Adventures in all things food: Create Your Own St. Patrick's Day Cupcake Wrappers and Toppers

You might have noticed that I love decorating cakes and cupcakes here on the blog. Lately I haven't had time to do a full-blown cake and cupcakes give me a simple way to flex my creativity. But, I must spend a fortune on cute little cupcake bobbles. From cute picks and toppers to colorful or themed cupcake papers, it adds up.

AND I have to find a place to store it all. I am pretty much out of room.

So for St. Patrick's Day I couldn't resist creating a fun cupcake, but why not create my own paper wraper and topper? It was easier than I thought with my Silhouette Cameo.

...Oh, and it just also happens to be March, with a paper theme in the Silhouette Challenge. Could this have worked out more beautifully?

I am sure some of the crafters had no problem deciding what to make with paper. But, I was at a loss. I don't scrapbook and I generally work with fabric or fibers. I didn't even have a good stash of scrapbook paper handy.

After I headed into Michael's for paper, I went online to the Silhouette store for options. I found a whole world of shamrocks and lucky sayings. But, I didn't find exactly what I wanted.

Here is where "ungroup" comes in handy.

I found a great cupcake paper pattern - I loved the scalloped edge! Then I found some shamrocks I enjoyed. The cupcake wrappers already were decorated... so I ungrouped them, took off the original embelishments, adjusted the size and orientation of my shamrocks and created a pattern that fit my vision.

And that is where my Silhouette Cameo rocks. I love the possibilities. Maybe soon I will create some wrappers from scratch, but you can always tailor designs to suit your needs.

What do you think?

Something was missing so I layered a stiffer and darker card stock underneath. It didn't take long to cut that out with the cutter as well.

I glued the two layers of the cupcake wrapper together and then taped the back to create a cup. The shamrock toppers were just as easy. I glued them to short lollipop sticks I found in the candy aisle.

With a little tinted buttercream, some white and shamrock sprinkles, I quickly assembled my lucky little confections.

TIP - If you are looking to create a high and well defined frosting swirl on your cupcakes, add a tablespoon of meringue powder as you are mixing your buttercream. It will stay in place and doesn't affect the flavor at all.