Jul 8, 2016

Cupcake Gift Box - SVG Files Giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed. Thank you everyone, for participating and for your kind words about my work! The winners are announced at the bottom of this post.

svg cricut explore silhouette cameo eclips scal surecutsalot makethecut paper

My nephew's 6th birthday is coming up and I just managed to finish up these gift boxes for his little guests. He had fun filling them up with treats and is looking forward to giving them out.

svg cricut explore silhouette cameo eclips scal surecutsalot makethecut paper

I'm surprised how different they can look just by changing up the color of paper I'm using – of course the fruit topper takes the cake.

svg cricut explore silhouette cameo eclips scal surecutsalot makethecut paper

The base and topper is cut from a single sheet of letter-size (8.5 x 11 inches) paper and can hold not only chocolates, but also a Cherry Chapstick.

svg cricut explore silhouette cameo eclips scal surecutsalot makethecut paper

I've been working on this pattern since last November. The locking tab now seems so obvious. The frosting was originally straight, similar to the Christmas trees as shown in my Craftsy class. That project is actually what inspired this one - something made me to keep going with this and push it further.

I love how the patterned paper spirals in between the complementary paper color, almost like the shadows that play amongst the swirls of a soft ice cream cone.


Here is the assembly video – please leave a comment so I can keep improving! Filming video is quite new to me and there is so much to learn.

To get this party favor started, I'd like to give away my Cupcake Gift Boxes to 3 winners. You will need to have an electric cutting machine and software that can import SVG files. 

To enter, simply post a comment below and include your name and a way to contact you. Alternatively, you can comment here and send your email to paperzeninfo (at) gmail.com.

Giveaway ends: Saturday, July 16, 2016. The winner will be announced on this post. Good luck!

The Cupcake Gift Box pattern is available in my Etsy shop.


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Congratulations to the randomly chosen winners!


44 Trent Family
16 Aimee Breuer
30 Sue Smith





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Jul 5, 2016

Quilling Supplies now Available in Vancouver!

DeSerres Quilling Supplies

I visited a local art supply store, DeSerres, over the weekend and was amazed to discover their recent addition of quilling supplies! I remember their two aisles of scrapbook paper slowly dwindled to one, and then to just some basic Bazzil card stock. So to come upon a whole shelf dedicated to quilling supplies was such a pleasant surprise after years of not having many local suppliers in Vancouver, Canada.

When I inspected the offerings, I was intrigued to learn they are from Karen Marie, Denmark. Their sole quilling tool is slotted and made entirely of plastic. The strip ends are not glued together, and are in metric (mm) measurements, so I'd hesitate to mix it with my current North American stash.

They also offer quilling combs, boards, templates, kits, and a variety of strip assortments. I didn't buy anything, as I already have enough at the moment, so I don't know about the quality of the paper personally.

Google Trends Quilling vs Scrapbooking


When I asked the cashier what brought about the new quilling section, she replied that they had always had a core group asking for quilling supplies, and brought it in when the demand started increasing lately.

Scrapbooking has had a long love affair by crafters, so I was surprised when I compared quilling and scrapbooking using Google Trends, and learned quilling was a higher searched term.

So “onward and upwards” quillers!!!