Recycled Cardboard Cupcake Coozies

Tomorrow is my monthly mommy meet-up. Every month we get together, let the kiddlets frolic and eat snacks. Last month I brought a batch of cake pops and this month I thought I would go with plain old cupcakes. The cupcakes might be plain, but the custom cupcake wrappers are not.


I have made cupcake toppers a bazillion times and decided today for I Love to Create I would spice things up. It all started with my new issue of Green Craft Magazine and a project called From Trash to Treasure: Embellishments From Boxes by Lisa Guerin. Tune in Monday for a full magazine review (it's more like a book than a magazine) and a chance to win your own copy!


SUPPLIES
Collage Pauge Instant Decoupage Medium
Scissors
Pictures
Circle Paper Punch
Boxes (I used cereal, cake mix and coke)
Sizzix Big Shot
Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Cupcake Holder, Ruffle


REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE
Cardboard piles up around my house. Sure I recycle it like a good girl, but for my custom cupcake wrappers I thought I would revamp them. Cut your boxes open and measure to fit for your Big Shot Machine.


ADORN
Decorate your boxes with scraps of paper or scrap booking paper like I did. I used a Circle punch to cut out pink circles and a smaller punch to cut out circles of photographs of all the kids in my mommy group. Using Collage Pauge I adorned my boxes. I found it was best to decoupage on the side of the box without print. Plus I kind of like seeing the print inside my cupcake wrappers.


DRY
Let your boxes dry completely. Trust me on this, it will get ruined running it through your machine damp I know from experience. Being the impatient gal I am I put my boards in the oven at 175 for 30 minutes to speed the drying time.


BIG SHOT
I lined my boxes up with the cutting tool on the Big Shot to be sure my pictures would show on the cupcake wrapper. The Big Shot is my new fave craft tool all you do is crank the handle and the pieces roll right through with a perfect die cut waiting for you at the end. The cupcake wrapper is one of many options they have (I already invested in flowers).


CINCH IT UP
The Big Shot instructions call for using 3 small brads. 1) I did not have any brads 2) These cupcakes were going to be around little kids who love to swallow things like brads. All that being the said I decided to use a needle and hot pink embroidery thread to stitch the wrapper together. The bottom of the wrapper just has fold tabs.


CUPCAKES
I made up my cupcake recipe. I wanted something pink to match my wrappers, so I invented my own Pink Lemonade Cupcakes. I bought Lemon Cake Mix and subbed in Pink Lemonade concentrate for the water amount the box called for. I added red food coloring until a pink color was achieved.


I also used a can of store bought vanilla icing and mixed in the remainder of my pink lemonade concentrate. This made it a little runny so I added powdered sugar until it was thick again. I also added red food coloring to make the icing pink.


I baked the cupcakes in some fun polka dotted cupcake liners from Bake it Pretty. All that was left to do was sprinkle with pink sugar crystals.


The cupcakes are tart, but delish and most importantly look fab. I can't wait to show all the mommy's in my group tomorrow.


Just because you don't have a Big Shot, does not mean you can't join in the fun. Draw your own design onto a cardboard box and create a custom wrapper of your very own.