Saturday, January 17, 2009

A Cupcake Birthday

Yesterday was my sweet cupcake's (husband/best friend) birthday. Being short on gift ideas, I was happy to find the Art Blanche chipboard cupcake blank album at Ben Franklin Crafts (where else?). I decided that this five chipboard page undecorated album would make a good photo card mini-album. Using mostly paper from DCVW (Sweet Stack 4x6 and Glitter Stack 4x6), I easily traced the parts for the cupcake liners (to cover front and back of each page). To do the candles I used Stickles glitter glue (yellow and orange) for the flame and assorted scrap papers for the candles. For the frosting I found that plain white glue and pastel glitters (Martha Stewart or Doodlebug) gave the right sparkle. I added Bits and Pieces small gold beads and pastel seed beads to the front cupcake for a more dimensional look. The paper for the front of the card was from Imaginisce and it was crimped (before cutting it out) to give it a realistic baking cup look. I used Merikan double stick tape on only the sides and bottom of the cupcake liner pieces so that a pocket is formed on each page for storing photos or memorbilia from birthday celebrations. I intend to decorate the pages further with photos and captions. The only difficult part of making this card/album was waiting for the Stickles to dry (overnight) so that I could work on the next page.
It was a happy coincidence that Jenny and Joy demonstrated decorating a giant cupcake on the Joy of Crafting (OC 16 Sunday 6:30) this week. I knew as soon as I saw the cake pan that it was the perfect one to use to make my cupcake a cupcake. The cake turned out well despite a few blemishes on the cake bottom, so I covered them with the crimped foil. I guess I should have used the Wilton release spray or really greased the pan heavily. I used Pilsbury cake mixes (chocolate for the top and strawberry for the bottom). The strawberry cake was delicious, moist, and pretty; but it almost overflowed so if you use this brand be sure to fill the pans about 1-1/2" from the top like Jenny advised. Maybe it was the cake mix, but my cake was done much sooner than the time recommended on the show, so watch and test your cupcake because your oven maybe hotter. (Click on the photos to see the details.)
Thank you to Kristen for reading and commenting on my blog. It is really good for my ego to know that there are readers out there who are enjoying what I write. Right now I am working on our first online newsletter and Valentine's Day projects, so I hope that you'll come back to see what's new.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I really love the cupcake album...it is soo cute! You're really creative. I hope you don't mind if I use some of your ideas. I like to search the internet for ideas to incorporate into my own designs. The Wilton cupcake pan looks awesome. I have to go find one.