TinselBells

Enjoy a fun and fat-free version of scrumptious cupcakes this Holiday season with my DIY Christmas cupcake card tutorial. This cupcake shaped card is a super cute way to send festive wishes to all your family and friends.

Make your own easy Christmas cupcake card with my free printable templates included on this page. These special looking shaped cards make the perfect festive greeting and can also be used for Holiday invitations as well.

Decorate the completed shaped cards with my printable holly leaf embellishments and use traditional seasonal colors such as red, white and green for that festive look. This easy craft project also makes a fun Christmas activity that kids can join in with too.

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Make a Scrumptious Christmas Cupcake Card With FREE Printable Templates included

This Christmas cupcake card makes a really fun shaped greeting card design for the festive Holiday season.

It can be made as a seasonal group activity - with kids, family or with your crafting friends. It would be great fun to have an area set out with papers you can use for the cupcake frosting and a tub full of items for decorating this paper craft. 

Step 1) Make Your Holiday Cupcake Card Template

You'll find two templates near the end of this article, along with instructions for saving them to your own computer. Use the templates by printing them directly onto some card.

Alternatively you can print them onto paper then glue them to any scraps of cardboard that you have before cutting each piece out. Either way works great.

I do have craft cutting machines and love my Sizzix Big Shot but I still love to use simple cardboard templates for the majority of my shaped cards.

Paper and cutting machines, although quick and easy to use, take away from some of the pleasure I get of making the templates myself. Besides, these Xmas printable card templates are free too.

Step 2) Make the Cupcake Shaped Card

Draw around the whole of the template labeled Template A onto a piece of cardstock. This template provides the entire base for your cupcake shaped card.

I like to use a light color card such as cream, white or a pastel color because that makes it easier when writing a greeting inside. A dark colored card is hard to write on unless you are using special pens or markers.

Draw around the template and cut it out to create your card shape. I like to score across the middle of the card and then fold it in half. Try to line up the bottom edges of the card while folding to make a very neat shape.

Sometimes each card half doesn't align properly, in which case I tend to trim the edges to make it as neat as possible.

Step 3) Start to Add Festive Holiday Color to the Card

Choose some colored paper or card to cover over most of the card front. I've gone for a traditional Christmas green. Whatever color you choose, bear in mind that this color will form the bottom area of cupcake casing or wrapper when the card is complete.

You don't need to cover the entire card front because the cupcake toppings are going to go over the top. You only need to cover about two-thirds of the card front.

I'm very frugal with my card-making papers and like to get as much use as I can out of each sheet. If you're using a green color, you could use any spare pieces to make up your holly leaves.

I recommend using themed Christmas Holiday scrapbook paper if you're unsure of getting color matches on your completed cards. Themed sets take all the hard work out of getting color schemes that work.

Glues and sticky tapes are an essential part of a card-maker's tool-kit. The main glue I use for card-making are the Zig glue pens and that's because they come with a wide variety of nibs.

The broad Zig nibs like this one used above is ideal when sticking large pieces of card and paper. Thin tips are great for applying tiny, flat-backed gems. I've been using Zig glue pens for years and years with my card-making and they help you create a neat finish combined with excellent sticking power.

Step 4) The Cupcake Topping for Your Card

Template B gives you the outer layer of your cupcake topping. Draw around this template part onto your piece of card or paper and then glue it over the top of your card front.

When you choose a colored card or paper for this section, bear in mind that you only end up seeing a small strip of this color around the outside because the middle part of this is completely covered with another color.

I choose a Christmas stocking red for this area because it will match up with the Holly berry on the finished card and the darker color lends itself well to being on the outside.

Step 5) Add the Cupcake Frosting to the Card Front

Use Template C to make the inner cupcake card topping or frosting. A large portion of this card or paper will be visible on the finished card, so I like to choose something special for this part.

In this case I've opted for pretty white card which has a raised silver color design that looks like snowflake sparkles. This not only gives a wonderful pattern but also provides some texture too. Cards without any texture can easily end up looking flat and bland.

I opted for a white color frosting because green frosting doesn't make for something that makes my mouth water.

Think about cupcake frosting colors that you see and that look good in real life - whites, creams, browns, pinks. These are the colors that will generally work best. Because we're doing a Christmas theme a white or cream is going to be a good option with the rest of the color scheme.

Step 6) Add the Holly and Berry Decoration

With this pattern template, you'll find the addition of some holly leaf shapes and some berry shapes that you can use. The holly decoration is the part of this design that really shows it as being uniquely for the Xmas season.

I used some textured paper to make the holly leaves and mounted them onto a layer of darker green card so they are in a two-tone green.

Instead of using the circle shape to make berries, I used a red button which works well. I like to add in different textures to card designs where I can to add extra interest. When I first started card-making, everything I made was flat which made the cards look rather lifeless.

It's good to have a balance of both flat and raised or textured surfaces. You can buy textured papers or you can make your own using embossing machines. I've got the Sizzix Big Shot cutting machine that allows me to use some gorgeous Cuttlebug designs.

About Embossing Your Christmas Cupcake Card

Embossing (making a raised pattern) looks best on thick papers with a medium to strong color. Heavily patterned papers usually don't work well with embossing. You can enhance the raised design with craft chalks, inks or glitter to make the design really pop.

My favorite, and most used, embossing plate of all time is the D'vine Swirls Embossing Folder by Cuttlebug. Do I have a Cuttlebug? No, I don't. I own a Sizzix Big Shot which also works with Cuttlebug embossing folders. This swirls one is the one that I often use for cupcake cards because it looks very good as frosting. In my Christmas example, I've used it for the Holly leaves.

The Completed Christmas Cupcake Card

This is my finished Christmas card. I've been making cupcake cards for many years but only recently thought to make a Christmas themed one. I really like how it turned out with the holly decoration and they are so much fun to make.

You can have a real blast thinking about your cupcake frosting and perhaps adding dots of glitter, flat-backed gems, mini buttons or circle stickers to make sprinkles.

Your FREE Xmas Cupcake Card Printable Templates

Template Free for all Personal and Non-Commercial Use

Just below is an image of the templates you need for this project - there are two. Click on each image for the enlarged design that you can then save to your own computer. These are standard .jpg files that all computers should be able to recognize. They are safe to download and use.

After clicking on an image below, you'll need to right-click on it with your mouse, pen or trackpad to get the 'Save Image' command so you can then save it to your own computer. As there are two templates, you'll need to repeat this process to save each one.

Printable Template 1:

Printable Template 2:

Print these designs straight onto card and cut out to make templates. Alternatively, print them onto paper and then glue the designs onto any spare pieces of card that you have which is a good way to recycle and use cereal packets and cardboard containers.

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Page Last Updated: March 08th, 2019