Cupcake Wrapper Series: Wrapping it Up!

Before I close this series on Cupcake Wrappers, I thought that it is important to include some information that I was not able to put in my video tutorials. My version of the "Cut-and-Print" technique is just one of the many ways of simulating the Cricut Imagine, but with equipment that you already have. I continue to learn of other ways of achieving the same results. You are welcome to share your experience and opinions with me as I am open to all advice and suggestions on how I can improve on my techniques.

To recap, the "cut-and-print" cupcake wrappers tutorial is basically:

Step 1: Print outline, Cut wrapper and Adhere over printout.

Step 2: Print full image on adhered cutouts

Step 3: Assemble

Having said all that, here are a few additional tips:

Tip 1: To save ink, when you make the first print that will be used as the base to stick the cutouts on, instead of printing the entire image, you can just print an outline. There are 2 ways to do this:

(A) After you have designed your wrapper and save the image, Duplicate the layer. On the layer copy, right-mouse click and Select Pixels. On the top menu, choose Select>Modify>Expand. In the video tutorial, I entered 10 to enlarge the image by 10 pixels. This is the layer with the full image.

To create an outline only page, Duplicate the layer that you have just created with the expanded image. On this duplicate layer, choose Select Pixels, then Select>Modify>Contract and enter 15. Press Delete and you will be left with only the outline of the image. 

Toggle the layers by closing or opening the eyeball to view and print the required pages.

(B) If Method (A) seems too involved, you can always Duplicate the image layer and then use the Eraser Tool and delete off the inside of the wrapper, leaving only an outline. I prefer Method (A) as it leaves a cleaner outline.

Tip 2:  

Before I print the final image on the cutouts, I fill the empty slit rectangle with the Eyedropper and Paint Bucket tools. That way, I can avoid printing out an empty/white box if I did not position the cutout precisely over the outline. You may also use the Magic Wand tool to delete the rectangle.

Tip 3: 

I used the wrapper size of 7.7" x 2.6" for the standard cupcake. You can always adjust the size to fit any cupcakes that you are baking. For Mini Cupcakes, I found that 5.25" x 2" was perfect for the scallop edge wrapper.

For this wrapper, I used Lettering Delight's Flower Power graphic set.

Tip 4:

Let your imagination fly with these cupcake wrappers. You don't even have to print on them if you are out-of-time. Just stick some pattern paper onto the mat and cut or let the kids have a go at them. I found that my kids were thrilled to decorate their own wrappers. That will be a great idea for a kid's party where the little guests get to decorate their wrappers themselves. All you have to do is cut a bunch of wrappers out with Make-the-Cut and the Cricut and let the kids get creative with them.

Tip 5: 

In Make-the-Cut, the Beziar Wrap tool can be used to create unique cupcake wrappers cuts. I have not personally tried this but a long discussion can be found on the MTC forum.

I hope that you have enjoyed this cupcake wrapper series. If I missed out a step or two, do know that it was not intentional. I have designed my tutorials so that it is as easy to follow as possible. If you think that I went too fast, just click on the pause button. ;-) While the steps may look intimidating at first, it is actually a very simple concept. It takes about 10mins to create the cut and the print files and the cutouts. Once you have the basic wrapper shapes, just save the file and you can have your own personalised cupcake wrappers any time you want. Just change the patterns, graphic image or text, and you are good to go. Most importantly, have fun with these wrappers.  Feel free to leave your question anywhere on my blog and I will try to help.

Finally, to close my first series of tutorials, I thought that it would be most appropriate to end it with my first giveaway. Check back on Monday (Sept 27) to find out what I have in store for you and to enter your name in the giveaway. Here's a hint:

 Enjoy your weekend!

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Cupcake Wrappers Video Tutorial 3: Cut-and-Print with Circular Text

In the previous video tutorial, I mentioned that for the text to look right when cut and printed on the cupcake wrapper, it has to be on a circular path. This video tutorial will show you how I do that in Adobe Photoshop.

The images used in the video are Lettering Delights' Thanksgiving Art and Funky Owl. The paper is Owl I Want for Christmas.

Enjoy!

Cupcake Wrappers Video Tutorial 2: Cut-and-Print Personalised Cupcake Wrappers

 

For this tutorial, I used the scallop edge wrapper from LD's Provincial Princess Cupcake Wraps and paper and graphics from the Harajuku Collection.

I will show you how I extract the shape of the wrapper and replace the color pattern with a LD paper. I will also show you how to add graphics to the wrapper. Even though I added text to the wrapper in the video, please note that for the text to look right, it should follow the contour of the wrapper (i.e.circular text). That will be in another tutorial.

Enjoy the following video tutorial and let me know if you manage to make some of your own personalized cupcake wrappers. I would love to see what my readers come up with.

Cupcake Wrappers Video Tutorial 1: How to "Cut-and-Print" LD Cupcake Wrappers

In the following video tutorial, I used Adobe Photoshop and this image from LD's Provincial Princess cupcake wrap graphic set:

Even though I had used Adobe Photoshop in the tutorial, any other graphics editor with similar tools should work too.

  

There are basically 3 parts to the tutorial: 

Step1 : Measure the size of the wrapper in Photoshop

Step2: Trace and Cut in Make-the-Cut

Step 3: Adhere cutout over printed image and print again.

The most important part of the process is making the measurements. When MTC traced the wrapper, the contour of the curved part is not the same as that of the printed image. The cutout is more curved than the printed image. Adjustments to the "curve-angle" has to be made by unlocking the aspect ratio and entering the dimensions of the wrapper manually.

I also enlarged the wrapper image before adhering the cutout over the printed image because:

(a) it helps as a guide when I position the cutout over it.

(b) it ensures that the whole cutout will be printed on. 

If I leave the image as-is (without enlarging the size), I risk not putting the cutout in the exact position over the image because it is hard to layer it when I can't see the image on the bottom of the cutout. If the cutout is the exact same size as the printed image, more often than not, the ink will miss the border of the cutout and will thus leave a white unprinted edge around the wrapper cutout.

I chose this Lettering Delights image to use in my tutorial because it is a very basic design. The idea is essentially the same for the other LD wrapper graphics. It may take a little bit of adjustments but the concept is the same- measure in PS, cut in MTC, then print again in PS.

Once the basic steps have been figured out, it is really simple to go a step further and personalize these wrappers. Tomorrow I will show you how I did just that. 

Cupcake Wrappers

If there is any good excuse to "cut-and-print" it has to be for these cupcake wrappers. I've long noticed that Lettering Delights carries many cupcake wrappers in different prints in their store. I've even bought and downloaded a couple but I've never taken the time to use them. The instructions that accompanied each download required that I print and cut them out. All I could think of was that it would be such a drag to have to cut all of these by hand. And then it hit me...I could (Cri)cut these out using the "faux-magine" a.k.a. "cut-and-print" method!

So I finally opened my copy of LD Provincial Princess cupcake wrappers graphic set that I had downloaded many moons ago. With the same method as illustrated in my video tutorial here, I traced the wrappers into MTC.

I probably spent too much time tweaking the dimensions in both Photoshop and MTC but the final results were definitely worth it. I was happy that I didn't have to spend all that time hand-cutting and the kids were happy that they got to eat cupcakes.

I will have a tutorial up tomorrow that will show you how I did this and on Wednesday you will see how you can even personalize each cupcake wrapper with just the basic wrapper shape from LD.

Stayed tuned!