Paper Cupcake

Originally designed by Leah Fung from Scrapbooks Etc and rewritten and modified by Jess Moyer

Materials and Tools:
Paper trimmer
Craft knife
Ruler
Pencil
2 double sided coordinating pieces of patterned paper
Dressmakers pins or hot glue
Foam (florist or regular craft foam)
Embroidery floss or tissue paper

Instuctions:
1. Cut the foam into a cylinder as tall and as wide as desired. In order to form the wrapper you will need a circle. The circle’s diameter must be slightly larger than the total of the heightx2 and the width of your cylinder. For example if the cylinder is 2 inches high and 2 inches wide the circle must be slightly bigger than 6 inches in diameter. This guide line means you won’t be restricted to one size cupcake. Fold the circle in half four times and then open it up into a circle again. There should be 16 creases in the paper. More folds may be desired.
2. Create an accordion fold in the cupcake wrapper by folding from one crease to another. When the folding is done place the foam cylinder in the middle of the folded circle. Bend the side of the wrapper to fit around the cupcake. This can be made slightly easier if you trace around the cylinder gently with a craft knife. To attach the paper to the foam you may use hot glue only with florist foam. If using other craft foam, the dressmakers pins are recommended because the hot glue will melt the foam.
3. Once the wrapper is attached, add either ribbon or a strip of paper around the top of the foam cylinder to hide it from view on the finished cupcake. Now you’re ready to attach the icing. The icing is made with thin strips of paper. The exact width and length can vary. I used ¼ inch wide by 2 inch long strips. Curl these around a pencil. To give it a more varied appearance curl some with the first pattern of the paper facing up and the rest with the second pattern of the paper facing up. Put these curls into the cupcake base with straight pins. Leah used much long and bigger curls (3/8 wide by 12 long).
4. You can decorate the top of the cupcake in many ways. I decided to make a candle. I used the same paper as the wrapper and cut a rectangle. The height and width will vary depending on the size of your cupcake but it should be much longer than it is wide. Apply some adhesive all along one long side and then with the help of the pencil curl the rectangle into a tube. To create the flame, use either some tissue paper or embroidery floss. Put adhesive along the inside top of the candle then insert the flame material. The embroidery floss can wrapped a few times around two fingers then cut only one end. Put the cut end into the top of the candle.

Let me know if you have any questions or need some clarification.

Here’s the link to Leah Fung’s original tutorials which can be downloaded in a PDF.
http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/takeaclass/paper-cupcake-decoration_ss1.html