Cupcakes

Good morning! Every time Robin and I talk about what cards to post next, this birthday card comes up as a must. So, I decided to post it this morning. I have to say that Robin and I make a lot of birthday cards. We figure that the soldiers often need birthday cards and there is always someone we know who is celebrating a special day. Therefore, on a recent trip to Michael's Craft Store, when we saw the new Martha Stewart Cupcake stamp and punch combination, we had to buy it. While Martha Stewart Crafts has always made a basic cupcake punch, this new tool comes with three clear stamps as well as a punch. Therefore, you can stamp your image on cardstock and then punch it out using the punch. The first stamp is just the bottom of the cupcake, the second is just the top decorated with sprinkles. Finally, the last stamp is the combination- the entire cupcake which has the bottom wrapper and the sprinkled top. 

For this card, I chose to use the stamp that only has the bottom wrapper, as I wanted to use brightly colored papers to make the tops. When I made this card, we only had darker ink pads and I did not want to stamp the top of the cupcake in black or navy blue etc. Therefore, the first thing I did was stamp the bottom wrapper using Archival Jet Black ink on a white piece of cardstock. I then punched it out using the punch portion of the tool. Next, I selected various colors of Bazzil Paper. As you can see from the card, I used different pinks/reds/coral. I chose some that were regular matte paper and others that had a gorgeous sheen to them. Finally, the top cupcake came from a random piece of patterned paper that happened to look like sprinkles. After I picked the papers I wanted, I stamped each one out with the punch. I then trimmed the colored pieces to the size I wanted and attached them with tape to a bottom. Once the cupcakes had been assembled, I attached 6 to each card. Next, I used the Stampendous 'Hey There Cupcake' Clear Stamp set to put sprinkles on the bottom 5 cupcakes. I used A Recollection's small pearl on the top cupcake for a cherry. Finally, I used the same cupcake stamp set to put the sentiment on the bottom of the card. 

Although this card does have many steps, each one is quite easy thanks to the new Martha Stewart Stamp and Punch tool. This punch comes in other shapes including a butterfly, bird, snowflake, flower and a leaf. They are quite easy to use and alleviate the difficult task of cutting out stamped images.