pixie lauren, reporting for duty! :)

...and here is my very first project made with the debut pixie dust paperie kit, "FALL IN LOVE" which goes on sale tuesday, october fifth:

you can see i have used tresa black's fabulously artsy cupcake tutorial a second time, and i will again emphasize that she is called the stamp goddess for a reason, people!!! if you want to learn how to do *anything* paper-crafty, you should definitely start with her tutorials! :)

there are lots more photos on the pixie dust blog, and a bit about how i adapted the "recipe" from making my first cupcake to fit the ingredients that are in the kit. (for starters, you can see i've diecut flowers from the gorgeous melissa frances patterned paper; i used some exclusive pixie seam binding as my dark chocolate ganache; and i swapped out the cherry for a fabulous maya road "icing flower" on top!)

i do have a couple of little tips that really helped to make this project go smoothly:

1. those compasses we all had in 8th grade are INVALUABLE if you need to, say, draw a 2" circle centered inside a 6" circle. i think i owe my geometry teacher an apology, actually; it turns out i did use something he taught us in real life! :)

2. it is very verrrrrrrry slightly possible to see the edges of raw chipboard inside the cupcake wrapper, a fact which will only bother crazy people such as myself. if you happen to BE a crazy person such as myself, draw an 1/8" ring of sharpie around the top and bottom. problem solved!

3. OH HOW I LOVE YOU, scor-it board!!! the cupcake wrapper needs to be folded in accordian pleats every half inch on two 12-inch strips of patterned paper. do 1/2" intervals on one side of the paper, then flip it and do intermediate 1/2" intervals on the other, and the thing practically folds itself!!!

do be sure to check out the pixie blog, because there will be an amazing project from each of the designers every day until the big debut on tuesday!!! ♥