DIY Graveyard Fence Cupcake Wraps Tutorial

I love these little graveyard fence cupcake wrappers from Wilton, so I tried my hand at making some of my own.  Here are the results, in case you want to give them a try yourself. 

You will need:
Black construction paper (about 3 sheets for a dozen cupcakes)
Ruler
Pencil
Scissors
Non-toxic glue or tape
Cupcakes!

You may also want:
Matte knife or X-Acto knife
Measuring tape

Cut the construction paper in 8 1/2" x 2" strips.  You should get 5 strips for every sheet of paper.

On your strips, use your pencil to mark out 8 pairs of lines.  These will be the "pickets" of your fence.  I made mine about a 1/4" of an inch wide and spaced them 1" apart, but you can make them as fat or as skinny as you like.

Mark out another pair of lines parallel to the other lines.  Again, I made mine a 1/4" apart, about two thirds of the way up the strip.  This will form the "stretcher," or the horizontal part of your fence.

Cut out between the lines.  I found it was easiest to use scissors on the vertical parts of the pickets and a matte knife on the small horizontal parts between the pickets.  Don't worry about cutting too neatly -- this is a spooky fence, after all, and a little bit of crookedness will add to the atmosphere.

Once you've cut out each of the pickets, cut the top of each one into a point.  When you're done, you should have a perfectly spooky wrought-iron graveyard fence.

Now it's time to affix your fence to the cupcake.  I tried two different approaches to do this, with mixed results.  First I tried gluing the fence to the cupcake paper with a food-safe glue.  This yielded a result that looks more like the wrapper pictured at the link above, but it required at least three hands (one to apply the glue and two to hold the pickets down while the glue dries) and was a bit more labor intensive -- not to mention perilous, if you've already frosted your cupcakes.  The second method was much simpler: I wrapped the fence around the cupcake and applied a bit of glue to the very end of the fence.  This way, the fence stands straight around the cupcake, instead of conforming to the angle of the cupcake paper, but it saves on time and might, in fact, look more like a literal fence.  The jury's out on which approach is better, so I'll let you decide.

These paper picket fences are also a great way to turn an empty jam jar into a Halloween decoration.  Just glue one of the fences around the outside of the jar and plop in a votive candle for a spooky candle holder that casts a subtle fence-shaped shadow.