The Humble 2 Ounce Snack Cup

Back today for Day 3 of the Papertrey Ink April Countdown. I've got some more dies for you today. Of course, I do...right? HA!!

I mentioned back in February that a lot of my products this year are very much inspired by my little life here at home taking care of my three little monkeys. Today's an excellent example. I go through quite a few bags of  2 ounce snack cups. You know what I'm talking about, right? Usually, you see them with "dressing on the side" at restaurants. I get them at Target for $3.12/50. A mere six cents a cup! With little snap-on lids they are the ideal size for candy and small sweet treats. I find them to be the perfect size for the kids. And myself for that matter. Portion control, baby.

Here's what a bag looks like. Like I said, I get these at Target. But they are on Amazon too. The price is higher. Around $8.00. But that includes shipping. Not completely unreasonable, considering.

I use them a lot in school lunches. Like I said, candy usually goes in them. You can really stretch bag of gummi bears this way. One day as I was filling some up, I was wishing I could decorate them a little bit. Maybe seasonally. And like that, an idea was born.

It doesn't take much when you work for PTI.

So I bring you the Snack Cup Wrap. Not unlike on Pint Sized Wrap from this time last year. (Another favorite!) It's a die that is perfectly sized to decorate these 2 ounce cups in patterned paper or card stock. Can you just imagine these as party favors?

In keeping with my original inspiration, I have decorated a bunch in seasonal themes for school lunches. I'll have them ready when I need them. The Monthly Moments pads worked well here.

Just a word. I sized this die with the Diamond brand cups. Which I find to be readily available. I'm not sure 2 ounce snack cups are a standard size across manufacturers. So if you want to go to Sam's or Costco and buy yourself 2500 of them, I'm not completely positive they would work. I suspect they do. How much can they vary, really? 2 ounces is 2 ounces. But I haven't tried anything other than the Diamond brand personally.

My advice on this topic. If you want to try another brand, go to a restaurant. Maybe something that isn't a chain. And just ask for an empty one. Then see if it works. I'm guessing they will. And chances are if it does, the owners bought the big old box from a warehouse store. You'll be good to go.

And the lids? Well...they fit all the 1.75" Limitless Layer circle stamps. SQUEAL!!!! The die for the lid is included in the Snack Cup Wrap Die.You can have some fun here folks!  A windfall of choices.

And that's just the jumping off point. Not done by a long stretch with these little beauties yet. Package them up with the new Snack Cup Box Die. This holds two snack cups together with lots of decorating possibilities. Betsy's new Tiny Town fronts work really well on the front. I'm using the school house here.

The sides are open to show off the lovely colored wraps.

A view from the top. I used Teacher Tickets (headed to The Vault in a few days) and the Ticket Die to decorate things here.

I mentioned the other day about a happy accident. Here it is...the Just a Little Something stamp set + dies that was originally designed to go with the Vintage Favor Box (my original blog post here), also works on the new Snack Cup Box. I wish I could say I planned this out, but I didn't. It's perfect. Nice to have this option.

OK...still not done. I've got one more die that goes with the Snack Cup Wrap. How about we turn it into a cupcake with the new Paper Puff Die? Look at that swirl of "frosting".  I want to make dozens of these!

Super easy to do too. Here's a video about how the Snack Cup Die and Paper Puff Die work together. You'll be making cupcakes too in no time.

This is a really good idea for a party favor or even a little birthday gift. You can really fancy up a simple box of candy by separating the colors into different cupcakes and matching them to your wrappers or "frosting". Look how fancy these Mike N' Ikes look. Kids would love this little gift.

I had to try decorating a Paper Puff cupcake with last month's Sprinkles on Top. Here I stamped one of the borders on each of the rays of the Paper Puff Die and colored with Copics. When closed up, looks like we really have sprinkles on top.

Good enough to eat with even a button cherry on top.

Imagine giving a little candy treat with a matching card. Here I stamped Sprinkles On Top on Shape Up Series: Cupcake and colored in the same Copic colors. Sentiment and "sprinkles" dies from Make It Market Shakers and Sprinkles.  I also used my new Marquee Cover Plate for the outer frame on this card. Just an extra special touch.

One last idea for you because we like to give you options. Using the Paper Puff die a little differently here. Once assembled, I pressed down on the top with my hand, flattening it into more of a flower. Leaf Silhouette Dies help with the transformation.

The sentiment on this bag is from Fancy Pants Sentiments stamps and dies. I tried something new here. I first stamped in color (Raspberry Fizz and Orange Zest). Then I slightly moved my stamps and restamped in True Black for a colored shadow look. Maybe an additional step here would be applying water to the color for an easy watercolor look.

OK. That's a lot to take in! I hope you enjoyed these ideas. Sure to make party favors and school lunches and who knows what else more fun. Thanks for joining me today. All these new products are more will be available at www.papertreyink.com on 4/15/16. Check out the group post for today to see how the girls used these new products and several more from Lizzie to wrap up all sorts of food gifts. It's going to be fun!