Styrofoam cupcake craft - tutorial - dollar store crafts

Here’s a fun and easy cupcake craft that is a perfect project for kids or a girls’ night crafting: a Styrofoam cupcake craft. Use these faux cupcakes as pincushions, or to make party centerpieces, ornaments, or fun home decor accents. Read on for instructions, or watch my tutorial video (made on location at CHA).

Project Materials:

  • Paper cupcake wrapper, on hand or $1
  • Styrofoam ball, $1
  • 1 Sheet of white felt, on hand or $.25
  • Ball-head pins, on hand or $1
  • FloraCraft Tuck & Scribe tool (or a knitting needle), on hand
  • Hot glue (low temp), on hand

Total Cost: $1 and up

styrofoam cupcake craft supplies

About the Supplies: You can find cupcake wrappers at the dollar store, as well as small bags of Styrofoam balls (which are, by the way, the exact same as the ones you can get at the craft store – just cheaper!). Use ball head pins for decoration, or if you like, use plain straight pins with a small bead threaded through the end. Or puffy paint. Whatever you have on hand is good!

FloraCraft foam tools

The Tuck & Scribe tool from FloraCraft  (the one that is poky, kind of like a dentist tool) is what made this project so fun and easy. You can pick up a pack of three tools at Joann Fabrics, or I suspect a knitting needle will work in a pinch.

To Make a Ruffly Cupcake:

1. Glue Styrofoam ball into the cupcake cup with low-temp hot glue.

2. Cut about 20 one-inch circles out of the felt. (You might want to do this step the night before while you are watching your favorite guilty-pleasure TV show!) It’s okay if the circles are not perfectly round, or exactly one inch.

3. With the Tuck end of the Tuck & Scribe tool (or a knitting needle), poke the center of a felt circle into the Styrofoam ball. Continue to poke felt circles into the ball, filling in gaps as you go.

tuck felt circles into styrofoam to make a cupcake

4. When the cupcake is ruffly enough, stick ball head pins in to decorate the cupcake. Add any additional embellishments (such as ribbons or bows) as desired!

Styrofoam cupcake craft - tutorial - dollar store crafts