This is how you make it: First, you need to determine how many peanut butter cups you want to put in your little tube, so you know how high to make it, so stack 'em up and measure:
I wanted five, so I need my tube to be about 3 1/2" high. The tube is made of a transparency (the office supply, write-on kind) cut to size. Regardless of how many peanut butter cups, the circumference stays the same, so you will cut your transparency (or acetate or vellum or whatever) 4 1/2" x the measurement you came up with in the first step. Mine is 4 1/2" x 3 1/2".
Apply a strip of 1/4" redline tape at one end (going the 4 1/2" way), then peel off the red liner and overlap the other end just enough to cover the tape.
Next, find a piece of ribbon that is about an inch wide, and long enough to wrap completely around the tube top-to-bottom (as opposed to around the circumference) and tie in a bow. Apply redline tape around the top and bottom of the tube, with the ribbon UNDER the tape against the tube, forming the bottom and going up the sides (that way the tape is holding on the ribbon without an extra layer of adhesive - tricky, tricky!):
Cut two strips of patterned paper 4 1/2" in length x whatever width blows your hair back, peel the red liner from the tape, and adhere the patterned paper strips around the top and bottom. You should put a bit of adhesive on one end to seal the little overlap where the two ends meet. I did take a quick sec to trim around the hearts a bit before I stuck the strips on - I'm going to add some red heart sequins and a tag later on...
Then drop your peanut butter cups in and tie a bow - done!
If it bothers you to have the top open like this, you could put a punched piece or Prima or something over it before you tie the bow, but I figure after you add a tag and some bling, who's to care?
And there you have it! Another quick-and-easy project for you to play around with!
Originally published January 16, 2009