Thursday, May 21, 2015

Circus "Big-Top" Centerpiece



Wanted: A sturdy Circus Centerpiece to top the cupcake tower at a Circus Birthday Party. Here's my step-by-step DIY with directions and photos for the Circus "Big-Top" Tent. This centerpiece can easily be adapted to other themes. Have fun crafting!


First, I did a practice tent. I downloaded the Circus Tent Printable, printed it on white tag board, cut it out, and glued the sides together. I set the roof on top, and everything fit! It seemed a little flimsy, so I decided to find something for the base to add more stability.

After looking through my pantry, I discovered that a cardboard 18 oz. Quaker Oats canister was the perfect size!!


I removed the roof and carefully slid the tent on, starting from the bottom of the canister. I then used a Sharpie Marker to mark the bottom edge of the tent all the way around the canister. I wanted the tent a little taller than the template, so I left the bottom flaps in place as I marked. I'll figure out how to cover up the dotted lines later!



Last, I cut the canister on the line I had made using a combination of knife and sharp scissors.


Now it was time to download the colored version of the tent and cut out the parts.


Instead of cutting out the doorway of the tent, I used markers to draw and color a curtain. I colored the remaining part of the doorway blue to create depth


This time, I glued the tent parts to the canister with tacky glue. Notice that the top of the tent is at the cut edge of the canister.



Since this was an outside party, I wanted the centerpiece to fit securely onto my Wilton 4-Tier Stacked Cupcake and Dessert Tower. I certainly didn't want it to blow away! With experimenting, I found out that a cardboard tube (from toilet tissue) fit perfectly over the elevated circle on the dessert tower. 

I centered the cardboard tube on the bottom of the canister and drew a circle around its edge. 



I then then drew 4 lines across the diameter of the circle, dividing it into eighths. I cut along the lines and folded the cut edges to the inside. 



I turned the canister over and glued the cut shapes to the outside of the cardboard tube.


And now for the the top piece: 

I cut the top out and glued it together where indicated. The fold lines on the flaps were a little "off" and did not quite match the tent, so I adjusted the folds before gluing to the tent sides. When the glue was dry, I made a tiny hole in the center for the flag.



I cut the flag, folded it, glued it to a round toothpick, and added a star. I then attached it through the hole in the top using tacky glue.


It's time for embellishments! 

I glued small red and white pom poms to the folded edge of the top. 



A strip of yellow felt was glued to the bottom edge of the tent to cover the original flap lines.



Sparkly stars (from Dollar Tree) were glued to the yellow felt. There were not enough small stars, so I used small stars as templates and cut more from the large stars in the package.





Bring on the animals!

Graham crackers were cut into small rectangles. Animal crackers and gumballs were then attached to the graham crackers using frosting. When placed around the tent, the animals gave a more realistic touch!



Here is the finished Circus "Big-Top" Centerpiece!! It looks great with the cupcakes and circus picks!



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Circus Big-Top Centerpiece


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