This post share how I made a DIY birthday cake topper. It’s a simple DIY cake topper using a wood number and is the perfect way to easily accent a plain cake for just a few bucks.

DIY Birthday Cake Topper Using a Wood Number

I’ve been slowly sharing a few of the DIYs I did for Tootie’s little first birthday get together. We only had a handful of local family members over for the gathering, but I obviously couldn’t resist the opportunity to get a little crafty…

I made a simple DIY cake topper using a wood number for her cake. All the effort went into the cake topper, so we bought a cake to put it on 😉 What can I say, I never claimed to be a cook…

If you like this, check out the DIY balloon garland tutorial I posted for this party, as well as the scrapbook paper and yarn DIY party hats!

It was pretty easy and only cost a few bucks. Considering I spent like 50 bucks buying balloons on Etsy, I figured I could save a few by making a cute cake topper.

Here’s what I used:

(This post contains affiliate links. You can read more about that here.)

Wood or MDF number—I used an MDF letter from Michaels, linking similar here, but it’s cheaper if you have a Michaels nearby
DecoArt Americana Acrylic Paint in Lamp Black
DecoArt Americana Decor Metallics in Antique Bronze (also available in the Extreme Sheen formula in a smaller size)
Frogtape or other similar painter’s tape
Small paint brush
Kebab skewers or popsicle sticks and wood glue

And here’s how I made my first birthday cake topper!

Step 1: First I painted the entire number 1 with black acrylic paint. Then I let dry. I love that this paint dries with a very matte finish.

Step 2: Next I added Frogtape to tape off the area I wanted to paint for a “dipped” effect. I used a DecoArt Antique Bronze color I had in my stash that I love—especially with black or white!

The metallic touch of the paint also provides a great contrast to the matte black. I’m all about that contrast.

I did two coats, removing the painter’s tape after the first coat, letting it dry, and reapplying to put on the second coat. This helps keep the line super crisp.

Step 3: I glued two kebab skewers we had to the back of the number. I left plenty of length knowing I could cut it down once we knew what kind of cake we were getting. You could also use a popsicle stick for this.

And here’s the final cake topper. Isn’t it adorable? And for $1! I was so happy with how it turned out, and it looks great on the little cake we got (I don’t bake!).

Share my tutorial for a DIY birthday cake topper on Pinterest!

Yield: 1 Diy Birthday Cake Topper

DIY Birthday Cake Topper

Learn how to make a DIY birthday cake topper. This simple DIY cake topper uses a wood number, and it's an easy way to customize a plain cake for cheap!

Active Time 15 minutes

Additional Time 20 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Materials

Instructions

Paint the entire number with black acrylic paint and let dry.
Tape off the area you want to paint for a "dipped" effect and paint with the Antique Bronze.
I used two coats removing the frog tape after the first coat and reapplying before the second coat to keep the line nice and crisp looking.
Glue two kebab skewers to the back of the number and cut them to the length you need.
That's it!