sitting with them and planning out the details. And when the oldest three were much younger I LOVED making their cakes. As the years have passed though, I found my self getting busier and busier and it was just easier for me to run to Sams club and grab a cake from there.

Affiliate Disclosure. Some of the links on this website are affiliate links, which means that I may earn a small commission if you click on the link or make a purchase using the link. If you make a purchase you will not be charged anything additional.

But this year when the second oldest was planning her birthday she asked if I would make her cake. I felt so honored. Really? She didn’t want a store bought cake but one that momma made! Seriously bring on the happy tears!

She had been pinning on Pinterest for a couple of months and decided she wanted a MERMAID cake! As soon as she said those words I knew what I was going to do to make that happen… MERMAID PULL APART CUPCAKES! So much easier than an actual cake and less mess on the day of the party. Years and years ago I did a similar one for the oldest daughter when she turned 4. I made pull apart cupcakes in the shape of a 4 and it was ADORABLE and SOOOOOOO easy!

Thank goodness for tools like Cricut and Ryobi, if I didn’t have those then her cake might have turned out a little….less than edible looking lol!

If you want more little girl birthday party inspiration be sure to check out these ADORABLE UNICRON party centerpieces I made using my Cricut too!

Don’t feel like reading the full tutorial? Skip to the bottom to catch the video or go here ——-> MERMAID TAIL CUPCAKE BASE on my YouTube channel

How to make a wood base for pull apart mermaid cupcakes

Here’s what you’ll need

• CRICUT EXPLORE AIR

• CRICUT DESIGN SPACE

• RYOBI SCROLL SAW

• RYOBI SANDER

• 120 grit sandpaper

• CRICUT CUTTING MAT

• 1” thick pine board {or whatever wood you prefer}

• masking tape

• 12”x12” cardstock

• pencil

First select your design in CRICUT DESIGN SPACE. If you are like me and create a ton of projects each monthly I highly recommend signing up for CRICUT ACCESS. You will have access to thousands of images, fonts, and projects for a small monthly fee…and it’s SO worth it!

Here’s the mermaid tail I chose in Cricut Access. I just simply searched MERMAID TAIL and chose one that I liked.

I chose the pink one on the bottom row. I really like that this one had some movement in it. But I didn’t really like the white spaces on the mermaid tail. So after I added it to my canvas I used the CONTOUR function to hide those white spaces. I also adjusted the size of the mermaid tail so that it was 11.45” wide. I left the size lock on so that it would adjust the height for me so that everything would be proportionate.

Since I was using cardstock for my stencil and I didn’t have a piece big enough I butted two pieces together and taped the seam so that it would be like one big piece. Feed your mat through your Cricut machine and press GO when the button starts to flash.

I used a piece of scrap 1x12 to make my mermaid tail cupcake base out of. I had some plywood which probably would have worked just as good {and would have been cheaper to use} but I knew I most likely wouldn’t use this again and I wanted my daughter to be able to use it to hang in her room after her party.

Trace your mermaid tail cardstock stencil out on your piece of wood.

Then cut the mermaid tail out using your Ryobi scroll saw. You can use a band saw, and even a jig saw for this step if you don’t have a scroll saw.

Then you want to smooth it out using your Ryobi sander. I used 120 grit sand paper on mine. I also slightly rounded some of the edges so that it wasn’t so pokey.

Add your cupcakes and decorate. I just slapped a little bit of frosting on the bottom of each cupcake to stick them to the board.

. I used a combination of purple, teal, and white for the frosting colors and I didn’t even use any fancy piping tips {I was a little pressed for time lol}. For under $10 I was able to make the cake of her mermaid themed birthday dreams!

Watch the video tutorial below on how to make your own MERMAID TAIL CUPCAKE BASE

DIY Unicorn birthday party centerpiece

Our third daughter had her 8th birthday party recently and had her big heart set on a unicorn theme. I had $50 to make it happen {decorations, cake, games, and invites} and I wasn’t about to disappoint her so I set out on Pinterest to find all the things I could for a DIY unicorn party. Here’s the pin that inspired this centerpiece. Super adorable right?! But I wanted hers to look a little different, a little more whimsical and I wanted to spend the least amount possible. Which meant I needed to shop my craft stash before getting started.

Here’s what you’ll need to create you own at unicorn centerpiece

• small bucket

• dowel rod

• rocks

• felt

• glitter

• white balloon

• black vinyl cut outs of eyes

• white spray paint

• cardstock

• LOW TEMP GLUE GUN

First spay paint your buckets and dowel rods with white spray paint. Let dry completely.

Fill the bottom third of your bucket with crumpled up paper, leaving space in the very center to place the dowel rod. Place the dowel rod inside and fill the rest in with your rocks. I just used what we had on hand that was left over from previous crafts.

Next, blow your balloon up but not all the way. You want to try to get as round of a shape for it as possible. Then tie it around your dowel rod.

I free hand cut the ears, flowers, and horn. Not pictured, I cut the horn out of cardstock, glued glitter to the entire thing, and let it dry prior to this next step. Using your LOW TEMP glue gun glue them to your balloon. Place the glue on the felt first, wait a couple seconds, then place on your balloon. It’s important you use a low temp glue gun as a hot temp will likely pop your balloon.

If you’d rather use paper flowers this DIY PAPER FLOWER TUTORIAL might help you. They aren’t the exact same style of flower as the ones pictured in this tutorial but they are super adorable and you just might like them better.

I cut out the vinyl eyes using my Cricut but you can free hand these with a sharpie.

And that’s it! Our birthday girl was completely happy and loved all her unicorn decorations but these were her favorite! She so wished she could have kept them forever but sadly they deflated {and honestly I’m totally ok with that because the birthday girl would never toss anything if we didn’t make her}.

I hope this inspires you to make your own perfect unicorn decorations.

Check out the UNICORN TASSLE GARLAND I made to go along with her theme.

How to plan the PERFECT no stress art party for your crafty kiddo for less than $40

Has your kiddo been dreaming of that PERFECT art birthday party? Maybe they are like my older girls and have all of their out of budget party dreams pinned to Pinterest {yes, they really do this!}. After having 4 girls and LOTS of birthday parties I’ve learned a thing or two on how to pull off that perfect art party on a budget!

Disclosure: some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Here’s the a little truth, kids just want to let loose and be kids. They don’t care about fancy decorations, perfectly spaced plates and napkins, banners hung at just the right height. Let’s be honest, that’s for the adults. The kids are there to hang with their friends, eat cake, and have loads of fun, but that’s a whole different blog post.

So how to you plan a kids painting birthday party under $40? Yes, you read that right…. just $40!

First you need to decided how many kids will be coming to your party. Usually I will have a few extra supplies in case a kiddo RSVP’s at the last minute or if one shows up and doesn’t RSVP at all. A typical party we host at our craft studio has about 6-8 kids. Our kids, they usually have about 20…gulp! I know that seems a little ridiculous but they have lots of cousins and I always invite the party goers siblings to stay because I’m a sucker for feelings and don’t want any kids to feel left out. Honestly this is easier for the parents that want to stay for the party anyway.

Snag your FREE checklist below

If you don’t have anything at home here’s everything you will need

Most of these supplies are disposable to make this EXTRA easy and stress free for you!

-8”x10” canvas these come in a pk of 12

- acrylic paint set of 12 2oz paints
- paint brushes these you can toss when the kiddos are done

-paper cups used for holding water to rinse paint brushes

-paper plates used to hold the paint, one for each kiddo

-plastic table covering this you can toss when you’re done

All of these items can be shipped right to your door with amazon prime*, I told you this would be stress free. No going to 5 different stores to track down all the supplies you need only to get home and realize you totally forgot something {I do this all the time!}. Then the day of the party you kick yourself because I never made it back to the store to get that forgotten item. All of this will cost you less than $40, not including taxes or any applicable shipping*

*based off of when this post was published

So how do you host an art party? First, I always tell the parents to put their kiddos in clothes they can get messy. There’s nothing scarier than a pissed off momma because her child got their new clothes ruined by non washable paint. So try to avoid that at all costs. Next, you want to have everything set up before the kids get there. This is so much easier than trying to pass out all the materials with 10 little helpers gathered around. That means, plastic table cloth down, water cups filled half way, canvases, paper plates, and a couple of brushes at each table setting. Let’s talk about paint…paint goes a LONG way, you’d be surprised at how much paint gets wasted at parties like these. Before the party I always squeeze a small amount of each color of paint that’s available onto each child’s paint plate. Trust me, you’ll thank me for this stress saving tip!

I try not to let the kids sit at the table where they will be painting until we are ready to paint. Unless you have some kiddos that are great at following directions I would have the kids avoid the paint table till you’re absolutely ready.

Now for the fun! Once all the party guests are ready let em loose on their canvases. In my experience kids have WAY more fun when they can paint their own thing using the colors they pick out. Usually that’s what we do. You can see the joy it brings them and their creativity coming to life the second that paint brush hits their canvas. And they all make something totally different and it makes my heart so happy! That individuality is so beautiful!

I promise your kiddo will be so happy creating beside all their friends they won’t even notice the fancy decorations aren’t there.