It’s a little surreal to be documenting Henry’s 7th birthday here on the blog! I have shared each and every one of his birthdays and the related projects around this time each year (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th), so it’s a little bit of a tradition for me! And while the parties have become less and less of a crafting marathon and Pinterest-worthy shebang, I still love to bring Henry’s latest obsession to life through small party projects (you can read more about my approach to easy party decor here). This year, Henry requested a Pokemon-themed party at the local gymnastics place, and I embraced the challenge! We used the most famous Pokemon, Pikachu, for a majority of the decor (which I’ll show you another day), but I had a distinct “vision” to make the cupcakes look like Pokeballs. Well, I was shocked when I couldn’t find a ready-made tutorial or printable on Pinterest for exactly what I was looking for, so I set out to come up with one myself. The result are these adorable and oh-so-easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes that truly stole the show!

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

My vision was a pretty simple concept. Cupcakes with lots of red frosting on top could serve as the red top half of the iconic Pokeball, and white wrappers with the signature black dot could finish off the look…

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

And sure enough, once I paired these ready-made cupcakes with the wrappers, we had Pokeball cupcakes ready for the party!

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

Supplies Needed

Here is what you need to make your own Pokeball Cupcakes!

  • Cupcakes with LOTS of bright red frosting – I like to order cupcakes from a local grocery store. Not only do they taste and look so much better, but it’s reeeeaaallly hard to get true red frosting on your own!
  • CardstockWhite and black
  • Craft glue and roller adhesive – You certainly don’t have to use both, but I found it best to use the glue to assemble the wrapper pieces and the roller adhesive to tape the wrappers shut around the cupcakes.
  • E-cutter machine such as a Cricut Explore or Silhouette – Note: I have a Cricut Explore and therefor used Cricut Design Space for this project. The concept can likely be adapted using whichever e-cutter machine/software you have and prefer, or could be done by hand if you make templates via the same concept.

Designing the Pokeball Wrapper

The Pokeball cupcake wrapper is not an image you will find in the Design Space Library. I used a combination of the Stripe Cupcake Wrapper (#M13ED921 from the Confetti + Sprinkles cartridge) and some basic circle shapes to create the design. Here is how I did it…

Place the Stripe Cupcake Wrapper Design onto your canvas (below, top). Then, ungroup the two layers and send the white layer to the back (below, bottom).

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

Before moving on, duplicate the black wrapper layer and set it aside (we will need it later). Next, you are going to use one of the black layers to slice the top border off the white wrapper. To do that, select the black layer and click the Unlock icon on the bottom left handle (below, top). This will unlock the proportions of the image so you can better manipulate it to fit the white wrapper. With the black layer unlocked, change its size against the white layer until you get a very even white strip the whole length of the wrapper (below, bottom).

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

Once you are satisfied with the border shape and size, select both the white and black layer and click Slice in the bottom right of the screen (below, top). Once you delete out all the excess images leftover from the Slice function (not shown), you will be left with a rounded border that will fit perfectly on top of the cupcake wrapper (below, bottom).

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

With the border created, bring the other black layer back onto the canvas. Before moving on, swap the colors to better represent a Pokeball: make the wrapper white and the border black. If you layer the black border over the white wrapper, it should be a perfect match!

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

Next, you need to add the iconic black dot to the wrappers. Start by adding three circles to your canvas via the Shapes menu (along the left size of the screen). Make two of them white and one black (below).

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

Layer the three circles and adjust the spacing and sizing until it looks the the dot on the Pokeball (below, top). You may need to adjust the size of all three circles to match the proportions of the wrapper (not shown) if you started with really big or really small circles. Once you have the sizing of the three circles right, set the top (smallest) white circle aside. Then move the black circle to the black band, and the bottom white circle to the white wrapper (below, bottom). Use the Center commands (under the Align tool) to get the dot perfectly aligned on each band.

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

Before welding the circles to each band, first check the spacing one last time. To do that, group the black elements together (below, top). Place the black band along the top of the white wrapper, aligning the top edges. If necessary, adjust the white circle to perfectly frame the black dot (below, bottom).

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

Once you are satisfied with the placement of both the black dot and the white dot, use the Weld tool to make them into solid pieces. First, select the black circle and the black band, and click Weld from the bottom right corner menu. Then repeat with the white wrapper and the larger white dot. If you’ve never used the Weld tool, you can learn more in my tutorial here.

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

Once you have welded the dots to the wrapper pieces (making them one solid cut), you should be left with three pieces to cut: a white wrapper, a black band, and a single white dot. Cut out as many as you need from black and white cardstock!

Assembling the Pokeball Cupcake Wrappers

I was in a bit of can’t-stop-for-pictures party prep mode, so I hope you’ll forgive me that I don’t have detailed photos of how these wrappers come together!

Using craft glue or roller adhesive (I found the glue better for this step!), attach the black band to the white wrapper, then glue the white dot on top of the black band. Easy peasy! Once you hook one end of the wrapper into the other, you are left with simple little Pokeball cupcake wrappers!

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

TIP! I have found that no matter how much I measure, research and compare to store-bought cupcake wrappers, my cupcake wrappers are always too big for the cupcakes. Each and every time I make them and assemble them as directed, the wrappers sit waaayy too loose and the cupcakes slide right out the bottom. If this happens to you, don’t freak out…you don’t need to re-make your wrappers!

When you assemble the wrappers, don’t even bother hooking them together (as they are shown above). Once you have your cupcakes done and ready, simply place a line of roller adhesive along one short edge of the white wrapper (below, left), then carefully wrap the wrapper around the cupcake until it fits just right. Gently press down on the adhesive to adhere it to the other side of the cupcake wrapper…and voila! You have perfectly fitting wrappers!

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

I’ve mentioned a few times recently that cupcakes have become my go-to solution for party cake. Not only are there a million fun and creative ways to dress them up, but they don’t require cutting or forks! After adding some sort of wrappers (always do this at home because it can get messy!), I usually load the cupcakes back into the plastic trays they came in for transport. Once at the party, I lay them out on platters for a festive display!

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

The kids got the biggeset kick out of these Pokeball cupcakes, but I’m not sure the parents did! While they looked adorable, all that red frosting was quite the mess! Oh well – that’s what birthdays are all about, right?!?!

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

I have a few more Pokemon-themed projects I’ll share down the road. For now though, if you have a Pokemon-loving kid in your home, this is certainly a fun project to try!

Get ready for any Pokemon-themed party with these adorable and easy DIY Pokeball Cupcakes!

See You Soon!
Megan