These itty bitty cinema lightboxes are the perfect cake topper because you can make it say whatever you want! From birthdays to weddings, these little lightbox cake toppers are the perfect fit.
Our birthday is on Thursday!! Woohoo!! We love to celebrate here on AJR by coming up with some fun birthday-related DIYS. And this one might just be my very favorite one ever!!
We recently shared a tutorial for making your own light box. These things have made quite the entrance onto the social media and blog scene this last year. And I have a serious crush on them! When I was whipping up my larger one and had all these materials on hand, I of course thought of doing an even mini-er one. I love tiny things (who doesn’t?) and even though the popular boxes are technically already a mini version of business and cinema signs, I thought we could go even smaller!
So I did! And what better place to put an endlessly interchangeable little sign than on top of a cake? Not only is it a great size for cakes, but it can literally be used for every single occasion ever! Birthdays. Showers. Retirement parties. Graduations. Even weddings! Oh I would LOVE to see one of these on a big, beautiful wedding cake. The great thing about the minimal look is that it goes with every kind of decor or party theme!
Not only is this little cutie infinitely customizable, but it also lights up! YAY! Click through to see how to make the most useful cake topper ever with us!
Materials
- Clear craft plastic //
- White Styrene sheet //
- Black PVC board or Illustration board //
- 1/2″ Letter Stickers //
- Xacto knife //
- Paper cutter //
- Hot glue and gun //
- 1/8″ thick double sided foam tape //
- Battery powered LED light //
Instructions
1. I found this push on light at Dollar Tree which was exciting because most battery powered LED lights are pretty expensive. Place your light onto your black board to get about the size you need. If you use the same light, our measurements for this back piece were: 4 1/4″ x 3 5/8″.
2. Cut out this piece and 5 other pieces from the board. All of our side pieces were 6/8″ wide. The two smaller pieces for the bottom need to leave a space big enough for your finger to go up it to press on the light. Ours measured 6/8″ x 1 1/2″. The longest 3 other pieces should be 1/8″ shorter than the back piece, so that they can be glued on top of it and fit perfectly. So ours were one at 6/8″ x 4″ and two measuring 6/8″ x 3 3/8″.
3. Glue them together as shown in the photo.
4. Place your white sheet on top of the box and flip it over and trace it to get the right measurement. Cut this rectangle out.
5. Make your interchangeable letter pieces. Cut small rectangles from the clear plastic. Ours measured 1″ x .75″. Adhere letter stickers onto them.
6. Cut 4 more pieces of white plastic the length of your front (4 1/4″) and 3/8″ wide.
7. Cut your foam tape into 3 equal sections and cut into 4 strips the same length as these small white pieces. Place two of the tape pieces along the edge of two of the white pieces and the other two right in the middle of the other two white strips.
8. Place these on the front. The two with the tape right along the edge go on the top and bottom. Center the other two between them by using your letter pieces to get the correct placement.
9. You can’t tell super well in the photo, but I hated the way the light looked through the white. You could distinctly see all the little bulbs. It didn’t really illuminate the whole thing as much as draw attention to the bulbs inside. To combat this, I surrounded the light with 4 layers of white tissue paper. This step may be optional for you.
10. Stick your light to the center of the back/black box.
11. Glue your front on top.
Reach up inside it to turn on the light, place it on a cake and shout HOORAY! I just love the endless versatility of this guy. I’m obviously using it for my birthday but I plan on keeping it around for basically every party I throw from here on out! What would you use it for?
