Did you know Carnival Day is coming up? It’s February 26th of every year. I didn’t know it either, but it is! Celebrate a birthday with this carnival-inspired cake topper, made with those plastic letters commonly seen as refrigerator magnets.

Materials needed: Alphabet letters(I found mine at the dollar store, and they didn’t have the magnets in them, but if they did you can pop them out), a dremel, bright colored pipe cleaners, pom poms, glue,  striped straws, 12″ bamboo skewers.

Step 1: Using a /8″ drill bit on a dremel, carefully drill tiny holes at the top left and right sides of each letter. You may want to do a test run on a letter you won’t be using. Be careful to secure the plastic letter before drilling it or it may go shooting across the room. If the letter has interior edges (H, for example), be sure to drill those too. *If you don’t have access to a dremel, you could simply hot glue gun the letters to the pipe cleaners.*

Step 2: Thread one pipe cleaner through the letters of “Happy.” Thread a second pipe cleaner through “Birthday.”

Step 3: Twist the right side of the two pipe cleaners together and bend them down.

Step 4: Add a little dab of glue to the ends of the pipe cleaners, and insert into a straw. Repeat steps 3 and 4 with the left side, making sure that the lower level of pipe cleaner hangs down below the upper level.

Step 5: Glue a pop-pom to the top of each straw.

Step 6: (not shown) Slip the two straws over two 12″ bamboo skewers, which you can then stick into the cake.

PS: Wouldn’t it be fun to send your guests home with a big, red foam clown nose as a favor?

Photography by Tim Gibson