Nutcracker Cupcake Ensemble

My seven-year-old niece Mary is performing in the Nutcracker, and I'm going to see her performance today.  I had a lot of fun making a little gift for her.  I love how once you've built up a collection of Cricut cartridges, you can pretty much find anything you need for any occasion!  I'm submitting this in the Cricut Circle December Monthly Challenge, in which we were asked to make some personalized holiday gift wrapping!

My parents saw the performance the other night, and my mom sent me a picture of Mary in her little cupcake costume.  Using my Gypsy, it was easy to recreate the costume with a girl from Everyday Paper Dolls.  I didn't bother saving the size and cartridge details for my card, as I'm sure there aren't many of you that need to create this particular card!  

The cupcake box is cut at 9" from the Cricut Sweet Tooth Boxes cartridge.  I just followed the instructions in the handbook and added a little ribbon around it.

Inside the cupcake box is an ornament I made for Mary as a keepsake of her Nutcracker experience.  I got this idea from my friend Liz, of Liz's Paper Loft, who has an awesome video tutorial on making this type of ornament.  It's really not hard to do, and now I want to make more!  I used a clear glass ornament from Michael's.  Inside is a 2 1/2" circle cut from clear cardstock that has a 2 1/4" cupcake on it cut from the Cricut American Alphabet cartridge.  I added some fake snow and some ribbon.  To make the tag, I printed "Nutcracker 2011" on my computer, and then die cut it with the Papertrey Ink Double Ended Banner die.  After stamping the polka dots from Papertrey Ink's Ribbon Tails stamp set, I tied it to the ornament.

The ornament is so pretty in person, but I just don't have enough daylight right now to get a good picture.  Time to head off to the performance!

Recipe (for cupcake & ornament):

Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate, Sweet Blush, Pure Poppy & Clear Cardstock

Bazzill White Cardstock

Patterned Paper from Stash

Celebrate It! Solid Glass Ornament

Papertrey Ink Sweet Blush Swiss Dot Satin Ribbon

Buffalo Snow Flakes (from Michael's)

Papertrey Ink "Double Ended Banner Die"

Papertrey Ink "Ribbon Tails" Stamp Set

Papertrey Ink Aqua Mist Ink