Cupcake Box tutorial.

Cupcake Box Tutorial

Supplies needed:

3 in diam. paper mache box,

½ 3 in diam. Styrofoam ball,

patterned paper,

hot glue gun with lots of glue sticks,

satin seam binding ribbon,

sewing machine or needle and thread,

Big shot and dies,

and a combination of various punches, inks, stamps, and embellishments.

Cover your box:

If your paper is a color that does not work well with the color of the box, you may want to paint or cover it with coordinating paper like cupcake #1. If your paper does work well you can skip this step if you like.

Make your base:

Cut two strips of paper for your cupcake wrapper. One will be 2.5 in by 12 in and the other will be 2.5 in by 6 inches. (Cupcake #1 had a 3 in tall base but I think the 2.5 in base looks better.) With a scoring blade or score board, score your paper every ¼ in. (Tip: score every ½ on one side then flip and score the remaining ¼ in scores on other side. This will help thefolding process go more smoothly.) Now fold back and forth then join two strips together then close the loop with the pattern that you want on the outside. Place box, with lid on, upside down on table and place wrapper around the box. Now comes the tricky part. With one hand form the wrapper so that the ends facing you are slightly closer together causing the paper to flair on the opposite end. Now with the other hand use a hot glue gun to adhere the wrapper to the box. Hold until glue dries. Cover a scrap piece of cardboard with coordinating paper then use Big shot and scallop circles #2 die from Sizzix. Use hot glue again to adhere to bottom of cupcake. Use a decorate strip to cover the glue around the base.

Make candle:

Role a piece of coordinating paper cut 2.5 in x 1.5 in to make a 2.5 in tall candle. Glue closed. Use the wing segment for the Two Step Bird bunch to make a flame. Add a small strip of paper to flame. Cover with glitter then use hot glue to glue in top of candle.

Frosting:

You will need about 5-6 feet of ruffled ribbon. Box #1 uses satin ribbon. I needed 15 feet to make 5 feet of ribbon. Box #2 used 6 feet of ruffled seam binding in crumb cake, 18 feet unruffled. You can do this by hand by running a basting stitch down the middle then ruffling it. OR use your sewing machine! I turned my tension all the way to 9 and maximized my stitch length. The machine ruffled the ribbon for me! All machines may vary so play with yours to find the settings that work for you.

Glue ½ Styrofoam ball to the lid of the box. Use a pen in top of ball to make a hole for your candle. Glue Candle in hole. Now glue the ruffled ribbon the ball. Let the ribbon lie as it likes. Do not force it to lie flat on the stitching. It will naturally want to twist around so let it. Fallow along the edge of the box if you wish to cove it or start at the edge of the foam if your box is painted or covered if you like (see box #1.) This is why I needed more length in ruffled ribbon for box #2.

Decorate! Use buttons, punches, silk roses, pearls or anything you wish to make sprinkles on your cupcake .Be careful not to make it look to yummy or someone may actually try to eat it. Have fun making your own confectionary masterpieces.