These are not too hard to make, especially if you start out with these pre-made cardboard cupcake boxes like I did. I've seen them at both Michaels and JoAnn's. Fist, paint them with white acrylic paint. Next, rip up all sorts of fabric scraps then mix up a batch of Golden Harvest Universal Wheat Paste (it's basically fancy paper mache mix that smells pleasant).
Just like those happy pinata-making days of childhood, submerge your fabric scraps in the paste and smoosh them onto the cupcake form. Be sure to cover your work surface before you start! When it's done, it'll look something like this:
The texture, as you can see, is wet and glossy. Once it's dried, it will look like this:
If you want to get a more "ragged" look in some places (as opposed to the glued-down look), you can still glue scraps to your cupcake after it dries. And this is when you get to add a ton of dimension and oomph with ink! Any ink seems to work just fine, but Tim Holtz distress ink works especially well. I also used Colorbox chalk ink and I applied all of it with a make-up sponge.
Once you've added ink, you're ready to embellish! Glue on flowers, lace, stamped images or whatever else your little heart desires. Here are how the other two of my trio turned out:
The quote on this one, "There is never an awkward time for cake," is a totally classic one-liner I heard my boss say after cake was distributed at the end of a staff meeting that had gotten a bit heated. My boss was absolutely right: cake = peace.
This was such a fun project and Simon Says Stamp is a fantabulous place to get all sorts of crafty supplies in one go. Here is what I used to bring my cupcakes to life:
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Remember that you can enter the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge every week yourself! You could win $50 to Simon Says Stamp! Just upload your project that follows the weekly theme and you're entered in. Wa-hoo! And hey-- inspire others with your cool projects at the same time. It's a win-win...kind of like cake and goo.
