Monday, February 9, 2015

WPlus9 Cupcake Wrapper Die Review

After having a couple birthday parties under my belt, I've decided that cupcakes (trendy or not) are the way to go kids birthday parties.

They are easy to transport, and avoid the mess and hassle of cutting up a cake during the party. And they are cute! Well, most of the time. At my son's Bob The Builder party last year the chocolate cupcakes made the yellow cupcake wrappers look muddy brown. This year for my daughters party I decided to try making cupcake wrappers as a way to avoid this problem.

Finding wrappers that I liked was a problem. I wanted some that weren't tall enough to touch the icing, and covered the discolored wrappers completely.


 I searched high and low for some cupcake wrapper die that met my requirements. I finally settled on these dies from W+9.


What I love about these:


  • They are slightly shorter than store bought wrappers, so I can fit 4 to a sheet of inexpensive 8.5x11 cardstock. Other dies I looked at only fit 4 to a 12x 12 sheet. 
  • They have tabs and slots for closures so they are easy to secure closed on the day off the party
  • They have a pretty edge, but aren't overly feminine or masculine. (See how boyish the ones in the picture are!) 
  • They cover the entire cupcake paper. So many wrappers that I looked at were lacy or see through-- which didn't help with my chocolate bleed through pattern. 
  • And... they come with an optional accessory pack to decorate the wrappers with! 
Here's a quick rundown of how to put them together:

Since a standard sheet of paper won't fit through your diecutting machine, you'll have to cut your paper in half hamburger style. Be sure to place your die as vertically as possible since it's a tight fit to get two wrappers in each half.

 These would be so gorgeous done on pretty scrapbook paper. Since I was making so many (and I was on a budget) I ended up using plain paper, and then stamping it with a floral design. I looked through my stash for any floral stamps, and arranged them using a wrapper as a guide. I then used one of my large quilting rulers to pick up all the stamps at once.
 This way I was able to stamp each liner just once, and finish two dozen in just minutes. Score!
 The notches do an awesome job of holding the wrappers together, so you can store them flat until the time of your party.
 The accessory pack for the the wrappers is adorable too. The is a die for a bow and tails. It doesn't look like much once it's cut out...
 But it's so adorable once it's folded. I love that I was able to make the bow with just one glue dot-- super simple if you have to do a bunch.
 You can also play around with the tails to create different styles. There is also die for the paper ribbon that goes around the wrapper as shown on the blue cupcake wrappers from above.
 They just made my little cupcake display. Not a single one fell apart-- and they were so easy for little hands to hold!
 Looking at this picture from above you can kind of see how much darker the chocolate wrappers are in comparison to the vanilla, but the cupcake wrappers made everything look nice and consistent. They were super quick and easy to make, (and fun too). Next, I want to try stamping a personal sentiment on the wrappers when I make small batches as a gift! How cute would it be to deliver a cupcake that says "Happy Birthday" or "Thank You" on the wrapper? That's my kind of gift :)

I want to send a a huge thank you to W plus 9 for sending me the dies to use for this review. I was not compensated in anyway, and all opinions are my own.